Introduction to the Theme “New Methods and Novel Therapeutic Approaches in Pharmacology and Toxicology”

Abstract

Major advances in scientific discovery and insights can result from the development and use of new techniques, as exemplified by the work of Solomon Snyder, who writes a prefatory article in this volume. The Editors have chosen "New Methods and Novel Therapeutic Approaches in Pharmacology and Toxicology" as the Theme for a number of articles in this volume. These include ones that review the development and use of new experimental tools and approaches (e.g., nanobodies and techniques to explore protein-protein interactions), new types of therapeutics (e.g., aptamers and antisense oligonucleotides), and systems pharmacology, which assembles (big) data derived from omics studies together with information regarding drugs and patients. The application of these new methods and therapeutic approaches has the potential to have a major impact on basic and clinical research in pharmacology and toxicology as well as on patient care.

Correlation between the drug concentration of polymyxin B and polymyxin B‐associated acute kidney injury in critically ill patients: A prospective study

“…The most important components are B1 (PB1), which contains aliphatic (S)‐6‐methyl‐octyl, and polymyxin B2 (PB2), which contains aliphatic 6‐methyl‐heptyl 3 . At present, PB1 and PB2 are mainly used in pharmacokinetic (PK) determination, accounting for approximately 85% of PB use 4 . Compared with polymyxin E, PB has an excellent PK effect and lower renal toxicity and is more frequently administered in the clinical practice.…”

“…3 At present, PB1 and PB2 are mainly used in pharmacokinetic (PK) determination, accounting for approximately 85% of PB use. 4 Compared with polymyxin E, PB has an excellent PK effect and lower renal toxicity and is more frequently administered in the clinical practice. According to the drug instructions, the commonly used dose of PB is 1.5-2.5 mg/kg per day, divided evenly into two doses.…”

Optimization of a Deep-Learning Method Based on the Classification of Images Generated by Parameterized Deep Snap a Novel Molecular-Image-Input Technique for Quantitative Structure–Activity Relationship (QSAR) Analysis

“…Moreover, a large number of chemical substances need to be studied to identify the adverse effects on development, metabolic homeostasis, reproduction, cytotoxicity, etc. (Zhu et al, 2014; Bell et al, 2017; Insel et al, 2017; Juberg et al, 2017; Clark and Steger-Hartmann, 2018; Mortensen et al, 2018). Thus, high-throughput (HTP) assays and economical methods are required (Tollefsen et al, 2014; Chen et al, 2015; Wang et al, 2015; Richard et al, 2016).…”