Current Bioactive Compounds - Volume 8, Issue 2, 2012

Epoxycarotenoids form a family of about 200 natural pigments present in photosynthetic organisms, fungi, and animal and human tissues. Numerous studies have evidenced that they exert strong antiproliferative, cytotoxic and proapoptotic activities in cancer cells grown in vitro, and that some of them are resorbed per os, suggesting that they may prevent cancer in vivo. This paper presents a comprehensive descripti Read More

Several studies have provided evidence that the ployphenol curcumin can influence immune responses significantly. Here we overview the effects of curcumin in physiological and in pathological immune responses, including the recent findings from the use of curcumin to modulate immune-mediated diseases.

Foods enriched in β-glucans including oat and edible fungi as well as some purified β-glucans have been shown to reduce atherosclerotic lesions. The multiple mechanisms may be involved to affect several aspects of the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis such as phagocytosis of macrophages, NO production, epithelial cell functions and blood levels of cholesterol. Structurally different β-glucans may have different effects in the Read More

The biotransformations of artemisinin and artemisinin derivatives leading to metabolites that may serve as prospective candidates for antimalarial evaluation or as starting materials for hemisynthesis of antimalarial derivatives are reviewed, focusing on the preparation of regio- and stereoselectively hydroxylated derivatives still possessing the 1,2,4- trioxane structure that can be used as scaffolds for the production o Read More

Ginseng, an ancient and famous herbal drug in oriental traditional medicine, has been used as a valuable tonic and for the treatment of various diseases. In medicinal purpose, ginseng root is used more common than aerial parts such as leaves and flower buds although extracts from ginseng aerial parts also contain similar active ingredients having pharmacological functions. This article reviews the purification of thirt Read More

LASSBio-542 is a thalidomide analog synthesized as a 2-phenoxy-phthalimide derivative with the ability to inhibit Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha (TNFα), behaving similarly in some instances to the original drug in vitro and in animal models. In new experiments comparing the biological activities of both drugs, we identified LASSBio-542 as an immunomodulator compound with extra properties dissimilar to those of thalid Read More

2-Cyanoethanethioamide (1) reacted with α,β-unsaturated ketones 2a,b to afford the corresponding 2- thioxopyridine-3-carbonitrile derivatives 6a,b. The reactivity of the latter products towards various chemical reagents was studied to yield both thieno[2,3-b]pyridines 9a-r and 3-aminothieno[2,3-b]pyridine-2-carbohydrazides 10a,b which were used in turn, to prepare N-phenylmethylenethieno[2,3-b]pyridine-2-car Read More