77 papers
Pharmacology and toxicology explore how substances interact with living systems, ranging from the development of life-saving medicines to understanding the dangers of chemical exposure. This field sits at the critical intersection of chemistry and biology, asking essential questions about how drugs work, how the body processes them, and what happens when things go wrong. It is a dynamic area where researchers constantly strive to improve patient safety while discovering new therapeutic possibilities.
At Gist.Science, we bridge the gap between complex research and public understanding by curating the latest preprints from bioRxiv in this vital category. Our team processes every new submission from bioRxiv as it appears, transforming dense scientific data into both plain-language overviews and detailed technical summaries. This ensures that whether you are a specialist or a curious reader, you can grasp the significance of these emerging findings without getting lost in jargon.
Below are the most recent pharmacology and toxicology papers from bioRxiv, each accompanied by our expert analysis to help you navigate the latest scientific breakthroughs.
This study presents a comprehensive kinome-wide profiling of 192 diverse kinase inhibitors, revealing that polypharmacology is widespread and independent of regulatory approval, with many approved drugs exhibiting potent off-target effects on understudied kinases that complicate mechanism-of-action studies but offer opportunities for drug repurposing and toxicity prediction.
Patchouli alcohol suppresses gastric cancer growth and reverses immune evasion by inhibiting the NF-κB/PD-L1 axis, which enhances CD8+ T-cell-mediated cytotoxicity both in vitro and in vivo.
This study demonstrates through computational and experimental methods that antidepressants interact with estrogen receptors, suggesting that their clinical efficacy may partly stem from modulating hormone signaling pathways in addition to their effects on monoaminergic targets.
Using an AI-based screening pipeline targeting the chromatin remodeling factor BAZ1A, researchers identified compound C06 as a potent and specific repressor of pathogenic DUX4 expression in facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, demonstrating its viability as a therapeutic candidate despite its ability to inhibit multiple kinases.
This study reports the discovery of a novel small-molecule extracellular inhibitor of the KCa3.1 ion channel, identified through structure-based molecular dynamics simulations and virtual screening of the Molport database, which was subsequently validated experimentally via patch clamp assays.
This study demonstrates that spider venom lethality (LD50) and paralysis efficiency (ED50) are strongly and isometrically coupled, indicating that historically available LD50 values can serve as reliable proxies for ecologically relevant venom potency when derived from the same prey model.
This study utilizes extensive atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to demonstrate that cholesterol stabilizes the human Sigma-1 receptor trimer and that distinct agonist and antagonist ligands differentially modulate its oligomeric dynamics through specific interactions involving the 6-strand and residue W136.
This study demonstrates that incorporating taste-masking agents, such as Bitter Drug Powder or a combination of artificial sweeteners and a thickening agent, into a palatable vehicle significantly improves the reliability of voluntary oral dosing for bitter compounds in rats and mice, offering a refined alternative to oral gavage.
This study successfully extended the integrated glucose-insulin (IGI) model to quantify disease progression in individuals with impaired glucose tolerance by characterizing the annual decline in insulin secretion and sensitivity, while demonstrating that lifestyle intervention significantly slows this deterioration and improves beta-cell function.
This paper presents an AI-assisted workflow that streamlines the implementation of spatial Partial Differential Equation (PDE) models in NONMEM by automatically translating reaction-diffusion equations into executable Method of Lines (MOL) ODE systems, thereby overcoming the operational complexity of manual coding to enable practical, transparent, and maintainable modeling of intra-tumoral drug distribution.