[dun13203171]

Hi guys,
            I have to pick a drug currently in clinical trials, something exciting and advancing at a trackable pace over the next few years.

Each semester, I have to go back and look at the paricular drug, look at trials and relate knowledge gained in modules to the clinical trails and to the drug in question.

I then have to present my findings 3 and a half years from now when I finish my degree.

Problem is I haven't found anything so far that makes me go, "wow" I want to choose that drug.

Anyone here currently following a trail or drug which they feel is exciting?

[mikasaur]

My girlfriend works for Gilead as a process chemist (part of why I started to get interested in chemistry again) and they've been doing interesting work with Ebola.

From this article:

In spring 2014, when the threat of the virus was starting to make headlines, Gilead Sciences shared part of its vast library of nucleosides and nucleotides with USAMRIID. Thus began a fast-moving collaboration that resulted in GS-5734, a nucleoside prodrug that has shown a remarkable ability to clear the virus in infected monkeys and is already being tested on healthy humans.

Pretty cool stuff. I hope to one day understand more of what it is she does. And I'm glad this community is here to help me out!

[Yggdrasil]

It's not really a classic drug, but how about some of the genome editing clinical trials going on:
http://www.nature.com/news/gene-editing-method-tackles-hiv-in-first-clinical-test-1.14813
http://www.sangamo.com/pipeline/clinical-trials.html

A lot of people think that PCSK9 inhibitors (which lower bad cholesterol levels) are going to be the next blockbuster drug:
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1508120?af=R&rss=currentIssue&

There are also some Alzheimer's treatments in clinical trials, though the outlook for these is probably not so good:
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/2015/07/22/underwhelming_alzheimers_results_from_biogen_and_lilly

[dun13203171]

Thanks for the replies guys, just getting round to look at the studies now, I have to pick something in the next few weeks.

So far the PCSK9 inhibitors look like a potential choice of mine.

If anyone has any opinions please peep in.

thanks

[Yggdrasil]

(posting a reply to a PM here)

Many ongoing clinical trial can be found at https://clinicaltrials.gov/  Another good source would be to go to a drug company's website as they usually will list their compounds in clinical trials (e.g. http://www.amgenpipeline.com/pipeline/ ).

[dun13203171]

Thankyou for your reply!

[dun13203171]

I am reading a paper right now regarding the effect of stains of PCSK9 levels.

"In our study the average increase in plasma PCSK9 was greater following fibrate therapy (17%) than following statin therapy (7%).

In both fibrate and statin cohorts, the inverse correlation between changes in plasma PCSK9 and LDLC was significant in men, and not in women, although the numbers of women were low and therefore may not have been significantly powered. "

I am a bit confused. So since an inverse relationship is observed, as PCSK9 levels increase, LDL-C levels decrease?

I expected that as PCSK9 increased, it would lead to increased LDL-R degradation leading to an increase is LDL-C levels...

thanks