Current Drug Targets - Volume 14, Issue 7, 2013

Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptors (PPARs) are a family of nuclear receptors whose activation modulates the gene expression that underlies both the glucid-lipid and the inflammation pathways. While many PPARs agonists have been used for years as medication for metabolic disorders, an increasing attention is being currently dedicated to these drugs for inflammation-related pathologies. Within the psychiatri Read More

A major focus has developed for the discovery of proregenerative and neuroprotective therapeutic agents to help the millions of Americans who receive a CNS injury annually. Tribulations have been encountered along the way due to the complicated set of pathways that are initiated post-injury. To target this complicated multifaceted signaling cascade, the most promising therapeutics target multiple pathways involved in t Read More

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is amongst the most frequent neurodegenerative disorders, the main pathologic hallmark of which is the degeneration of the substantia nigra pars compacta. Damage to multiple cellular components, such as mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, neuroinflammation, and proteasomal dysfunction, contribute to the progression of the neurodegenerative process. Peroxisome prolifera Read More

Stroke is one of the major causes of mortality and disability in adults in industrialized countries. Despite numerous preclinical studies and clinical trials in the field of cerebral ischemia, no pharmacological agent has been validated in the treatment of acute ischemic, except thrombolysis. Cerebral ischemia is not only a neuronal disease but it affects the entire neurovascular unit. The therapeutic strategy in stroke should be Read More

This review examines the growing literature on the role of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) in addiction. There are two subtypes of PPAR receptors that have been studied in addiction: PPAR-α and PPAR-γ. The role of each PPAR subtype in common models of addictive behavior, mainly pre-clinical models, is summarized. In particular, studies are reviewed that investigated the effects of PPAR-α agonists on relapse Read More

CPT-11 (irinotecan), a DNA topoisomerase I inhibitor is one of the main treatments for colorectal cancer. The main dose limiting toxicities are neutropenia and late onset diarrhea. Though neutropenia is manageable, CPT-11 induced diarrhea is frequently severe, resulting in hospitalizations, dose reductions or omissions leading to ineffective treatment administration. Many potential agents have been tested in preclinical and Read More

Endogenous opioid peptides have been studied extensively as potential therapeutics for the treatment of pain. The major problems of using natural opioid peptides as drug candidates are their poor receptor specificity, metabolic instability and inability to reach the brain after systemic administration. A lot of synthetic efforts have been made to opioid analogs with improved pharmacological properties. One important st Read More

Epidermal growth factor receptors (EGFRs) belong to the ErbB family of receptor tyrosine kinases (TKs) involved in the proliferation of normal and malignant cells. As mutations and overexpression of ErbB TKs are implicated in carcinoma and glioblastoma and are related to both a very strong resistance to chemotherapy and a poor survival means that ErbB receptors are targets of considerable importance for anti-cancer drug Read More