Expert Opinion: The Therapeutic Target Database: an Internet resource for the primary targets of approved, clinical trial and experimental drugs

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".....Increasing numbers of proteins, nucleic acids and other molecular entities have been explored as therapeutic targets.

A challenge in drug discovery is to decide which targets to pursue from an increasing pool of potential targets, given the fact that few innovative targets have made it to the approval list each year.

Knowledge of existing drug targets (both approved and within clinical trials) is highly useful for facilitating target discovery, selection, exploration and tool development. The Therapeutic Target Database (TTD) has been developed and updated to provide information on 358 successful targets, 251 clinical trial targets and 1254 research targets in addition to 1511 approved drugs, 1118 clinical trials drugs and 2331 experimental drugs linked to their primary targets (3257 drugs with available structure data).

This review briefly describes the TTD database and illustrates how its data can be explored for facilitating target and drug searches, the study of the mechanism of multi-target drugs and the development of in silico target discovery tools."

Evidence Updates including professional commentaries: Safety of Probiotics to Reduce Risk and Prevent or Treat Disease.

"....Existing studies primarily examined Lactobacillus alone or in combination with other genera, often Bifidobacterium.

Few studies directly compared the safety among different intervention or participant characteristics. Indirect comparisons indicated that effects of delivery vehicles (e.g., yogurt, dairy) should be investigated further.

Case studies suggested that participants with compromised health are most likely to experience adverse events associated with probiotics. However, RCTs in medium-risk and critically ill participants did not report a statistically significantly increased risk of adverse events compared to control group participants.

Conclusions. There is a lack of assessment and systematic reporting of adverse events in probiotic intervention studies, and interventions are poorly documented. The available evidence in RCTs does not indicate an increased risk; however, rare adverse events are difficult to assess, and despite the substantial number of publications, the current literature is not well equipped to answer questions on the safety of probiotic interventions with confidence."

Evidence Updates including professional commentaries - : Acupuncture: does it alleviate pain and are there serious risks? A review of reviews.

Acupuncture is commonly used for pain control, but doubts about its effectiveness and safety remain.

This review was aimed at critically evaluating systematic reviews of acupuncture as a treatment of pain and at summarizing reports of serious adverse effects published since 2000. Literature searches were carried out in 11 databases without language restrictions. Systematic reviews were considered for the evaluation of effectiveness and case series or case reports for summarizing adverse events. Data were extracted according to predefined criteria. Fifty-seven systematic reviews met the inclusion criteria. Four were of excellent methodological quality. Numerous contradictions and caveats emerged. Unanimously positive conclusions from more than one high-quality systematic review existed only for neck pain. Ninety-five cases of severe adverse effects including 5 fatalities were included. Pneumothorax and infections were the most frequently reported adverse effects.

In conclusion, numerous systematic reviews have generated little truly convincing evidence that acupuncture is effective in reducing pain. Serious adverse effects continue to be reported. Numerous reviews have produced little convincing evidence that acupuncture is effective in reducing pain.

Serious adverse events, including deaths, continue to be reported.

EvidenceUpdates + professional commentaries (numerous): Calcium supplements with or without vitamin D and risk of cardiovascular events: reanalysis of the Women`s Health Initiative limited access dataset and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVES: To investigate the effects of personal calcium supplement use on cardiovascular risk in the Women`s Health Initiative Calcium/Vitamin D Supplementation Study (WHI CaD Study), using the WHI dataset, and to update the recent meta-analysis of calcium supplements and cardiovascular risk.

DESIGN: Reanalysis of WHI CaD Study limited access dataset and incorporation in meta-analysis with eight other studies.........

Conclusions: Calcium supplements with or without vitamin D modestly increase the risk of cardiovascular events, especially myocardial infarction, a finding obscured in the WHI CaD Study by the widespread use of personal calcium supplements. A reassessment of the role of calcium supplements in osteoporosis management is warranted.

Expert Opinion on Investigational Drugs -Investigational antibody drug conjugates for solid tumors Summary (Pfizer)

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"Despite the progress made in the past 20 years in understanding the molecular events leading to the formation of cancer, the success of targeted antitumor agents in solid tumors has lagged behind the scientific discoveries. The most difficult to treat patient segments are those with refractory solid tumors, resistant to standard chemotherapy, and novel therapeutic compounds with improved therapeutic indexes are needed. Antibody drug conjugates (ADCs) are poised to become an important class of cancer therapeutics, as evidenced by the promising objective response rates when administered as single agents to chemorefractory cancer patients..........Herein, we review ADCs (Antibody drug conjugates) targeting solid tumors, with the focus on 11 programs currently undergoing clinical development....)

Johns Hopkins to open new $10 million patient safety institute - media

"The medical community put a focus on patient safety more than a decade ago, when the Institute of Medicine released a report blaming medical errors for up to 100,000 patient deaths a year. Patient safety researchers and advocates say little has been done to prevent those errors, and they now believe the number of mistakes is much higher....."

forwarded by a survivor: The Cassandra Experience

".....Vision and Goals Vision: We define the prophetic voice as the one that recognizes present realities as they are, reveal to us the error of our ways, predict what may ensue if we refuse to change, and point the way toward a better life for all. We envision a world in which those who are endowed with such a voice and dare to use it openly will be revered and valued members of families, communities, countries and humanity as a whole. That we will learn to listen and learn from such a voice, rather than shun and condemn it. Our project endeavours to make a tangible and creative contribution toward such a world........"