Current Drug Metabolism - Volume 11, Issue 2, 2010

Various types of nanoparticles, such as liposomes, polymeric micelles, dendrimers, superparamagnetic iron oxide crystals, and colloidal gold, have been employed in targeted therapies for cancer. Both passive and active targeting strategies can be utilized for nanodrug delivery. Passive targeting is based on the enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect of the vasculature surrounding tumors. Active targeting relie Read More

Cynomolgus monkey is used in the study of drug metabolism and toxicity due to its evolutionary closeness to human as compared with other non-human primate species. However, it has become certain that drug metabolism in monkeys is different than in humans. Such species differences have not been fully investigated at a molecular level largely due to the scarcity of information on drug-metabolizing enzyme genes. In c Read More

Cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2C enzymes contribute to the metabolism of about 30% of all drugs. Known polymorphisms of the respective enzymes and drug-drug interactions have a major impact on the efficacy and safety of some CYP2C substrate drugs. In vivo - in vitro correlations including prediction of the effect of such covariates requires quantitative information on enzyme kinetics. In this article there will be a summary o Read More

This study traces the evolution of the scientific literature on cytochrome P450 (P450) published during the last 30+ years (1977-2008). Using the Web of Science®, P450 articles from the Science Citation Index Expanded™ published from 1977 to 2008 were retrieved and analyzed. The number of P450 papers has increased from 342 articles in 1977-1978 to 2,357 in 2007-2008, and the number of contributing countries h Read More

Medicinal plants are gaining in popularity due to the various advantages they offer, such as fewer side-effects, better patient compliance, relatively low cost and high accessibility as well as their high acceptability due to a long history of use. There is a widespread belief among the general public that herbal preparations are “good for humans” as they are “all natural”. However, the increasing use of herbal medicinal products in th Read More

Small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) silence the expression of specific target genes by mediating RNA interference (RNAi) in mammalian cells. siRNAs have not only been widely used as a valuable tool for functional genomics research, but they also have demonstrated great potential in biomedical therapeutic applications for diseases caused by abnormal gene overexpression or mutation. One of the most important issues to overco Read More

Oral delivery remains the preferred route for chronic drug administration thanks to its patient convenience and compliance. However, many drug candidates are unsuitable for conventional oral formulations due to low solubility, poor membrane permeability, or extensive pre-systemic metabolism. This review describes a promising strategy that incorporates or encapsulates the molecules with biodegradable and bioco Read More