Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 11, Issue 18, 2004

The brain remains an area where little corrective surgery can be performed and the reversal of damage is almost impossible. Recently, reports of agents offering neuroprotection have begun to appear in the literature. The concept of neuroprotection is the administration of some agent, which should reverse some of the damage or prevent further damage. Some agents offer protection against cell degeneration to the neuronal Read More

Several sulfated seaweed polysaccharides show high antiviral activity against enveloped viruses, including important human patogens such as human immunodeficiency virus, herpes simplex virus, human citomegalovirus, dengue virus and respiratory syncytial virus. They can be obtained in major amounts and at low costs, have low toxicity and in some cases, lack anticoagulant effects. Even if the systemic applications have Read More

Membrane and membrane-active peptides and proteins play a crucial role in numerous cell processes, such as signaling, ion conductance, fusion, and others. Many of them act as highly specific and efficient drugs or drug targets, and, therefore, attract growing interest of medicinal chemists. Because of experimental difficulties with characterization of their spatial structure and mode of membrane binding, essential attention i Read More

Etoposide is an antitumor agent currently in clinical use for the treatment of small cell lung cancer, testicular cancer and lymphomas. Since the introduction of etoposide in 1971, its mechanism of action and potent antineoplastic activity has served as the impetus for intensive research activities in chemistry and biology. This drug acts by stabilizing a normally transient DNA-topoisomerase II complex, thus increasing the c Read More

Insulin resistance is the major cause in Non Insulin Dependent Diabetes Mellitus (NIDDM). In this review insulin production from α-cells and action of insulin is briefly described. Any intervention either in the production or action of insulin has been the leading cause of NIDDM. Therapeutic intervention to deal with the defective action of insulin at various receptor or target tissues has been outlined. Structure-activity relation Read More

In the overall scheme of the future development of new drugs for the treatment of breast cancer, specially tamoxifen resistant tumours, we have explored the unprecedented use of organometallic SERMs. The initial idea is to enhance the efficacy of the current standard, i.e. tamoxifen, by modifying the structure through judicious incorporation of an organometallic moiety possessing novel properties. Results have been vari Read More