Current Drug Discovery Technologies - Volume 10, Issue 4, 2013

In recent decades, growth of computing power has facilitated powerful techniques for reconstructing evolutionary relationships from online genetic and proteomic databases. These methods are useful tools for pharmacologists for analyzing relationships between receptors and associated enzymes. Phylogenetic analysis can help generate hypotheses and leads for experimentation. Reconstruction of molecular phylogenies f Read More

Despite significant advances in the understanding of uterine physiology, preterm labor is still a predicament with a high incidence. The mechanism that triggers uterine contraction is currently unclear. ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channel stimulation has an inhibitory effect on uterine contractile pursuit through hyperpolarization of myometrial cells where KATP channels openers (KCOs) act as a tocolytic. In this review, Read More

Nasal mucosa offers advantages to deliver drugs to brain via olfactory route thus provides rapid onset of drug action and hence faster therapeutic effect. Therefore, various strategies have been proposed to improve the delivery of different drugs to brain including liposomes, colloidal drug carriers, micelles, chimeric peptide technology and nanotechnology through nasal route. The low blood level of folates is the primary ca Read More

Mass spectrometry-based technologies are increasingly utilized in drug discovery. Phosphoproteomics in particular has allowed for the efficient surveying of phosphotyrosine signaling pathways involved in various diseases states, most prominently in cancer. We describe a phosphotyrosine-based proteomics screening approach to identify signaling pathways and tyrosine kinase inhibitor targets in highly tumorigenic human ly Read More

Poor aqueous solubility and bioavailability of drugs are one of the important factors affecting the absorption of drugs and consequently their therapeutic effectiveness. Celecoxib is a widely used anti-inflammatory agent, with special use in rheumatoid arthritis. It belongs to biopharmaceutical classification system (BCS) class II drug with low solubility and high permeability. The present study was aimed to pre Read More

Hemoglobin-based oxygen carrier-201 (HBOC) was developed as a resuscitative fluid but concerns exist over potentially adverse vasoconstriction. This study evaluated whether concurrent IV (intra venous) N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) or hyaluronic acid (HA) would attenuate HBOC-associated vasoconstriction, assessed by systemic blood pressures and cerebral pial microvasculature, when administered to healthy, anesthetized Read More