Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 13, Issue 4, 2006

ATP sensitive potassium (KATP) channels have important functions in neuroendocrine tissue, in smooth and skeletal muscle and in the heart. In pancreatic beta cells the KATP channels, which are formed by 4 ion channels (Kir6.2) and 4 regulatory sulfonylurea receptors (SUR1), control the glucose stimulated release of insulin. The Kir6.2/SUR1 KATP channels are also present in the brain and in other neuroendocrine tissues. Read More

Dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR) plays an essential role in cellular biochemistry and has been a wellrecognized drug target for over fifty years. Antifolate inhibitors of DHFR, including clinically used therapeutics such as methotrexate, trimethoprim, and pyrimethamine have been successful as anticancer, antibacterial, antifungal and antiparasitic agents. As resistant strains of these microorganisms evolve and as new disease Read More

In the last decade much attention has been paid to the development of metabolically non-reversible dimeric or hybrid compounds, which combine two structural units of one or two lead compounds of interest for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease. As a consequence of their capability to simultaneously interact with two binding sites of the same biological target (the enzyme acetylcholinesterase in most cases), to expand t Read More

HeLa cells were named for Henrietta Lacks, who died in 1952 from an infection of a special type of cancer. Margaret Gey, her physician, started working with these cancer cells that are still used for medical research. In the present review, an attempt has been made to collect the data for the effects of different chemicals on HeLa cells and to discuss them by the formulation of a total number of 22 QSAR.

Tubular cell loss is prominent both in acute and chronic renal failure. Apoptosis and its regulatory mechanisms contribute to cell number regulation in the kidney. The potential role of apoptosis ranges from induction and progression to repair of renal injury. However, therapeutic interest has focused in preventing the apoptotic loss of tubular cells that leads to acute and chronic renal failure. Death ligands and receptors, such Read More

Tuberculosis (TB) is a global health problem due to the lack of new drugs in the market and also due to the advent of multidrug resistant strains (MDR). This disease affects around 8 million people and kills almost 3 million people each year and it is estimated that there are 1 billion infected with TB worldwide. Due to this problem fluoroquinolones have attracted much attention as the new class of anti TB drugs due to their fe Read More

Leptin was originally identified as an adipocyte-derived cytokine with a key role in the regulation of the energy balance. Subsequent research revealed that leptin's biological action is not restricted to its effects on appetite and food intake, but instead has a much more pleiotropic character. There is now ample evidence that leptin has important functions in reproduction, hematopoiesis, HPA-axis endocrinology and angiogene Read More