Anti-Inflammatory & Anti-Allergy Agents in Medicinal Chemistry (Formerly Current Medicinal Chemistry - Anti-Inflammatory and Anti-Allergy Agents) - Volume 7, Issue 4, 2008

Allergy can be defined as an adverse immune-mediated overreaction to otherwise innocuous environmental substances, that is, allergens. It is well established that allergic diseases (atopic diseases), such as hay fever, rhinoconjunctivitis, allergic bronchial asthma, allergic dermatitis, eczema, urticaria, angioedema and anaphylaxis, are global health problems affecting more than 25% of the worldwide population. Allergic disord Read More

Construction of safe and effective delivery systems for proteins and peptides is demand of current clinical practices. Biodegradable polymers based particulates carriers fulfill much of the requirement in this applicable field. Number of marketed products related to biodegradable polymers encapsulating proteins is increasing. However, it has not achieved its proper place since problems related to the protein processing and Read More

Most of the current therapies for the treatment of atopic diseases are based on drugs that inhibit or suppress components of the allergic inflammatory response. Antihistamines, bronchodilators, antiallergic drugs and corticosteroids remain by far the most effective therapeutic response to allergic diseases in reducing symptoms and concomitant inflammatory reactions. The last two decades witnessed a large nu Read More

Allergen-induced inflammation manifests as allergic asthma, dermatitis, rhinitis, conjunctivitis, food allergies, and life- threatening anaphylaxis. Allergic reactions consist of an acute phase hypersensitivity reaction and late phase inflammation. Current therapeutic strategies consist of immunotherapy to induce tolerance to an allergen or pharmacotherapy to treat either the acute phase reaction or the chronic inflamm Read More

The full development of allergic airway responses in asthma is critically dependent on CD4+ T cells. Through interaction with CD4 molecule, IL-16 acts specifically on CD4+ cells. In vitro, IL-16 has been characterized as a chemoattractant for CD4+ immune cells and as a regulator of T cell functions inhibiting T cell receptor-mediated activation, an effect that is more predominant in TH2 cells. IL-16/CD4 interaction also regul Read More

Peptides regulate most physiological processes, mainly by binding to specific receptors located on the cell surface and inducing a series of signals, neurotransmissions or the release of growth factors. There has been a rapid expansion in the use of peptides as therapeutic agents after the 1960s, but a series of unfortunate side effects present in Phase I and II clinical studies combined with their low bioavailability, led to the i Read More