Current Drug Targets - Volume 15, Issue 6, 2014

Lanthionine synthetase component C-like protein 2 (LANCL2) is a member of the LANCL protein family, which is broadly expressed throughout the body. LANCL2 is the molecular target of abscisic acid (ABA), a compound with insulin-sensitizing and immune modulatory actions. LANCL2 is required for membrane binding and signaling of ABA in immune cells. Direct binding of ABA to LANCL2 was predicted in silico using mole Read More

Hepatic diseases are turning into one of the few diseases that cannot be effectively cured due to some reasons although various receptors existed in the liver. Currently, several passive targeting delivery systems have been used in the drug/gene delivery for the treatment of hepatic diseases. For example, Zinostatin stimalamer (trade name of Smancs®), a drug-polymer conjugate, was launched in Japan in 1994, which treats h Read More

Dipeptidyl peptidase IV (DPP4) is a promising target for the treatment of chronic metabolic type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D). DPP4 is a highly specific serine protease involved in the regulation and cleavage of two incretin hormones, glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1) and glucose-dependent insulinotropic polypeptide (GIP). These incretin hormones are released by the gastrointestinal tract in response to ingestion of food and Read More

Histone deacetylases are a class of enzymes that play important roles in post translational modifications of histones by deacetylating the lysine residues as well as interacting with various non-histone proteins. This type of enzymes is closely related to oncogenesis and has been proved to be attractive targets for designing novel anti-cancer agents. Over the last 10 years, a large number of HDACs have entered pre-clinical and Read More

Current modalities for osteoarthritis (OA) treatment are partially safe and effective, and only alleviate the disease symptomatology, but do not modify progression and structural changes of the disease. At present, there is no approved safe and effective disease-modifying OA drug (DMOAD) for clinical application. Therefore, there is an urgent need for discovery of DMOAD in order to treat OA. Hopefully, the new DMOADs wou Read More