SPOKANE, Wash. – Many cancers can be successfully treated, but treatment itself often comes with risks as well. Cancer therapy that uses anthracyclines—a class of commonly used chemotherapy drugs—has been associated with heart damage that can eventually result in heart failure. It is thought to be the reason why heart disease is a leading cause of death in cancer survivors, immediately following cancer recurrence.
Scientists have not fully understood how exposure to anthracyclines can lead to heart failure, but a new study led by researchers at Washington State University has made a giant leap toward … » More …
SPOKANE, Wash. – Treatment for breast cancer commonly includes radiation therapy, which offers good chances of success but comes with a serious long-term side effect: toxicity due to radiation that reaches the heart, causing DNA damage in healthy heart cells. Over time, this can lead to heart disease and eventually heart failure.
A new study conducted by researchers in the Washington State University College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences suggests that a preventive solution may lie in the biological clock, the built-in time-keeping mechanism that keeps us on a 24-hour cycle of rest … » More …
Prescribe at your own risk. That is the general feeling that most doctors get when prescribing medicine to children. Due to ethical and legal challenges, conducting clinical trials on children has proven to be a major obstacle for drug researchers. In fact, many prescription drugs rarely go through clinical trials using children. As a result, doctors only have two options in pediatric care: 1. Don’t prescribe children drugs shown to be effective in adults, or 2. Prescribe drugs off-label to children at their own risk. That’s where Dr. Bhagwat Prasad, Associate Professor in Pharmaceutical Sciences at WSU, is transforming pediatric precision medicine so that drugs … » More …
By Judith Van Dongen, Office of Research, WSU Health Sciences Spokane
SPOKANE, Wash. – A study led by researchers at Washington State University has uncovered a potential new treatment approach for diseases associated with inflammation, including sepsis, stroke, rheumatoid arthritis, acute lung injury, and atherosclerosis.
Published in the open-access journal Science Advances, their paper describes a novel, patent-pending technology that uses nanosized particles to transport cell-killing drugs directly to activated neutrophils, the cells that drive the exaggerated immune response involved in inflammatory diseases. They also demonstrated the technology’s feasibility at selectively killing activated neutrophils without harming other cell types or compromising the immune system.
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Big changes are coming to healthcare.
That was the message behind three days of speakers and workshops at the TIPed Institute on the Washington State University Health Sciences campus.
The institute is sponsored by the WSU College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences; TIPed means Transformation and Innovation in Pharmacy Education. But many of the technologies and teaching methods discussed will affect all aspects of healthcare.
For example, Steve Riddle, director of clinical development for Pharmacy OneSource/Wolters Kluwer, said the complexity and cost of the current healthcare system, as well as its failure to … » More …
By Charlie Powell, College of Veterinary Medicine
PULLMAN, Wash.—Most, if not all, infections and diseases in animals and people are met with some level of the body’s own inflammatory response. Sometimes this inflammatory response crosses a line from being protective and useful to becoming debilitative or even deadly.
Scientists in Washington State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine and College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceuticals Sciences (CPPS) have discovered an important step in the progression of the body’s inflammatory response that may soon lead to effective management and treatments. The team’s paper was published Monday in the prestigious journal, Nature Communications.
“Inflammation is vital for life, without it … » More …