made from dna aptamers核酸适配体, which are short - imm@buct.pptVIP

Reading CEN By zhangmin 2012-02-26 DRUGS TARGET EPILEPTIC ABSENCE SEIZURES Two rationally designed drugs effectively treat a form of epilepsy癫痫症known as absence seizures意识丧失型癫痫 in rats with a genetic predisposition to the disorder. During absence seizures, which are most common in children and adolescents, a person momentarily loses awareness and is unresponsive. Current absence seizure drugs act on broad ranges of targets, and they cause a host of side effects . Absence seizures stem from the concerted over-firing of neurons in the thalamus丘脑. Recent evidence suggests that a subset of Ca2+ channels, known as T-type, in the neurons act as conduits管道to propagate传播this hyperactive 极度活跃firing. Terrance P. Snutch of the University of British Columbia, Elizabeth Tringham of pharmaceutical 制药公司firm Zalicus , and colleagues started their design with an N-type Ca2+ channel-blocking pharmacophore药效团. They assembled compound libraries, finding two molecules designated Z941 and Z944 that block T-type Ca2+ channels in thalamus neurons. They tested the compounds on epileptic rats, showing that the drugs suppressed absence seizures by 85 to 90%. The researchers say the drugs’ action appears to be different from that of current absence seizure drugs. — EKW DELIVERY VIA DNA NANOBOTS Just as a postal worker knows to deliver a package to a specified address, a new type of nanoscale robot can deliver therapeutic cargo治疗药物 specifically to cancer cells. The nanobot, made from DNA, could be used for targeted drug delivery, taking molecules to the surface of specific cells. A robot is something that senses and reacts to its environment, explains George M. Church, the Harvard Medical School professor who devised设计 the DNA nanobot along with colleagues Shawn M. Douglas. The Harvard team’s robot is a hexagonal barrel that can carry a variety of payloads有效载荷 and is held tog