111 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 demonstrates that microcystin-LR accumulates in human placental trophoblasts via OATP4A1-mediated transport, a process significantly enhanced by both hypoxic conditions and trophoblast cell fusion.
This study demonstrates that an integrated evaluation framework combining structural, functional, and cellular immunotoxicity endpoints in rats effectively characterizes immune system perturbation by showing concordant evidence of lymphoid depletion, impaired adaptive immune responses, and specific lymphocyte subset reductions induced by a reference immunosuppressive compound.
This study demonstrates that aerosolized nanoalgosomes derived from the marine microalga *Tetraselmis chuii* are non-cytotoxic, preserve epithelial barrier integrity, and effectively mitigate oxidative stress and inflammation in bronchial epithelial-macrophage co-cultures, highlighting their potential as a safe and sustainable therapeutic strategy for chronic inflammatory lung diseases.
This study demonstrates that the ROCK inhibitor fasudil exhibits beneficial anti-inflammatory and pro-proliferative effects on human trisomy 21 neural progenitor cells, suggesting its potential as a candidate prenatal pharmacotherapy for Down syndrome.
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.