New nanoparticle platform delivers drug pairs to specific cancer types

With the current drug discovery paradigm, it takes up to 15 years to translate an idea, such as hypothesizing a certain protein is important in a disease and testing this with targeting the protein with a drug, all the way through to proof of concept. The drug has to be filed with the regulatory authorities, having done all the safety and efficacy testing. It's a long process and it's also very costly. Estimates vary, but it's currently reckoned to cost over 1 billion dollars per drug. That’s partly because you have to pay for all the drugs that didn't make it. By the time you've taken a protein target and you've made a whole load of molecules that affect that target in the way you want them to, you've probably already spent a couple of years on it and then you have to take the best molecule through the appropriate safety testing in animals before proceeding to phase 1 testing in people. Even if you get to phase 1 testing, where you are just giving it to human volunteers for the first time, not even patients, about 95% of the compounds at the stage then fail to make it all the way through to the market. So, you’ve only got a 5% success rate. The odds are not good and, essentially, it is why so many companies have had to merge because, over time, this is becoming less and less sustainable as a business model.

We are now testing the drug in patients with earlier-stage pancreatic cancer, prescribing it while their tumors are still operable and before their cancer spreads.

Uncertainty and model limitations are critical in safety assessment. There is clearly greater potential for animal or human harm from an incorrect safety assessment than from making the wrong molecule in early discovery, although uncertainty matters in both contexts. It is important to distinguish different types of uncertainty. Aleatoric uncertainty reflects irreducible randomness in a task, while epistemic uncertainty is model-related, such as hallucinations or lack of knowledge. For LLM systems, we use multiple methods to measure consistency and we have built fact-checking approaches in which a separate LLM independently verifies the primary engine's outputs. For QSAR models, including our SAR work around seizure liability, we can use statistical metrics such as confidence intervals to quantify and communicate uncertainty. Understanding that uncertainty exists and communicating it in both safety and discovery is critical. Uncertainty metrics tell us where potential blind spots may exist in our modelling allowing us to take action to improve over time. This applies to both safety and discovery. The aim is not to pretend AI removes uncertainty, but to make uncertainty visible so scientists can make better-informed decisions. Download the Full PDF to Revisit James McDonagh's Insights on AI in Drug Safety Discovery

Daily, if you eat a balanced diet that includes healthy foods, you technically should not need a vitamin supplement. A healthy diet incorporates lean proteins, healthy fats, grains, fruits, and vegetables. But if you do not have a balanced diet, you may be considering hair, skin, and nail vitamins. Some people prefer supplements, sometimes choosing a multivitamin that can supply all of your essential minerals and vitamins. But taking too much of vitamins or unnecessary supplements is wasteful because the body gets rid of excess vitamins and minerals or, worse, it can be dangerous. The following is a guide to choosing which vitamins you may want to consider supplementing and when. Deficiencies in the nutrients that keep the skin, hair, and nails healthy can cause changes over time. For example, not enough intake of vitamins A and E, along with not enough biotin, can cause scaly and rough skin patches, eczema, and hair loss. If there is a deficiency, vitamins will help. However, if there is no deficiency, there is no clear evidence that supplements will make a difference. No research studies concluded that supplements treat or prevent age-related, natural hair damage or loss or lead to healthier skin. Two studies in the early 1990s did suggest that a biotin supplement may cause the hair to become stronger and strengthen weak nails. However, the studies were small and not reproduced.

Your weight loss plan should keep you healthy and strong as you lose the extra weight. Many plans include a diet low in carbohydrates. Carb cycling is a method of optimizing your carbohydrate intake to meet your needs while dieting, fasting, and working out. When you're carb cycling, you consume carbs to meet your needs on some days and avoid them on other days. The aim of carb cycling is to consume carbohydrates when your body needs them and exclude them at other times. Such strategies in your diet plan can help your weight loss efforts. Carbohydrates, or carbs, are a significant part of the average human diet. Along with proteins and fats, they make up the bulk of your daily meals. Most carbohydrates are broken down by your body into glucose to provide energy for your cells and tissues. Carbohydrates in your diet are of three types — sugars, starches, and fiber. Sugars are simple carbs. Glucose, sugar (sucrose), lactose found in milk, and fructose found in fruits, are naturally occurring sugars. Your body metabolizes these molecules rapidly to yield energy. Starches are complex carbs. They're large molecules that consist of hundreds of molecules of simple sugars joined together. Your body needs to break them down to release energy. Starches are found in bread, potatoes, peas, corn, cereals, and pasta. Fiber is also a complex carbohydrate. Human bodies can't break down these large molecules, so they provide no energy. They're usually excreted as they are in the feces. They add bulk to your meal, so you feel full. Fiber in the diet helps avoid constipation and lowers blood sugar and cholesterol levels. Carbohydrates are an essential part of your diet. A typical diet provides 45% to 65% of its calories from carbohydrates. If you have 2,000 calories a day, you should have about 275 grams of carbohydrates. Always try to choose healthy foods for your carb intake: