Cardiovascular & Hematological Agents in Medicinal Chemistry (Formerly Current Medicinal Chemistry - Cardiovascular & Hematological Agents) - Volume 6, Issue 1, 2008

One of the main approaches to the treatment of cardiovascular diseases is to block pathways and enzymes within the Renin-Angiotensin System (RAS) involved in the modulation of Angiotensin II. Besides this complex system, many other alternative strategies may represent interesting targets for new and more effective cardiovascular therapies. Many different approaches have led medicinal chemists to develop new m Read More

Oxidative stress results from an imbalance, an excess of oxidants, depletion of antioxidants or failure to repair oxidative damage induced by reactive oxygen species. A vast amount of evidence implicates oxygen-derived free radicals and high-energy oxidants as mediators in many pathological conditions of inflammation, shock, and organ responses to ischemia/reperfusion, which arise during a number of clinical sur Read More

CAWS is a mannoprotein-beta-glucan complex obtained from the culture supernatant of the fungal pathogen Candida albicans. CAWS exhibits various biological activities, and induces prominent vasculitis of the aortic valve and the coronary arteries in mouse. A significant difference was noted in the susceptibility to and the degree of vasculitis induction among mouse lines. The difference in cytokine production among mo Read More

The adult mammalian heart, including humans, harbors bone fide cardiac stem cells (CSCs) distributed throughout the atria and ventricles. Their discovery almost four years ago initiated a brand new field of cardiac regenerative biology that has profoundly changed the outlook of developmental and adult cardiac biology/physiology and the potential for treating cardiac failure. Indeed, despite its initial hesitance, the Read More

Stem cells hold considerable promise for cardiovascular rescue in patients with heart failure due to myocardial infarction or hereditary cardiomyopathies. However, cardiogenesis, one of the earliest and most complex morphogenetic events in the embryo, is only partially exploited at molecular level. The yield of myocardial cells spontaneously derived from human embryonic or adult stem cells is extremely low (usually Read More

Cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) is a key enzyme in the production of prostaglandins, and an important antiinflammation drug target. Recent focus has been placed on the role of COX-2 in heart function and pathology, due to the finding that specific COX-2 inhibitors significantly increased the risk of heart disease in chronic users. However, the exact role of COX-2 in cardiac physiology and disease remains controversial due to the con Read More