Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 14, Issue 16, 2007

Oxidative reactions caused by cigarette smoke (CS) chemicals have been shown to initiate crucial events in atherogenesis. However, physicians and scientists are confronted with the paradoxical situation that an antioxidative treatment of smokers improves acute smoking effects but hardly has any impact on long term outcome of cardiovascular diseases (CVD). In this review we make an attempt to explain this paradox. First, sm Read More

The objective of this article is to illustrate both the potential and the limitations of molecular imaging in stroke research. By molecular imaging we mean the visual representation of biological processes at the cellular and molecular level. The use of molecular imaging for stroke diagnosis is still at a very preliminary stage and many of these procedures have only been tested in animals. In rats, stroke therapy using stem cells can Read More

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a significant healthcare concern worldwide that affects more than 165 million individuals leading to cardiovascular disease, nephropathy, retinopathy, and widespread disease of both the peripheral and central nervous systems. The incidence of undiagnosed diabetes, impaired glucose tolerance, and impaired fasting glucose levels raises future concerns in regards to the financial and patient c Read More

A small group of patients affected by type 1 diabetes mellitus is characterized by a severe instability of glycemic values with frequent and unpredictable hypoglycemic and/or ketoacidosis episodes which cannot be explained by errors of patients or diabetologists. The quality of life of these patients is dramatically compromised in particular because of the frequency of acute events, hospital recoveries and precocious a Read More

Pancreatic and duodenal homeobox factor-1 (PDX-1) plays a crucial role in pancreas development, β-cell differentiation, and maintaining mature β-cell function. At an early stage of embryonic development, PDX-1 is initially expressed in the gut region when the foregut endoderm becomes committed to common pancreatic precursor cells. During pancreas development, PDX-1 expression is maintained in precursor cells, and Read More

Changes of extracellular pH values can have profound effects on neuronal function. For example, the low pH (also called acidosis) generated in brain ischemia causes acute neuronal injury. For years the receptors that detect pH variations surrounding neurons and their physiological/pathological importance remain uncertain. The recent finding that acidosis activates a distinct family of membrane ion cha Read More

Erectile dysfunction (ED) is a common condition with a significant effect on quality of life. The prevalence of ED increases with age and other risk factors (hypertension, diabetes, smoking, coronary heart disease, dyslipidemia and depression). Nitric oxide (NO) activity is adversely affected, in penile and vascular tissue, by these risk factors. Endothelial dysfunction and a reduced generation or bioavailability of NO have emerge Read More

Exposure of the human population to chlorination products has considerably increased during the 20th century especially after the 1960s with the development of public and leisure pools. The present article summarizes current knowledge regarding the human exposure to chlorination products and reviews studies suggesting that these chemicals might be involved in the development or exacerbation of allergic diseases Read More

Neuropathic pain is initiated or caused by a primary lesion or dysfunction in the nervous system. It is estimated that 75-150 million people in the United States have a chronic pain disorder. Neuropathic pain has a great impact on the quality of life. It is debilitating and often has an associated degree of depression that contributes to decreasing human wellbeing. Moreover, the management of chronic pain is costly to the health Read More

The marine organisms are a rich source of varied natural products with unique functionality. Marine natural products chemistry has undergone an explosive growth during the past three decades. A variety of natural products of new molecular structures with diverse biological activities have been reported from marine flora and fauna, thus ensuring motivation in the search of newer natural products. The bis and trisindole alk Read More

The figure on the cover was published in Curr. Med. Chem., Volume 13, Number 2, 2006. On the next page of this issue, Osman Guner and Omoshile Clement, from Accelrys, 9685 Scranton Road, San Diego, CA 92121, USA, and Yasuhisa Kurogi, from Cambridge Isotope Laboratories, Inc., 50 Frontage Road, Andover, MA 01810, USA, fraudulently assigned to themselves the authorship of this figure. However, the real au Read More