Current Bioactive Compounds - Volume 8, Issue 4, 2012

This review deals with nitrogen oxides (NO, NO2, N2O) and NO derivatives peroxynitrite, peroxynitrous acid and nitroxyl, in relation to therapeutic effects and toxicity. An important member is NO which plays a multiple role in physiological action. The derivatives formed from interactions with superoxide are powerful oxidants functioning in toxicity. Nitroxyl (HNO), a metabolite of hydroxamic acids and hydroxyurea, is involved i Read More

Leishmaniasis is among the neglected diseases that represent 90% of the world burden of morbidity. According to the WHO, there are 12 million people, mostly deeply impoverished who suffer from visceral leishmaniasis (VL). The drugs currently used for the treatment of human cutaneous and visceral leishmaniasis are toxic, have severe adverse reactions which limit their use, and have presented teratogenic and cardiotoxi Read More

The oil of black seed (Nigella sativa) has been used as a folk medicine to treat a number of physiological disorders such as epilepsy, gastric problems, allergic conditions and various hepato-biliary ailments. Despite being unaware of the underlying phenomena for the cure of these diseases, people especially in the Mediterranean region have been using this ancient herb since ages. Researches in the 20th century co Read More

In the present investigation, several phenolics based structurally related compounds of steroidal and nonsteroidal skeletons were synthesized and tested for their modulatory effect on ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) activity, an enzyme overexpressed in cancer. Additionally, these compounds were also examined for radical scavenging action to establish a correlation with the cancer chemopreventive property. Our result sugge Read More

The aim of this work was to review the ability of NIR spectroscopy to determine different parameters in wines, especially volatile compounds in barrel aged red wines, which are the highest quality in the market. Moreover, in this work we reviewed studies on the use of near infrared spectroscopy to discriminate wines. In general, the results showed this spectroscopy technique can be used as a rapid tool to determine Read More

Ceramide, a derivative of sphingolipid breakdown products, acts as second messenger for multiple extracellular stimuli including growth factors, chemical agents, and environmental stresses. They have been shown to be crtically involved in various biological processes, including differentiation, senescence, cell-cycle arrest, proliferation, and apoptosis. Ceramide molecules form distinct domains in the cell membra Read More