The Nutshell: FDA OKs siRNA Ebola Drug

FDA OKs siRNA Ebola Drug The US Food and Drug Administration gives the green light to deploy an experimental short interfering RNA treatment against Ebola. By Kerry Grens | September 23, 2014 WIKIMEDIA, RICHARD ROBINSON Although TKM-Ebola, a short interfering RNA (siRNA) therapy to treat Ebola infection, has not been approved for use in humans, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is allowing for “compassionate use” of the medication....

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Latest News: How did the 'Berlin patient' rid himself of HIV?

  Eric Risberg/AP Photo   Timothy Ray Brown, known by many researchers as "the Berlin patient," is the only person to have been cured of an HIV infection. How did the 'Berlin patient' rid himself of HIV? Researchers are closer to unraveling the mystery of how Timothy Ray Brown, the only human cured of HIV, defeated the virus, according to a new study. Although the work doesn’t provide a definitive answer, it rules...

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Ebola — A Growing Threat?

The recent emergence of Zaire ebolavirus in West Africa1 has come as a surprise in a region more commonly known for its endemic Lassa fever, another viral hemorrhagic fever caused by an Old World arenavirus. Yet the region has seen previous ebolavirus activity  (see map).  In the mid-1990s, scientists discovered Côte d'Ivoire ebolavirus (now known as Taï Forest ebolavirus) as a cause of a single reported nonfatal case in a researcher...

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mRNA-based therapeutics — developing a new class of drugs

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery | Review The therapeutic potential of in vitro-transcribed mRNA (IVT mRNA) extends from prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines to applications such as protein replacement and genome engineering. In this Review, the authors describe the recent developments in the IVT mRNA field, discuss the class-specific challenges with regards to translating IVT mRNA into a biopharmaceutical, and provide an overview of IVT mRNA...

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Noncoding RNAs and myocardial fibrosis

Nature Reviews Cardiology   During stress or injury-induced cardiac remodelling, fibroblasts increase production of extracellular matrix proteins, which leads to fibrosis formation, and consequently, heart failure. In this Review, Thomas Thum describes the contribution of noncoding RNAs to this process, with a specific focus on microRNAs that might be used as future therapeutic targets or biomarkers for cardiac fibrosis. Abstract: Cardiac...

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Mitochondrial dynamics in the central regulation of metabolism

Nature Reviews Endocrinology   Mitochondria have a fundamental role in regulating metabolic pathways and in maintaining energy balance. In this Review, Carole Nasrallah and Tamas Horvath discuss the contribution of mitochondrial function, in particular mitochondrial dynamics, to central metabolism from the hypothalamic perspective and describe how mitochondrial dysfunction can lead to the development of metabolic diseases.   Abstract: The...

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