Current Drug Targets - Volume 4, Issue 5, 2003

Achondroplasia, the most common form of human dwarfism is a sporadic autosomal dominant condition that occurs in approximately 1:20,000 births. The major clinical outcome of Achondroplasia is attenuated growth, rhizomelic shortening of the long bones and craniofacial abnormalities. As of today there is no pharmacological treatment for Achondroplasia. Some improvement in the patients well being and daily function Read More

Hepatoma Derived Growth Factor (HDGF) was originally identified as a secreted mitogen from the human hepatoma cell line Huh-7. Although initially thought to be a cytoplasmic protein, it became clear that HDGF is a nuclear targeted protein containing a canonical bipartite nuclear localization sequence. In the developing vasculature HDGF is highly expressed in the nucleus of smooth muscle and endothelial cells. HD Read More

Two human di / tri-peptide transporters, hPepT1 and hPepT2 have been identified and functionally characterized. In the small intestine hPepT1 is exclusively expressed, whereas both PepT1 and PepT2 are expressed in the proximal tubule. The transport via di / tri-peptide transporters is proton-dependent, and the transporters thus belong to the Proton-dependent Oligopeptide Transporter (POT)-family. The transporters are not d Read More

Influenza is a highly contagious, acute upper respiratory tract disease caused by influenza virus, a member of the Orthomyxoviridae family. The viral particles have two surface antigens, haemagglutinin and sialidase (neuraminidase) that extensively decorate the surface of the virus and have been implicated in viral attachment and fusion, and the release of virion progeny, respectively. The receptor for haemagglutinin is the te Read More

Current treatments against the Aquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) are reasonably effective in reducing the amount of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) present in infected patients, but their side-effects, and the emergence of drug-resistant HIV strains have intensified the renewed search for novel anti-HIV therapies. An essential step in HIV infection is the integration of the viral genome into the host cel Read More

Various herpes- and poxviruses contain DNA sequences encoding proteins with homology to cellular chemokine receptors, which belong to the family of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Since GPCRs play a crucial role in cellular communication and chemokine receptors play a prominent role in the immune system, the virally encoded GPCRs may be crucial determinants of viral action. The Kaposi's sarcoma-ass Read More