Current Drug Discovery Technologies - Volume 18, Issue 3, 2021

Alcoholic and non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases have become a serious concern worldwide. Both these liver diseases have an identical pathology, starting from simple steatosis to cirrhosis and, ultimately to hepatocellular carcinoma. Treatment options for alcoholic liver disease (ALD) are still the same as they were 50 years ago which include corticosteroids, pentoxifylline, antioxidants, nutritional support and abstinence; and f Read More

Most of the clinical approved protein-based drugs or under clinical trials have a profound impact on the treatment of critical diseases. The mammalian eukaryotic cells culture approaches, particularly the CHO (Chinese Hamster Ovary) cells are mainly used in the biopharmaceutical industry for the mass-production of the therapeutic protein. Recent advances in CHO cell bioprocessing to yield recombinant proteins an Read More

Diseases are often caused by mutant proteins. Many drugs have limited effectiveness and/or toxic side effects because of a failure to selectively target the disease-causing mutant variant, rather than the functional wild type protein. Otherwise, the drugs may even target different proteins with similar structural features. Designing drugs that successfully target mutant proteins selectively represents a major challenge. Deca Read More

Curcumin is one of the important natural compounds that is extracted from turmeric. This compound and its derivatives have numerous biological properties, including antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and healing effects. Extensive research in various fields has been conducted on turmeric as it is widely used as a food additive. The significant antifungal activity is one of the major effects of curcumin. I Read More

Background: Antibiotic-resistant members of the family Enterobacteriaceae are among the serious threats to human health globally. This study reports the anti-pathogenic activity of Punica granatum peel extract (PGPE) against a multi-drug resistant, beta-lactamase producing member of this family i.e. Serratia marcescens. Objective: This study aimed at assessing the anti-pathogenic activity of PGPE against the gramnegat Read More

Background: Diabetic nephropathy can lead to renal diseases; oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction have critical roles in its development. Objectives: In this study, the effect of syringic acid (SYR), a natural phenolic acid, on diabetic nephropathy and mitochondrial biogenesis was examined. Methods: Diabetes was induced in rats by injecting streptozotocin. SYR (25, 50 and 100 mg/kg/day) was orally administered f Read More

Aims: The aim of this letter is to explore the influence of adding hydrogen atoms to the crystallographic structures of HIV-1 protease complexes with a series of inhibitors on the performance of radial distribution function based descriptors recently introduced in chemoinformatic studies. Background: Quite recently the successful application of molecular descriptors based on a radial distribution function to correlate it with Read More

Background: Different parts of Psidium guajava are consumed as food and used for medicinal purposes around the world. Although studies have reported their antiproliferative effects via different biochemical mechanisms, their modulatory effects on epigenetic modification of DNA molecules via histone deacetylases (HDACs) are largely unknown. Objective: This study was carried out to investigate the histone deacetylase 6 (H Read More

Background: Chikungunya fever is a challenging threat to human health in various parts of the world nowadays. Many attempts have been made for developing an effective drug against this viral disease and no effective antiviral treatment has been developed to control the spread of the Chikungunya virus (CHIKV) in humans. Objective: This research is aimed at the discovery of potential inhibitors against this virus by empl Read More

Aims: To utilize in silico-based approach for investigating the ability of PEGylated rapamycin as a competitive inhibitor to Galectin-3 for curing various diseases or that may provide an attractive strategy for treatment of a wide variety of tumors. Background: Galectin-3 (Gal-3) signaling protein is a unique member of lectin family present at the cell surface, intracellularly in both the nucleus and cytoplasm and extracellula Read More

Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of honey-based ophthalmic drop in patients with foreign body induced corneal ulcer. Background: Honey is traditionally used for skin, mucosal and corneal ulcers. Its use is well studied in human skin and mucosal ulcers and animal model of corneal ulcer with promising effects. Methods: In this randomized clinical trial, 50 patients with foreign body induced corneal ul Read More