Current Bioactive Compounds - Volume 4, Issue 3, 2008

This special issue of Current Bioactive Compounds is dedicated to anti-aging compounds. The expected life span continues to increase over the World, and we celebrate achievements that made this possible including medical, agricultural, industrial and many others. The dark side of this unquestionable progress is that we have to face a more pronounced affect of aging related diseases on our families and societies. In thi Read More

Alzheimer's disease (AD), which accounts for over 80 percent of senile dementia cases, is a polygenic and multifactorial complex disease. However, an overwhelming body of data suggests that the key to AD pathology lies in the biology of a small protein called the Aβ peptide that forms the proteinaceous deposits known as Aβ amyloid that characterizes AD. Considerable progress has been made in understanding the metabo Read More

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurological disorder characterized by the progressive impairment of motor skills in patients. Growing evidence suggests that abnormal redox-active metal accumulation, caused by dysregulation, plays a central role in the neuropathology of PD. Redox-active metals (e.g. Fe and Cu) catalyze essential reactions for brain function. However, these metals can also participate in the generation of hi Read More

The role of the chemical structure, namely the effect of substituents, of small molecule inhibitors in selfassembly of Alzheimer's disease related amyloid-beta peptide is discussed. The literature analysis is concentrated on the past 10 years and analyzed the structure of Aβ inhibitors pointing out common features. A basis set of 321 compounds is reviewed and a chemical map of the inhibitors is provided highlighting the most Read More

The interactions of synthetic and natural anthracyclines were studied by determination of binding constants to calf thymus DNA using spectrophotometric titration and thermal denaturation of drug-DNA solutions to determine the Tm values. The two ways of evaluation of DNA-drug interaction showed reasonable correlation. In particular, the glycosides with non-natural aglycones or major structural deviation showed Read More

The plant kingdom is a rich source of compounds with anticancer activities. Curcumin [1,7-bis(4-hydroxy-3- methoxyphenyl)-1,6-heptadiene-3,5-dione] (1) is a secondary metabolite produced by rhizomes of Curcuma longa that has been used for centuries in traditional Medicine in Asia. Anticancer activity is one of the pharmacological properties of curcumin (1) that has been widely explored. Its targets include transcripti Read More