Drug

Failing antibiotics could lead to a future “dark age of medicine” where once-simple infections become lethal again. Scientists have now found a way to restore antibiotics to their former strength, by repurposing a drug developed to treat Alzheimer’s.

Yale researchers have developed a new oral medication for type 1 diabetes. In tests in mice, the drug quickly adjusted insulin levels, restored metabolic functions and reversed inflammation, opening up a potential way to prevent the disease.

Pneumonia is usually treated with antibiotics, but bacteria are developing resistance to them. Now, NIH researchers have found a way to boost immune cells to eat the bacteria more effectively, potentially leading to a new pneumonia treatment.

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria are poised to become a major health threat in the coming decades – but new antibiotics may have been inside us all along. A search algorithm has discovered dozens of potential antimicrobial peptides in the human body.

Klebsiella pneumoniae is a nasty bacteria that can cause pneumonia. It’s a tough one to fight, but now researchers have developed an inhalable vaccine that, in mouse tests, can invoke a strong immune response against several strains of the bacteria.

Antibiotics may work, but they drive bacteria to evolve into new drug-resistant forms. Now a new study has uncovered a mechanism that could make the bugs non-infectious without killing them, reducing the evolutionary pressure that leads to superbugs.

Difficult to detect and with a low survival rate, pancreatic cancer is one of the most insidious forms of the disease. But now, researchers have identified an existing drug that could fight pancreatic cancer by targeting a key gene mutation.

Bacteria are extremely good at evolving in response to drugs, which can render vaccines ineffective. But now, researchers at ETH Zurich have found a way to weaponize that ability against them, forcing the bugs down harmless evolutionary dead ends.

Getting drugs into the brain is no easy feat, but the nose is one of the most direct routes. Now, UK researchers have developed a nasal spray hydrogel that lines the tissue in the nose to deliver a common Parkinson’s drug straight to the brain.

Scientists at Cambridge have demonstrated a new method to fight leukemia, by targeting overactive enzymes that can lead to the disease. If the results of mice tests carry across to humans, it could be the first of a new class of cancer drugs.

Scientists at Purdue University and Scripps have identified a natural compound from a common shrub that could help fight cancer. The compound is the first found to inhibit a cancer protein that was previously considered “undruggable.”

For millions of patients with diabetes, daily insulin injections are a necessary nuisance. A once-a-week shot might be more palatable, and new results from phase 2 clinical trials suggest just such a drug is safe and effective.