Current Drug Metabolism - Volume 11, Issue 3, 2010

The current Hot Topic Issue, organized in two volumes, is dedicated to the very old health problem of the still incurable chronic skin pathologies, and to novel emerging approaches to pharmacological treatment. Here, we focused mainly on immune-dependent and UV-induced skin disorders with a clear inflammatory component such as psoriasis, atopic and contact dermatitis, UV-induced skin tumors, and photoaging. In the l Read More

Inflammatory dermatoses encompass an enormous area of dermatopathology. These diseases are triggered and maintained by aberrant responses of the cells of the skin immune system. In the last decade it has become clear that epidermal keratinocytes are highly active immunological cells, with a major control over the acute and the chronic phase of skin inflammation by means of cytokine/ chemokine p Read More

Allergic contact dermatitis is a common eczematous skin disease that occurs in sensitized individuals at the site of contact with small chemicals penetrating the skin barrier. The onset of the disease is mostly due to the rapid recruitment of chemical-specific CD8+ T cells, which induce apoptosis of keratinocytes. Additionally, CD4+ Th1 and Th17 contribute to the extension of the inflammatory reaction by releasing pro-in Read More

The present review aims at giving a condensed view on the current status of therapy of atopic eczema - a common chronically relapsing inflammatory skin disease. Atopic eczema is a multifactorial disease with a tendency for chronification. Owing to the associated genetic factors, therapeutic amelioration of skin symptoms is often only transient. Therefore, treatment basically focuses on symptomatic relief. Atopic Read More

In humans, prolonged sunlight exposure is associated with various pathological states. The continuing drive to develop improved skin protection involves not only approaches to reduce DNA damage by solar ultraviolet B (UVB) but also the development of methodologies to provide protection against ultraviolet A (UVA), the oxidising component of sunlight. Furthermore identification of specific cellular events following ultraviolet Read More

Extracellular cytokine function of the non-histone nuclear protein high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) has recently been recognized as an important drug target for novel anti-inflammatory therapeutics. Accumulating evidence supports the mechanistic involvement of the alarmin HMGB1 in skin response to microbial infection and ultraviolet-induced solar damage. Moreover, HMGB1 modulation of inflammatory signaling and tissu Read More

During the lifetime, our cells encounter many challenges to their own existence. The survival of organisms and cells depends on the interplay within a complex, yet precisely orchestrated network of proteins. Since the discovery of the Rel/NF-κB family of transcription factors, the research has never come to a stop. These proteins are best known for their key roles played in normal immune and inflammatory responses, also in t Read More

Cytochromes P450 are members of a superfamily of hemoproteins that catalyze a variety of oxidative reactions in the metabolism of endogenous and exogenous hydrophobic substrates. Fifty-eight cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoenzymes belonging to 18 families have been identified in human cells; the corresponding genes are highly polymorphic, and genetic variability underlies interindividual differences in drug response. The poly Read More