Current Drug Targets - Volume 15, Issue 8, 2014

Accumulating evidence indicates that the aberrantly altered process of autophagy is definitely involved in carcinogenesis. Nonetheless, Toll-like receptors (TLRs) sensing cell-derived pattern/danger-associated molecules also have the capacity to promote tumor development and immune escape. TLRs are usually expressed in immunocompetent cells, though several types of cancer cells have also been reported to display t Read More

To screen the active antimalarial novel artemisinin derivatives, a QSAR modeling approach was used. QSAR model showed high correlation (r2= 0.83 and rCV2= 0.81) and indicated that Connectivity Index (order 1, standard), Connectivity Index (order 2, standard), Dipole Moment (debye), Dipole Vector X (debye) and LUMO Energy (eV) well correlate with activity. High binding likeness on antimalarial target plasmepsin was d Read More

Human beings and gut microbiota are in a symbiotic relationship, and the hypothesis of a “super organism” composed of the human organism and microbes has been recently proposed. The gut microbiota fulfills important metabolic and immunological tasks, and the impairment of its composition might alter homeostasis and lead to the development of microbiota-related diseases. The most common illnesses associate Read More

Ischemic stroke is a leading cause of mortality and morbidity worldwide. Numerous therapeutic studies, including stem cell therapy, have been explored in order to find the possible approach treating cerebral ischemia effectively. However, massive grafted-cell death and low survival rate made us pessimistic about the widespread application of stem cell therapy. The approach of preconditioning stem cells became an attra Read More

Many natural products contain sugar residues, which are essential components for great medicinal importance. The sugar moieties can improve water-solubility of natural products and decrease their toxicity. At the same time, the glycosidic residues are crucial for the activities of natural products. Much effort has been expended over the past decades in developing novel and efficient methodologies to synthesize the glyco Read More

Malignant tumors of salivary glands are rare lesions, often with poor prognosis. At present, surgery represents the only therapeutic choice, whereas chemotherapy is employed as palliative treatment in advanced disease. Over the years several molecular alterations associated with the pathogenesis and progression of the salivary glands tumors have been well-characterized. Particularly, the mutational status and/or abe Read More

The traditional view of mitochondria as cell powerhouses is a matter of common knowledge, but the overall view of these extraordinary organelles has been revolutionized in the last years. In fact, a large number of important and diverse processes take place at the mitochondrial level, which clearly surpass the energy production scope, intruding the critical fragile balance between cell life and death. The entangled biochemistr Read More

Although an increased oxidative stress has been associated with several pathologies, predictive value of circulating oxidative stress biomarkers remains poorly understood. It has been demonstrated that several pathologies underestimated in women, including cardiovascular diseases, develop differently by gender. In this study, conducted on 195 healthy volunteers, we assessed the putative gender difference in prooxid Read More