Expert opinion on therapeutic targets
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Expert Opin. Ther. Targets · Dec 2010
EditorialAlzheimer's disease amyloid hypothesis at crossroads: where do we go from here?
Alzheimer's disease has been the focus of several drug discovery approaches by the pharmaceutical industry. Four drug candidates coming out of such efforts have recently failed in late-stage clinical trials for lack of efficacy or safety concerns. These drugs were designed based on the presently dominant scientific hypothesis for Alzheimer's disease called the 'amyloid hypothesis'. ⋯ Rather than accept the status quo, this editorial suggests a revised version of this hypothesis to reconcile data from recent drug failures. We propose a two-phase disease process; a first phase that is independent of amyloid and a second robust phase dependent on the amyloid cascade. Further validation of this revised hypothesis could aid future drug discovery for this devastating disease.
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Expert Opin. Ther. Targets · Oct 2002
EditorialInsulin-like growth factor-I receptor - a potential therapeutic target in medulloblastomas.
Medulloblastomas represent nearly 25% of all paediatric intracranial neoplasms. These highly malignant tumours arise from the cerebellum and affect predominantly children between the ages of 5 and 15. ⋯ In addition, reports from multiple laboratories confirm a critical role for the IGF-I receptor (IGF-IR) in the process of cellular transformation. Taken together, these observations prompt the investigation of different strategies to impair the function of IGF-IR as a potential therapeutic tool, which by compromising growth and survival of medulloblastoma cells could supplement conventional therapeutic regiments against these malignant neoplasms of childhood.