An analysis of the use of historical control data in the assessment of regulatory pesticide toxicity studies.

The concurrent control group is the most important reference for the interpretation of toxicity studies. However, pooled information on control animals from independent studies, i.e.

Targeting the Wnt signalling pathway in cancer: prospects and perils.

The Wnt pathway, involved in cancer development and progression, has for a long time been said to be undruggable, owing to its complexity and involvement in stem cell biology. This mindset has shifted in the last few years as new research and insights into the pathway mechanisms specific to tumour cells become apparent, leading to the development of multiple compounds targeting the pathway. In this review, we introduce the Wnt pathway and its connections to cancer biology and therapy resistance.

A high-throughput assay pipeline for specific targeting of frizzled GPCRs in cancer.

Frizzleds (FZDs) are a family of GPCRs controlling key events in all branches of the developmental Wnt signaling pathway. In this capacity these receptors are mostly active prenatally and have only a limited set of functions in the human adult. Numerous cancer types and subtypes were shown to be dependent on aberrant Wnt signaling and FZDs in particular.

A Second WNT for Old Drugs: Drug Repositioning against WNT-Dependent Cancers.

Aberrant WNT signaling underlies cancerous transformation and growth in many tissues, such as the colon, breast, liver, and others. Downregulation of the WNT pathway is a desired mode of development of targeted therapies against these cancers. Despite the urgent need, no WNT signaling-directed drugs currently exist, and only very few candidates have reached early phase clinical trials.

A pathway for repair of NAD(P)H in plants.

Unwanted enzyme side reactions and spontaneous decomposition of metabolites can lead to a build-up of compounds that compete with natural enzyme substrates and must be dealt with for efficient metabolism. It has recently been realized that there are enzymes that process such compounds, formulating the concept of metabolite repair. NADH and NADPH are vital cellular redox cofactors but can form non-functional hydrates (named NAD(P)HX) spontaneously or enzymatically that compete with enzymes dependent on NAD(P)H, impairing normal enzyme function.