Recent research has moved us one step closer to developing effective treatments for complex cardiovascular diseases.

The most recent issue of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Analysis contains three articles on cutting-edge research in these areas.

Cancer and cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) remain two of modern medicine's most pressing issues. Improving diagnostic procedures, as well as drug screening and assessment methods, are all steps towards more effective treatments.

The first study, which was published in Volume 13, Issue 4 of the journal in April 2023 and made available online in February 2023, describes a revolutionary non-invasive diagnostic method to detect gastrointestinal tumours.

Based on TST001, a synthetic antibody that targets the protein CLDN18.2, which is overexpressed in various malignancies, this GMP-compliant probe targets the protein.

The researchers were able to promptly and non-invasively detect the expression of CLDN18.2 in both cancer cell lines and in vivo experimental models by tagging this antibody with radioactive zirconium.

Currently, CLDN18.2 is measured using immunohistochemistry, which is invasive and limited in scope. This new approach, however, represents a great advantage over the conventional method.

Talking about the potential applications of their research, author Hua Zhu, remarks, "With the increasing popularity of positron emission tomography and computed tomography equipment, we expect our probe to be used for screening patients with higher potential benefit from therapy, localising systemic lesions, and evaluating the efficacy of novel drugs."

The second article by Cheng et al. discusses the pharmacological effects of two precious traditional Chinese medicinal herbs: Panax ginseng (PG) and Panax notoginseng (PN). The team developed a novel RNA sequencing-based, low-cost workflow called 'TCM-seq', which enabled them to simultaneously measure the effects of different doses of PG and PN components on multiple cell lines at the RNA or transcriptome level, significantly reducing experimental times and costs.

Their findings indicated that saponins found in PG and PN may regulate genes involved in CVD and coagulation, respectively. "Our study proposes a new paradigm to comprehensively explore the differences in the mechanisms of action of Chinese medicines based on transcriptome readout," the corresponding author Xiaohui Fan remarks.

In the third study, researchers show how the mechanical and physiological properties of a cell can be useful for evaluating drug efficacy. To this end, they mechanically stimulated breast cancer and kidney cells and developed a mathematical framework to record the change in their mechanical (viscosity and elasticity) properties in response to the drugs doxorubicin and paclitaxel.

The technique can be used in cell cultures starting from tumour samples at the single-cell level. According to the corresponding author Wenxue Wang, "Applying our approach for susceptibility testing before clinical chemotherapy will help improve the therapeutic effect of drugs and promote the advancement of personalised medicine."