Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 13, Issue 28, 2006

Gum resin extracts of Boswellia species have been traditionally applied in folk medicine forcenturies to treat various chronic inflammatory diseases, and experimental data from animal models andstudies with human subjects confirmed the potential of B. spec extracts for the treatment of not onlyinflammation but also of cancer. Analysis of the ingredients of these extracts revealed that the pentacyclictriterpenes boswellic acid Read More

Nature is an inexhaustible source of natural compounds with interesting biological activities. Ingeneral, natural products are an important source of new compounds with a variety of structural arrangementsand singular properties. Styryl lactones are a group of secondary metabolites ubiquitous in the genusGoniothalamus that have demonstrated to possess interesting biological properties, in particularantiproliferative activity aga Read More

Primarily statin drugs inhibit hepatic 3-hydroxy 3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A (HMG-CoA)reductase, which is responsible for the reduction in circulating low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol.Several findings from recent research studies indicate that statins have multiple actions that favorablyinfluence key factors involved in the atherogenic process. These so-called pleiotropic properties affect variousaspects of cell fu Read More

Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a common condition in aging men that is characterized bynonmalignant enlargement of the prostate gland, and is frequently accompanied by urinary obstruction, andlower urinary tract symptoms (LUST). Currently pharmacotherapy of BPH is based on two classes of drugs: α1-adrenoceptor (α1-AR) antagonists and α5-reductase inhibitors. It has been shown that α1-AR antagonistsreduce sy Read More

Cholinesterase inhibitors constitute the standard of care for Alzheimer's disease in westerncountries. Donepezil, rivastigmine and galantamine had showed similar efficacy according to meta-analysisfrom randomised clinical trials. A mean modest 2 point-improvement has been observed in the Alzheimer'sdisease Assessment Scale (ADAS). Memantine has emerged as an alternative for advanced stages of the disease.Apart from Read More

Currently available therapies for brain ischemia, with a few exceptions, provide only symptomaticrelief in patients. Recent investigations in experimental models provided an understanding of the cellular andmolecular mechanisms that lead to neurodegeneration in ischemic injury, and also indicate targets forprevention and amelioration of the devastating consequences of stroke. An enormous increase in intracellularfre Read More

The main threshold for the therapeutic applications of nucleotides and oligonucleotides is theirionic structure which implies poor cellular uptake and unfavorable pharmacokinetic parameters. To circumventthese problems, the anionic phosphate moieties may be temporarily masked with enzymolabile protectinggroups to form neutral pronucleotides or pro-oligonucleotides. In cells, enzymes cleave the protecting groupsan Read More

Adenosine is a naturally occurring nucleoside, which exerts its biological effects by interacting witha family of adenosine receptors known as A1, A2A, A2B, and A3. The A2B subtype is a low affinity receptor,which couples to stimulation of adenylyl cyclase and also leads to a rise in intracellular calcium modulatingimportant physiological processes. Adenosine exhibiting activity at this subtype is at concentrations greaterthan 10 μ Read More