Therapeutic drugs animal models

Apart from these two Vertex compounds, only one other caspase inhibitor, BDN-6556, has been used in clinical trials. This compound belongs to the class of oxamyl dipeptides and was originally developed by Idun Pharmaceuticals (taken over by Pfizer). It is the only pan-caspase inhibitor that has been evaluated in humans. BDN-6556 displays inhibitory activity against all tested human caspases. It is also an irreversible, caspase-specific inhibitor that does not inhibit other major classes of proteases, or other enzymes or receptors. The therapeutic potential of BDN-6556 was first evaluated in several animal models of liver disease because numerous publications suggested that apoptosis contributes substantially to the development of some hepatic diseases, such as alcoholic hepatitis, hepatitis B and C (HBV, HCV), non-alcoholic steato-hepatitis (NASH), and ischemia/reperfusion injury associated with liver transplant. Accordingly, BDN-6556 was tested in a phase I study. The drug was safe and... 

All these animal models express behavioural deficits that are paralleled by some abnormality in noradrenaline and/or 5-HT function but it is unlikely that the monoamines are the only neurotransmitters to influence these complex behaviours. Nevertheless, the behavioural deficits all respond, with varying degrees of specificity, to established antidepressants and central monoamines appear to have a crucial role in the therapeutic effects of these drugs. For a more detailed review of this subject see Stanford (1995). 

Kukowska-Latallo, J.F., Candido, K.A., Cao, Z., Nigavekar, S.S., Majoros, I.J., Thomas, T.P., Balogh, L.P., Khan, M.K., and Baker Jr., J.R. (2005) Nanoparticle targeting of anticancer drug improves therapeutic response in animal model of human epithelial cancer. Cancer Res. 65(12), 5317-5324. 

The need for animal models of human disease to search for new therapeutic agents is also mandatory to be able to move forward with new drug discovery and development. Computers are widely used in biomedical research today, as are isolated tissues, animal... 

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