Current Drug Targets - Cardiovascular & Hematological Disorders - Volume 5, Issue 1, 2005

The aim of Current Drug Targets - Cardiovascular & Haematological Disorders is to provide reviews describing new and ground breaking investigative areas of research into therapy for cardiovascular and haematological disorders. Current Drug Targets - Cardiovascular & Haematological Disorders publishes review articles on recent developments in the molecular biology, genomics and biochemistry of dru Read More

Current models of oncogenesis describe cancer as a progression of genetic mutations in a tumor cell mass. However, tumors are more than a clonal expansion of malignant cells. Tumors are heterogeneous, with a complex 3D structure, analogous to organs comprised of different tissues. In a tumor mass, the component cell types interact with each other and with their microenvironment by exchanging information through c Read More

Drugs, which interfere with the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone cascade such as angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, have been available to clinicians for more than 20 years. They are now recognized as a very effective approach to treat patients with hypertension, heart failure, diabetic and non-diabetic chronic renal failure or patients with a high cardiovascular risk. The recent development of angiotensin II (Ang Read More

Recent molecular studies, in particular investigations of subjects with monogenic disorders of lipoprotein metabolism and studies of induced-mutant mice, have increased the understanding of intestinal sterol absorption. Some of these genes encode adenosine triphosphate [ATP] binding cassette (ABC) transporters that transport dietary cholesterol from enterocytes back out to the intestinal lumen, thereby limiting the amount of c Read More

This review focuses on the behavior of metastatic tumor cells and their specific adhesion molecules. Much of this review is based on the results from our researches over many years. Electron microscopic investigations of metastatic processes have demonstrated that desmosomes, tight junctions, or cell fusion-like structures are formed between tumor cells and other cells such as endothelial, mesothelial, hepatic, and ner Read More

Nitric oxide (NO) is a small gaseous molecule with an odd number of electrons and is rather soluble in hydrophobic phases. It was once known for its toxicity in the environment and for its applications in meat curing. After 1980 its importance was discovered in many physiological fields such as vascular regulation, neuronal communication, cytotoxic action by macrophages in bacterial infections etc. On the other side NO is involv Read More

Azimilide is an investigational Class III antiarrhythmic that has been developed for treating both supraventricular and ventricular tachyarrhythmias. Similar to other Class III antiarrhythmics, azimilide prolongs myocardial repolarization in a dose-dependent manner by increasing the action potential duration, QT interval, and effective refractory period. The most frequent reported side effect is headache, with rare serious ad Read More

P2 receptors are a class of plasma membrane receptors ligated by extracellular nucleotides and expressed ubiquitously throughout the body. Two main families are known: P2X and P2Y. P2X are ligand (ATP)-gated channels, while P2Y are G-protein-coupled seven membrane-spanning receptors. The P2X and the P2Y subfamilies comprise seven and eight members, respectively. While ATP is the only known physiological ligand of P Read More