NEWS NEWS IN BRIEF


NEW INSIGHTS INTO PARKINSON’S


Pioneering chemical technology developed at the University of Dundee is giving scientists the clearest


Scotland to lead the way in asthma care


Asthma UK is calling on Scotland to lead the way in finding much-needed breakthroughs for people with asthma.


Dr Satpal Virdee


insight yet into crucial biochemical processes that are active in many diseases, including Parkinson’s disease.


Dr Satpal Virdee, leader of the research team, said their findings could `revolutionise’ research capability.


Working in collaboration with Dr Miratul Muqit, the Dundee team have already used their newly developed tools to make new discoveries relating to the activity of the Parkin enzyme, which when mutated is a cause of Parkinson’s disease.


Dundee is one of the world’s leading centres for research into a process called protein ubiquitylation. This is a cellular regulatory mechanism that affects many processes in cells, and involves the attachment of a small protein called ubiquitin to other proteins.


One of the most significant functions of ubiquitylation is to mark damaged or unwanted proteins for destruction. This is an extremely intricate process – where amidst thousands of proteins in our cells, specific ones can be tagged with ubiquitin.


This specificity is achieved by around 600 protein enzymes known as E3s. If an E3 is faulty then this can manifest itself as disease. The difficulty facing scientists has been that measuring the activity of even a single E3 enzyme in the cell has proved challenging.


Now the group at Dundee, led by Dr Virdee, has developed a chemical probe that allows not only a single E3’s activity in a cell to be measured directly, but, in principle, the activity of dozens of E3s to be measured simultaneously.


The results of the research are published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.


58 - SCOTTISH PHARMACIST


According to the organisation, Scotland’s world-class reputation for research and strong infrastructure for life sciences innovation can help develop the tools and treatments to transform the lives of over 300 million people across the world, and help drive a global market expected to reach £14 billion by 2017.


Dr Samantha Walker, Director of Research and Policy at Asthma UK, says, “There is nothing as frightening as not being able to breathe yet that is the reality for thousands of people in Scotland with asthma. We now have a once in a generation opportunity to attract investment into asthma research, helping millions of people across the UK as well as driving Scotland’s productivity, economy and long term growth.”


To launch the campaign, a Cross Party Group meeting was held at the Scottish Parliament last month (March), attended by leading academics, politicians and policy makers from across Scotland, including Professor Andrew Morris, Chief Scientist at the Scottish Government.


There are 368,000 people with asthma in Scotland, including 72,000 children. As many as 15,000 people in Scotland


have asthma so severe current treatments simply do not work.


Asthma UK is calling for research into:


Improved diagnostics - Diagnosing asthma is complex and there are no simple, reliable diagnostic tests for the condition, delaying access to treatments.


Better treatments – 15,000 people in Scotland have asthma that is so severe that current treatments do not work. We need to change this.


Tech enabled self-management – technology offers innovative solutions to help people manage their life-long condition more effectively and prevent life-threatening asthma attacks.


Meanwhile, community pharmacists could help with asthma control, says pharmacist Johnathan Laird.


“Community pharmacist prescribers with the correct level of competence and read/write access to patient records, could help find disengaged asthmatics with the highest risk of exacerbation,” Scottish community pharmacist independent prescriber, Johnathan Laird told delegates at the Commissioning Live conference in London


He explained that while community pharmacists teaching correct inhaler technique to patients was important, working as an independent prescriber, running an asthma clinic in conjunction with the local GP practice enabled him to do more. “Before I was a prescriber, and not truly part of the multidisciplinary team, I would not have been in a position to support patients further.


“As independent pharmacist prescribers we can begin to manage patients with long-term conditions such as asthma. By taking responsibility for the complete care of patients, community pharmacists can truly integrate into the multidisciplinary team and secure our future role beyond the supply of medication.”


Brief interventions that could be carried out in community pharmacy included asking about: reliever usage; oral steroid use; attendance at respiratory clinics; asthma control test scores and symptoms; and reviewing inhaler technique. Independent prescriber pharmacists working in community could help improve asthma control, quality of life and relieve pressure on general practice, he said.


Pharmacy Management brings more Programmes to Scotland


The Specialist Pharmacy communications organisation, Pharmacy Management, has just announced more programmes for NHS Pharmacists in Scotland.


The Pharmacy Management Academy will be in Stirling on Thursday 26 May 2016 with an all- day course “INFLUENCING SKILLS”.


Previous courses from the Academy have been very popular and registration for this free to NHS course, which is supported by sponsorship, can be undertaken


at www.pharman.co.uk/events/ scotland.


John Stanley, Chief Executive of the company stated, ”This will be another enjoyable day in Stirling as we find pharmacists in NHS Scotland come in significant numbers to these courses and the day is very interactive.”


The Pharmacy Management Academy is also planning to run another course in the Autumn 2016 which will feature a different skill and will be based in Stirling again.


On Wednesday 24 August 2016 at the Hilton Dunblane Hydro Hotel, the new Pharmacy Management National Forum for Scotland will make its entry.


This event succeeds the Pharmacy Management National Seminar for Scotland of previous years with the main differentiation being an increase in the number of Satellite Sessions for delegates. Details will appear at www.pharman.co.uk/events/ scotland.


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