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At least 163 records · Page 9

Effect of Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus 2B Viroporin on Expression and Extraction of Mammalian Cell Culture Produced Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus-like Particles

To improve the production of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) molecular vaccines, we sought to understand the effects of the FMD virus (FMDV) 2B viroporin in an experimental, plasmid-based, virus-like particle (VLP) vaccine. Inclusion of the FMDV viroporin 2B into the human Adenovirus 5 vectored FMD vaccine enhanced transgene expression despite independent 2B expression negatively affecting cell viability. Evaluating both wildtype 2B and mutants with disrupted viroporin activity, we confirmed that viroporin activity is detrimental to overall transgene expression when expressed independently. However, the incorporation of 2B into an FMD molecular vaccine construct containing a wildtype FMDV 3C protease, a viral encoded protease responsible for processing structural proteins, resulted in enhancement of transgene expression, validating previous observations. This benefit to transgene expression was negated when using the FMDV 3CL127P mutant, which has reduced processing of host cellular proteins, a reversion resulting from 2B viroporin activity. Inclusion of 2B into VLP production constructs also adversely impacted antigen extraction, a possible side effect of 2B-dependent rearrangement of cellular membranes. These results demonstrate that inclusion of 2B enhanced transgene expression when a wildtype 3C protease is present but was detrimental to transgene expression with the 3CL127P mutant. This has implications for future molecular FMD vaccine constructs, which may utilize mutant FMDV 3C proteases.

2B↗

The 'Pro-Drug' RibCys Decreases The Mutagenicity of High LET Radiation in Cultured Mammalian Cells

We have initiated studies aimed at reducing the mutational effects of high LET radiation such as Fe-56 ions and C-12 ions with certain drugs. The mutagenicity of high LET (143 keV/micrometer) Fe-56 or C-12 ions (LET = 100 keV/micrometer) was quantified at the CD59 locus of human-hamster hybrid AL cells. RibCys [2,S)-D-ribo-(1',2',3',4'- Tetrahydroxybutyl)-thiazolidine-4(R)-ca riboxylic acid], formed by condensation of L-cysteine with D-ribose, is designed so that the sulfhydryl amino acid L-cysteine is released intracellularly via nonenzymatic ring opening and hydrolysis leading to increased levels of glutathione (GSH). RibCys (4 or 10 mM), present during irradiation and a few hours post-irradiation, significantly decreased the yield of CD59(-) mutants induced by radiation. RibCys did not affect the clonogenic survival of irradiated cells, nor was it mutagenic itself. These results, together with the minimal side effects reported in mice and pigs, indicate that RibCys may be useful, perhaps even when used prophylactically, in reducing the load of mutations created by high LET radiation in astronauts or other exposed individuals. RibCys is an attractive drug that may reduce the risk of carcinogenesis in people exposed to high LET radiation.

Lenarczyk, M.↗

Comparison of efficacy of ginger with various antimotion sickness drugs

Ginger and several other medications were compared with scopolamine and d-amphetamine for effectiveness in prevention of motion sickness. Methods: Double-blind techniques were used. The subjects were given the medications two hours before they were rotated in a chair making head movements until a symptom total short of vomiting was reached. Standardized N.A.S.A. techniques were used for speed of rotation and end-point of motion sickness. Results: The three doses of ginger were all at the placebo level of efficacy. Amitriptyline, ethopropazine and trihexyphenidyl increased the tolerated head movements but the increase was not statistically significant. Significant levels of protection were produced by dimenhydrinate, promethazine, scopolamine and d-amphetamine. Protection was further increased by combination of these latter drugs with d-amphetamine. Efficacy was greatest as the dose was increased. Conclusions: The medication of choice in this study was scopolamine 0.6 mg with d-amphetamine 10 mg. This combination provided good protection with acceptable side effects.

Non-NASA Center↗

Risk of Adverse Health Outcomes & Decrements in Performance due to Inflight Medical Conditions: ExMC Pharmacy Research Plan

The Exploration Medical Capabilities (ExMC) Element of NASA's Human Research Program is charged with identifying medical capabilities that can address the challenges of prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease and injuries that could occur during exploration missions beyond Earth's orbit. Faced with the obstacle of access to in-flight medical care, and limitations of vehicle space, time, and communications; it is necessary to prioritize what medical consumables are manifested for the flight, and which medical conditions are addressed. Studies of astronaut health establish the incidence of common and high risk medical conditions that require medical intervention during long-duration exploration missions. In 2000, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) convened a committee of experts, Committee on Creating a Vision for Space Medicine during Travel beyond Earth Orbit, to examine the issues surrounding astronaut health and safety for long duration space missions. Two themes run throughout the committee's final report: (1) that not enough is known about the risks to human health during long-duration missions beyond Earth's orbit or about what can effectively mitigate those risks to enable humans to travel and work safely in the environment of deep space and (2) that everything reasonable should be done to gain the necessary information before humans are sent on missions of space exploration (IOM, 2001). Although several spaceflight focused pharmaceutical research studies have been conducted, few have provided sufficient data regarding medication usage or potency changes during spaceflight. The Du pharmaceutical stability study assessed medications flown on space shuttles to and from the International Space Station (ISS) from 2006 until 2008; of which some medications were still viable beyond their expiration dates (Du et al, 2011). However, as with many spaceflight studies, the small 'n' associated with this study limits the ability to draw strong conclusions from it. Dr. Wotring and others have recently published articles containing information regarding medication usage, indications, and efficacy gleaned from spaceflight records (Wotring et al, 2015, 2016; Barger et al, 2014; Basner and Dinges, 2014). Although some conclusions can be drawn from these studies, the inability to fully quantify medication usage, indications, side effects, and effectiveness, limits insight as to which medications should be prioritized for further research.

Antonsen, Erik↗

Shifts in hydropower operation to balance wind and solar will modify effects on aquatic biota

To avoid negative consequences to freshwater biota from climate change, society must complete the transition from fossil to renewable electricity sources. However, temporal patterns in hydropower generation (and flow releases that affect aquatic biota) may change with increased wind and solar penetration. We used power cost modeling to characterize current and future within-day and seasonal patterns in hydropower generation across the Eastern Interconnection in a wet and a dry year. Compared to the baseline, future hydropower generation across the grid decreased during the day and increased before dawn and after dusk. At a project level, such a pattern would suggest 'double peaking' operation (up- and down-ramping before dawn and after dusk, with lower releases midday). Variation in generation was higher in wet years than dry years, foreshadowing possible flow constraints on hydropower flexibility. At the grid scale, projected ramping rates were higher in all seasons. A review of the ecological literature suggests that these changes would shift the timing of invertebrate drift and elevate the risk of nest scouring during up-ramping and the risk of stranding or dewatering during down ramping. Thermal conditions may be moderated by increased ramping. Strategies for adapting to future shifts in the renewable portfolio range from re-regulation in reservoir cascades to providing flow refuge (structures and vegetation) below individual projects. Coordinated basin-scale operation can distribute peaking operation to maintain grid support while restricting local ramping at critical ecological times. In addition, research to design hybrid renewable systems that add battery storage is needed to understand how we can mitigate future risks to aquatic communities while promoting the use of renewable energy. This study, which is among the first to examine ecological side-effects of the shift to renewable energy in freshwater ecosystems, lays out a path toward understanding and navigating changes to flow regimes under the energy transition.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗

DOME: Directional medical embedding vectors from Electronic Health Records

Motivation: The increasing availability of Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems has created enormous potential for translational research. Recent developments in representation learning techniques have led to effective large-scale representations of EHR concepts along with knowledge graphs that empower downstream EHR studies. However, most existing methods require training with patient-level data, limiting their abilities to expand the training with multi-institutional EHR data. On the other hand, scalable approaches that only require summary-level data do not incorporate temporal dependencies between concepts. Methods: We introduce a DirectiOnal Medical Embedding (DOME) algorithm to encode temporally directional relationships between medical concepts, using summary-level EHR data. Specifically, DOME first aggregates patient-level EHR data into an asymmetric co-occurrence matrix. Then it computes two Positive Pointwise Mutual Information (PPMI) matrices to correspondingly encode the pairwise prior and posterior dependencies between medical concepts. Following that, a joint matrix factorization is performed on the two PPMI matrices, which results in three vectors for each concept: a semantic embedding and two directional context embeddings. They collectively provide a comprehensive depiction of the temporal relationship between EHR concepts. Results: We highlight the advantages and translational potential of DOME through three sets of validation studies. First, DOME consistently improves existing direction-agnostic embedding vectors for disease risk prediction in several diseases, for example achieving a relative gain of 5.5% in the area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) for lung cancer. Second, DOME excels in directional drug-disease relationship inference by successfully differentiating between drug side effects and indications, correspondingly achieving relative AUROC gain over the state-of-the-art methods by 10.8% and 6.6%. Finally, DOME effectively constructs directional knowledge graphs, which distinguish disease risk factors from comorbidities, thereby revealing disease progression trajectories. The source codes are provided at https://github.com/celehs/Directional-EHRembedding.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

Effect of frequency and applied voltage of an atmospheric-pressure dielectric-barrier discharge on breakdown and hydroxyl-radical generation with a liquid electrode

This work examines the effect of the frequency and peak applied voltage on hydroxyl-radical generation in a dielectric-barrier plasma discharge between a metallic needle electrode and one electrode covered with dielectric. The authors examine a system that can expose up to 96 liquid samples in an automated fashion without human intervention beyond setting the initial software configuration. Then, hydroxylradical concentration, measured through coumarin fluorescence, was measured for 5 s plasma exposures generated under different highvoltage conditions with frequencies from 2 to 16 kHz and amplitudes from 4 to 9 kV. Their results show that an increase in frequency and/or applied voltage, within the range prescribed above and the limits of the high-voltage power supply, can yield up to a 150% increase in fluorescence with an equivalent hydroxyl-radical increase. Applications using typical previous methods, such as the Fenton Reaction, are limited in that they continuously generate hydroxyl radicals over millisecond and longer intervals. These results establish the electrical parameters that can now be applied to polymers, like proteins, which show three dimensional structures that are flexible and fluctuate on a microsecond and nanosecond time scale, with hydroxyl-radical generation on this time scale using this device. Additionally, plasma exposures may be optimized for a great variety of proteins, devices and techniques, where hydroxyl-radical generation is of utmost importance, reducing exposure time and potential subjection of samples to harmful side effects.

42 ENGINEERING↗

Improving Efficacy and Safety of Pharmacological Treatment Through Precision Health and Pharmacogenomics

INTRODUCTION: Future spaceflight will require increased crew medical autonomy as exploration class missions expand in duration and distance from Earth, especially for Mars missions. As mission duration increases, it will be essential to have appropriate amounts of effective medication to ensure the maintenance of crew health and performance. Conversely, mass and volume constraints will become more severe as future spaceflight expands beyond low Earth orbit, where resupply is difficult or becomes impossible. These constraints thus convey an urgency to tailor medications for individual crewmembers and further examine appropriate dosing regimens. BACKGROUND: Precision Health is an exciting area of medicine focused on maintaining an individual’s health and performance through in-depth understanding of an individual’s unique clinical and environmental history, genetic makeup, and molecular profiles. This approach can be adapted to better predict, monitor, and address physiological responses to the spaceflight environment. A subset of this field is pharmacogenomics (PGX), the study of how the expressed genome impacts drug responses with the goal of prescribing the right dose of the right drug at the right time. Specifically, PGX testing provides valuable information on an individual’s precise allelic variations to guide physicians in making informed decisions on drug choice and dosing to avoid adverse events and maximize efficacy. The study goal was to identify which current space pharmacy drugs could be evaluated using PGX testing and to understand the potential impact on the health and wellness of the astronaut population. Additionally, we sought to evaluate clinically available FDA-approved PGX testing solutions to better understand its applicability. METHODS: A complete list of drugs on the ISS was analyzed for risk and likelihood of drug failure and PGX actionability. This analysis encompassed both astronauts’ personal medications, including supplements and over the counter drugs (n=151) contained in the ISS medical accessory kit (IMAK), and ISS MedKit formulary medications (n=95). Duplicate medications and different formulations were removed, which resulted in a total of 157 drugs used in the subsequent analysis. A 5x5 risk assessment table was produced by examining the likelihood of drug failure compared to the consequence of drug failure (LxC). Likelihood of individual drug failure was defined by whether existing processes are sufficient to prevent ineffective treatment or impactful side effect events, as ranked from 1 (very low, can easily be prevented) to 5 (very high, cannot be prevented) during a Mars mission. In contrast, the consequence of drug failure was defined by impact to safety, schedule, cost, or technical criteria and ranked from 1 (very low) to 5 (very high). An assessment of PGX reference laboratories is currently underway to evaluate sample requirements, benefit analysis (cost vs. utility of allele variant analysis), relevance to inflight medication usage, quality of reporting in enabling clinical application, and ease of integration into electronic medical records. RESULTS: Risk assessments (LxC 5x5 table) indicated 128 medications were in the green zone where risk is acceptable, with the remaining 29 of the medications in the yellow or red zone driven predominantly due to drug failure or safety concerns. We found that current PGX testing results could impact 21% of the total medications in the ISS MedKit and IMAK; of these, 9 medications currently have direct clinically actionable guidance available. Results of the clinical PGX solution evaluations as related to these medications will be presented. CONCLUSION: PGX testing has demonstrated clear benefits in terrestrial medicine and clinical environments for the selection of proper medications, avoiding adverse drug reactions, and maximizing drug efficacy. We propose that similar benefits would be bestowed on the astronaut and commercial spaceflight passenger population by performing preemptive preflight PGX testing to reduce risk of mission failure due to ineffective or toxic medications, improve drug efficacy, and further open the door to countermeasure research. For example, PGX results could allow tailoring of specific medications at optimal doses more precisely to each individual astronaut, particularly in areas of space motion sickness, sleep aids, and analgesics. An additional benefit is that PGX results could provide information for better planning of the components of a space pharmacy for deep space missions to be more effective and efficient in the utilization of limited pharmaceutical resources. Finally, while PGX testing of the astronaut corps is not currently conducted, this approach could provide immediate impact in support of mission success by reducing risks, optimizing astronaut performance, and providing valuable insights into long-term astronaut health. Such advancements in clinical decision making are important next steps in building dynamic individual risk profiles for astronauts, increasing selection of the best treatment choice, and providing tailored countermeasures for individual crewmembers.

Pharmacogenomics↗

Stabilized Co-Free Li-Rich Oxide Cathode Particles with An Artificial Surface Prereconstruction

Li-rich metal oxide (LXMO) cathodes have attracted intense interest for rechargeable batteries because of their high capacity above 250 mAh g –1 . However, the side effects of hybrid anion and cation redox (HACR) reactions, such as oxygen release and phase collapse that result from global oxygen migration (GOM), have prohibited the commercialization of LXMO. GOM not only destabilizes the oxygen sublattice in cycling, aggravating the well-known voltage fading, but also intensifies electrolyte decomposition and Mn dissolution, causing severe full-cell performance degradation. In this study, an artificial surface prereconstruction (ASR) for Li 1.2 Mn 0.6 Ni 0.2 O 2 particles with a molten-molybdate leaching is conducted, which creates a crystal-dense anion-redox-free LiMn 1.5 Ni 0.5 O 4 shell that completely encloses the LXMO lattice (ASR-LXMO). Differential electrochemical mass spectroscopy and soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy analyses demonstrate that GOM is shut down in cycling, which not only stabilizes HACR in ASR-LXMO, but also mitigates the electrolyte decomposition and Mn dissolution. ASR-LXMO displays greatly stabilized cycling performance as it retains 237.4 mAh g –1 with an average discharge voltage of 3.30 V after 200 cycles. More crucially, while the pristine LXMO cycling cannot survive 90 cycles in a pouch full-cell matched with a commercial graphite anode and lean (2 g A –1 h –1 ) electrolyte, ASR-LXMO shows high capacity retention of 76% after 125 cycles in full-cell cycling.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

A Dual–Phase Electrolyte for High–Energy Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

Dissolution of lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) is essential for fast cathode kinetics, but detrimental for anode stability, especially under lean electrolyte conditions. Here in this work, the phase separation phenomenon between solvents with different polarities (tetramethyl sulfone [TMS] and dibutyl ether [DBE]) is utilized to enable the design of a dual-phase electrolyte. High-polarity, high-density TMS–lithium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide–ammonium trifluoroacetate as the cathode electrolyte strongly solvates LiPSs, which propel the sulfur redox reaction. Moreover, the composite of DBE and a polymeric ion conductor serves as the anode electrolyte. The addition of DBE in the anode side effectively prevents the crossover of corrosive species (LiPSs and ammonia trifluoroacetate), enabling a significant improvement in Li-metal anode stability. The electrode-specific dual-phase electrolyte design provides electrochemical performance superior to conventional electrolytes. Without additional electrode engineering, pouch cells assemble with the dual-phase electrolyte cycle under a lean electrolyte (4 µL mg –1 ) and low-Li-excess condition (N/P = 3) for 120 cycles.

25 ENERGY STORAGE↗

Breast tumor-targeted drug delivery via polymer nanocarriers: Endogenous and exogenous strategies

Breast cancer, one of the most common types of cancer worldwide, has a high degree of malignancy while lacking efficient treatments. The off-target events frequently occurring in drug administration have been a major obstacle, which causes severe side effects to patients and reduces the therapeutic efficacy. An ideal medication should precisely target the specific site with precise control over concentration and duration. In recent years, there has been immense progress in polymer nanocarriers that demonstrate great potential in the targeted delivery. These nanocarriers are constructed from materials sensitive to a wide range of endogenous (e.g., pH, enzyme, redox) and exogenous stimuli (e.g., light, ultrasound, magnetic waves), driving cargo release to the targeted tissue or cells. Here, we elucidate the mechanism of current targeting strategies and the engineering methods to construct these targeting systems or to improve their targeting efficiency. Here we capture the recent progress in the targeted nanocarriers derived from polymers which span hydrogels and micelles, demonstrating their design and applications in chemo, hyperthermia, immuno, and gene therapies.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Aggregation and analysis of indication-symptom relationships for drugs approved in the USA

Abstract Purpose Drug indications and disease symptoms often confound adverse event reports in real-world datasets, including electronic health records and reports in the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS). A thorough, standardized set of indications and symptoms is needed to identify these confounders in such datasets for drug research and safety assessment. The aim of this study is to create a comprehensive list of drug-indication associations and disease-symptom associations using multiple resources, including existing databases and natural language processing. Methods Drug indications for drugs approved in the USA were extracted from two databases, RxNorm and Side Effect Resource (SIDER). Symptoms for these indications were extracted from MedlinePlus and using natural language processing from PubMed abstracts. Results A total of 1361 unique drugs, 1656 unique indications, and 2201 unique symptoms were extracted from a wide variety of MedDRA System Organ Classes. Text-mining precision was maximized at 0.65 by examining Term Frequency Inverse Document Frequency (TF-IDF) scores of the disease-symptom associations. Conclusion The drug-indication associations and disease-symptom associations collected in this study may be useful in identifying confounders in other datasets, such as safety reports. With further refinement and additional drugs, indications, and symptoms, this dataset may become a quality resource for disease symptoms.

Punyala, Ananth↗

Spectroscopic identification of 2,3-dimethylbut-2-ene transients in 2,3-dimethylbut-2-ane flames

Combustion reactions provide the principal energy source of the world yet they are creating a burden through pollution. A detailed understanding of the complicated chemistry of flames is essential for optimizing energy output while minimizing detrimental side effects. Here, we present a measurement technique based on time domain, resonance-enhanced multiphoton ionization via Rydberg states followed by laser-induced plasma backscattering of microwaves and demonstrate this non-intrusive, in-situ technique by selectively identifying 2,3-dimethylbut-2-ene in a complex 2,3-dimethylbut-2-ane flame environment.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Nanoparticles for targeted cancer radiotherapy

Radiotherapy, where ionizing radiation is locally delivered either through an external beam or by surgically implanting radionuclide-based seeds in the tumor, is one of the gold standard treatments for cancer. Due to the non-selective nature of radiation, healthy tissue surrounding the cancerous region is usually affected by the treatment. Hence, new strategies, including targeted alpha therapy, are being studied to improve the selectivity of the treatment and minimize side effects. Several challenges, however, limit the current development of targeted radiotherapy, such as the functionalization of the therapeutic agent with targeting vectors and controlling the release of recoiling daughters. Nanoparticles offer unique opportunities as drug delivery vehicles, since they are biocompatible, enhance the cellular uptake of drugs, and are easily functionalized with targeting molecules. In this review, we examine how nanoparticles can be used for targeted radiotherapy, either as sensitizers of external beams or as delivery vehicles for therapeutic radionuclides. Further, we describe the clinical relevance of different types of nanoparticles, followed by an analysis of how these nanoconstructs can solve some of the main limitations of conventional radiotherapy. Finally, we critically discuss the current situation of nanoparticle-based radiotherapy in clinical settings and challenges that need to be overcome in the future for further development of the field.

62 RADIOLOGY AND NUCLEAR MEDICINE↗

Design and evaluation of novel analogs of 2-amino-4-boronobutanoic acid (ABBA) as inhibitors of human gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase

Inhibitors of gamma-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT1, aka gamma-glutamyl transferase) are needed for the treatment of cancer, cardiovascular illness and other diseases. Compounds that inhibit GGT1 have been evaluated in the clinic, but no inhibitor has successfully demonstrated specific and systemic GGT1 inhibition. All have severe side effects. L-2-amino-4-boronobutanoic acid (l-ABBA), a glutamate analog, is the most potent GGT1 inhibitor in vitro. In this study, we have solved the crystal structure of human GGT1 (hGGT1) with ABBA bound in the active site. The structure was interrogated to identify interactions between the enzyme and the inhibitor. Based on these data, a series of novel ABBA analogs were designed and synthesized. Their inhibitory activity against the hydrolysis and transpeptidation activities of hGGT1 were determined. The lead compounds were crystalized with hGGT1 and the structures solved. The kinetic data and structures of the complexes provide new insights into the critical role of protein structure dynamics in developing compounds for inhibition of hGGT1.

60 APPLIED LIFE SCIENCES↗

2.5 Å-resolution structure of human CDK-activating kinase bound to the clinical inhibitor ICEC0942

The human CDK-activating kinase (CAK), composed of CDK7, cyclin H, and MAT1, is involved in the control of transcription initiation and the cell cycle. Because of these activities, it has been identified as a promising target for cancer chemotherapy. A number of CDK7 inhibitors have entered clinical trials, among them ICEC0942 (also known as CT7001). Structural information can aid in improving the affinity and specificity of such drugs or drug candidates, reducing side effects in patients. Here, we have determined the structure of the human CAK in complex with ICEC0942 at 2.5 Å-resolution using cryogenic electron microscopy. Our structure reveals conformational differences of ICEC0942 compared with previous X-ray crystal structures of the CDK2-bound complex, and highlights the critical ability of cryogenic electron microscopy to resolve structures of drug-bound protein complexes without the need to crystalize the protein target.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

Phage therapy: From biological mechanisms to future directions

Increasing antimicrobial resistance rates have revitalized bacteriophage (phage) research, the natural predators of bacteria discovered over 100 years ago. In order to use phages therapeutically, they should (1) preferably be lytic, (2) kill the bacterial host efficiently, and (3) be fully characterized to exclude side effects. Developing therapeutic phages takes a coordinated effort of multiple stakeholders. Herein, we review the state of the art in phage therapy, covering biological mechanisms, clinical applications, remaining challenges, and future directions involving naturally occurring and genetically modified or synthetic phages.

59 BASIC BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES↗

A transcriptional relationship with a natural product disrupts mitochondrial biogenesis

Discovery of new compound leads and oncology targets to treat cancer will require overcoming resistance to traditional therapies such as BRAF and mitogen-activated protein kinase inhibitors (MAPKi). In addition, potent new therapies will benefit from selective localization at the cancer site rather than general cell toxicity which can lead to undesired side effects. This selectivity can be gained by identifying new compound leads that are “prodrugs”, that is they are activated by mechanisms selective to cancer cells leading to strong pharmacological activity (Zhang, 2017). Continuing discovery of anticancer agents that overcome resistance and take advantage of cancer cell mechanisms will be greatly augmented by returning to the potent well of natural products; in fact, an analysis of a 70-year period ending in 2014 showed that nearly 50% of approved anticancer drugs are or are derived from natural products (Newman, 2016). Discovery of new agents with high potency and selectivity will require natural product research focused on discovering biologically active compounds with unique structures and mechanisms of action that utilize target cell functions.

Wright, Aaron T.↗