#drugdevelopment — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #drugdevelopment, aggregated by home.social.
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DATE: August 25, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: A unique psychedelic shows promise for pain and stroke
URL: https://www.psypost.org/a-unique-psychedelic-shows-promise-for-pain-and-stroke/
An unusual psychedelic compound found in the plant Salvia divinorum has shown potentially useful effects against pain, addiction, and stroke in animal experiments, although side effects remain a major barrier. The systematic review was published in the journal Translational Psychiatry and found much less consistent evidence for treating depression.
The compound, salvinorin A, differs markedly from substances such as psilocybin and LSD. Those better-known psychedelics primarily affect the brain’s serotonin signaling (how the brain uses the chemical messenger serotonin to regulate mood and perception).
In contrast, salvinorin A acts mainly through a different system known as the kappa opioid receptor, which is a specific protein in the brain involved in pain, mood, and consciousness. This distinction has attracted researchers interested in developing treatments that work through pathways not targeted by classical psychedelics.
Laboratory experiments have investigated salvinorin A in conditions ranging from pain and drug addiction to depression and reduced blood flow to the brain (such as during a stroke). Yet the evidence was scattered across different species, doses, and experimental models. Human therapeutic trials—testing the drug in human patients—are scarce, making it difficult to determine whether promising animal findings justify further clinical development.
Led by Wolfgang Emanuel Zürrer at the University of Zurich, the researchers systematically searched three major scientific databases for relevant animal studies published up to June 28, 2024. They screened 1,718 publications and included 82 studies in their descriptive review, with 10 providing sufficiently comparable data for a meta-analysis (a statistical method that combines the results of multiple studies to find overarching trends).
The studies collectively used about 3,456 animals. Rats accounted for the largest share, followed by mice, non-human primates, piglets, and zebrafish.
Across the evidence, salvinorin A repeatedly reduced pain-related responses and inflammation, showed protective effects in experimental models of stroke and related brain injuries, and reduced some forms of drug-seeking behavior. Depression was a very different story. Some studies recorded behavior consistent with an antidepressant effect, while others found the opposite, including depression-like responses.
Safety also produced a mixed picture. Animal studies reported anxiety-like behavior and problems with movement and cognition (thinking and memory skills), yet the compound generally had limited effects on vital physical measures like heart rate or blood pressure.
Its extremely short action presents another challenge: depending on how it was given, concentrations peaked within seconds or minutes. Its measured brain half-life (the time it takes for half of the substance to break down and leave the brain) ranged from about three to 36 minutes, with elimination from the blood taking roughly an hour.
The review also identified 16 chemically modified relatives of salvinorin A. Several lasted longer, entered the brain more effectively, or produced fewer unwanted behavioral effects in animals, suggesting that the parent compound might ultimately be more valuable as a starting point for drug development than as a medicine itself.
The authors concluded, “Our findings support the therapeutic potential of salvinorin A for pain, addiction, and stroke, though its side effect profile may limit clinical application. The development of novel [compounds] could address these challenges.”
However, some limitations are to be noted. For instance, animal models cannot reproduce the complexity of human psychiatric illness, the reviewed experiments varied substantially in design, and young male rodents dominated the evidence base (meaning the results might not perfectly translate to humans or to females).
The study, “The translational potential of salvinorin A: systematic review and meta-analysis of preclinical studies,” was authored by Wolfgang Emanuel Zürrer, Lionel Wettstein, Helena D. Aicher, Milan Scheidegger, and Benjamin Victor Ineichen.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/a-unique-psychedelic-shows-promise-for-pain-and-stroke/
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SalvinorinA #PainRelief #StrokeResearch #PsychedelicScience #KORagonist #AddictionTreatment #PreclinicalStudies #TranslationalPsychiatry #DrugDevelopment #SalviaDivinorum
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DATE: August 16, 2026 at 09:01PM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEEDTITLE: A little-known protein may be fueling Alzheimer’s — and scientists found a way to block it
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260814235856.htm
An experimental Alzheimer’s compound prevented damaging protein clumps from forming in the brains of mice, helping nerve cells survive longer and reducing amyloid buildup. The treatment also appeared to improve heart health and slow some signs of aging, raising hopes for an entirely new way to combat dementia.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260814235856.htm
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #AlzheimersResearch #ProteinTargets #Neurology #AmyloidBuildup #DementiaTreatment #NeurodegenerativeDisease #MiceStudy #DrugDevelopment #BrainHealth #AgingResearch
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🐾 Toxicity testing in #DrugDevelopment typically involves two species of animal.
💡 But what if we could reduce the number of species used to one?
That's the thinking behind a topic in IHI call 13 - we're looking for a consortium to develop a weight-of-evidence for a standardised process to waive the second species and build an AI-driven model to select the most appropriate single species to be used.
📅 Deadline: 8 October
👉 https://link.europa.eu/tTtV7C
#IHITransformingHealth #HorizonEU #3Rs #research -
DATE: August 12, 2026 at 10:36AM
SOURCE: SCIENCE DAILY MIND-BRAIN FEEDTITLE: Ozempic may have revealed the brain’s hidden “craving center”
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260811011138.htm
Ozempic-like drugs appear to weaken more than hunger—they may also reduce cravings for alcohol and other addictive substances. Scientists are increasingly tracing this effect to the lateral septum, a brain region that helps connect memories and surroundings with rewarding experiences. Packed with GLP-1 receptors, it may act as a crucial control point between thinking about a reward and feeling compelled to pursue it. The discovery could open new approaches to treating addiction as well as obesity.
URL: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2026/08/260811011138.htm
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #Ozempic #glp1 #cravingcenter #addictionresearch #brainbiology #lateralseptum #rewardsystem #obesitytreatment #neuroscience #drugdevelopment
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DATE: August 11, 2026 at 08:28AM
SOURCE: HEALTHCARE INFO SECURITYDirect article link at end of text block below.
@NovoNordisk , @AWScloud Team Up for #AI 'Co-Innovation' Hub in #London: Effort to Propel Faster #DrugDevelopment Expands an Existing Relationship https://t.co/cBuY106WL7 #cloud #artificialintelligence
Here are any URLs found in the article text:
Articles can be found by scrolling down the page at https://www.healthcareinfosecurity.com/ under the title "Latest"
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Healthcare security & privacy posts not related to IT or infosec are at @HIPAABot . Even so, they mix in some infosec with the legal & regulatory information.
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#security #healthcare #doctors #itsecurity #hacking #doxxing #psychotherapy #securitynews #psychotherapist #mentalhealth #psychiatry #hospital #socialwork #datasecurity #webbeacons #cookies #HIPAA #privacy #datanalytics #healthcaresecurity #healthitsecurity #patientrecords @infosec #telehealth #netneutrality #socialengineering
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VentureBeat: Stanford is running 37,000 AI agents as a virtual biotech — and one of its drug designs got independently confirmed by Merck. “For developers, the operating assumption has been one engineer, one agent — the model Claude Code and similar tools. At VB Transform 2026, James Zou, associate professor of biomedical data science at Stanford University, argued that assumption is about […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/08/09/venturebeat-stanford-is-running-37000-ai-agents-as-a-virtual-biotech-and-one-of-its-drug-designs-got-independently-confirmed-by-merck/ -
DATE: August 6, 2026 at 11:00AM
SOURCE: STAT NEWS NEUROSCIENCETITLE: STAT+: Study reveals new role for tau, a top target for Alzheimer’s drug development
In the race for new ways to treat Alzheimer’s and other devastating neurologic diseases, the protein tau has become a tantalizing target for drug developers. A new study lends support to those efforts by describing a previously unknown role that tau plays in neurodegeneration — and suggesting a novel way researchers might block the protein’s activity.
A team led by Stanford scientists found that tau can gum up the works of a cell’s mitochondria, its energy-producing powerhouse. The protein sends electrons flowing in the opposite direction of their usual microscopic relay race, a reversal that generates reactive oxygen species, cellular stress, and inflammation. Scientists found that blocking this phenomenon, known as reverse electron transport, reversed many of the harmful effects and improved learning and memory in flies and mice.
Whether the same will hold true in people is for now unclear, though an analysis of human cells grown in the lab and patient brain tissue suggests blocking the retrograde flow of electrons could make neurons healthier. Two of the study’s authors have started a biotech startup to put this idea to the test.
Continue to STAT+ to read the full story…
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #TauProtein #AlzheimersResearch #Neurodegeneration #Mitochondria #ReverseElectronTransport #DrugDevelopment #NeuronsHealth #STANFORDResearch #BiotechStartups #RNAandCellBiology
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New York Times: Betting on Drug Trials and Approvals Prompts Concerns About Undermining Research. This link goes to a gift article. “On the betting websites Kalshi and Polymarket, people can now wager on whether the Food and Drug Administration will decide this year to approve medicines for cancers of the lung, breast, pancreas and blood. Kalshi also plans to allow users to bet on whether drug […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/07/31/new-york-times-betting-on-drug-trials-and-approvals-prompts-concerns-about-undermining-research/ -
Measles Is Becoming So Common That Treatments May Soon Be Needed
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.wired.com/story/measles-treatments-soon-needed/
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The Guardian: Kalshi to offer betting on drug trial results and FDA regulatory decisions. “Kalshi is expanding its wagers to include bets on drug trial results, an expansion into new predictions territory as platforms continue to rapidly gain popularity and offer opportunities to bet on virtually anything.”
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/07/17/the-guardian-kalshi-to-offer-betting-on-drug-trial-results-and-fda-regulatory-decisions/ -
AI and Quantum Computing Advance Drug Development by Creating New Peptides
📰 Original title: Scientists’ Side Hustle? Using AI and Quantum Computing to Generate New Peptides
🤖 IA: It's clickbait ⚠️
👥 Users: It's clickbait ⚠️View full AI summary https://en.killbait.com/ai-and-quantum-computing-advance-drug-development-by-creating-new-peptides.html?utm_source=mastodon_world&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=killbait.mastodon_world
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Scientists’ Side Hustle? Using AI and Quantum Computing to Generate New Peptides
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NEW: Anthropic buried the lede in its Claude Science event today: It's going to start developing its own drugs.
Details are scarce, but @matthewherper and I talked to Anthropic executives to bring you some exclusive tidbits about the program:
https://www.statnews.com/2026/06/30/anthropic-ai-drug-development/
#health #healthcare #medicine #biotech #pharma #biopharma #drugdevelopment #AI #artificialintelligence #claude #anthropic
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Guy in his basement creates a drug to treat Alzheimer's disease using AI
https://twitter.com/DouglasYaoDY/status/2070904914050797582
#HackerNews #AlzheimersAI #drugdevelopment #innovation #healthtech
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Congratulations to Craig @crews and all others involved at Yale University, Arvinas and Pfizer. #InducedProximity should be at the top of many Nobel Prize lists now. (2/2)
#TPD #TargetedProteinDegradation #NewModalities #Clinics #DrugDiscovery #DrugDevelopment #Success
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Wall Street Journal: The quest to use AI to help find new drugs. “Lilly first announced a partnership with chip-maker Nvidia in October to build what it called the industry’s most powerful supercomputer, and expanded that in January with a $1 billion, five-year collaboration mixing their scientists and engineers in a new Bay Area lab aimed at discovering new medicines with AI tools. They […]
https://rbfirehose.com/2026/05/05/wall-street-journal-the-quest-to-use-ai-to-help-find-new-drugs/ -
A non-antibiotic erythromycin derivative improves muscle endurance by regulating endogenous anti-fatigue protein orosomucoid in mice [2024]
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Erythromycin has therapeutic efficacy on muscle fatigue acting specifically on orosomucoid to increase muscle bioenergetics and physiological parameters of endurance [2020]
abstract:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32777256/preprint can be downloaded here:
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3463265#orosomucoid #fatigue #erythromycin #DrugRepurposing #DrugDevelopment
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New Machines for Medicine: AI Crafts Drug Candidates
AI diffusion models created new drug candidates in 2025, speeding up medicine creation. This helps patients get new treatments sooner.
#AIDrugDiscovery, #FutureOfMedicine, #DrugDevelopment, #AIinHealthcare, #MedicalInnovation
https://newsletter.tf/ai-designs-new-drug-molecules-faster-2025/
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Axplora Expands Manufacturing Facilities at Its Italian Farmabios Site
Axplora, which develops and manufactures highly potent active pharmaceutical in…
#dining #cooking #diet #food #Italianingredient #axplora #biomanufacturing #biopharmaceuticals #bioprocessing #drugdevelopment(researchanddevelopment) #IndustryNews #ingredient #Italia #Italian #italiano #italy #news #QualityControl
https://www.diningandcooking.com/2586519/axplora-expands-manufacturing-facilities-at-its-italian-farmabios-site-2/ -
He also hinted at a new class of synthetic antibiotics that is in current development at Roche. Hopefully there are many more new antibiotics in the future. (7/7)
#Antibiotics #DrugDiscovery #DrugDevelopment #ChemBio #Chemistry #cryoEM #AMR #Resistance #Bacteria #SAR #Synthesis #Zosurabalpin
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#KNCVMCCB2026 comes to an end with an interesting talk by Danielle Vugts. She talked about the importance of #imaging during #DrugDevelopment on the example of PET imaging of #biologics.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s41181-024-00258-y
#DrugDiscovery #PETImaging #Radiolabeling #Antibodies #Nanoparticles #Chemistry -
90% of compounds entering clinical development are still not making it to the clinics.
Wouter Vaes from TNO and Peregrion talked at #KNCVMCCB2026 about the importance of metabolite profiling in drug development and how accelerator mass spectrometry can be used for this in phase 1 studies.
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GTPases have long been considered key examples of undruggable proteins. While this has been overcome for K-Ras using #CovalentInhibitors, for many other family member #DrugDevelopment has not been shown.
Congratulations to Johannes Morstein on winning one of the @GDCh_BioChem Young Scientist Awards for his work addressing this challenge by identifying druggable, allosteric pockets in several GTPases.
https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(24)00908-5
#Biochemistry #ChemBio #GTP #GTPases #Chemistry
CC: @gdch
