Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 15, Issue 17, 2008

Degenerative diseases such as cancer usually involve more than one pathological process. Therefore, attempts to combat such diseases with monotherapeutic approaches may not always do so efficiently. For this reason, the use of combination therapy with modalities that target different disease pathways represents an alternative strategy. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has already been established as an alternative therap Read More

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest malignancies, costing the lives of more than 30,000 patients every year. It often presents in advanced stages not amenable to surgery. Gemcitabine is currently considered to be the standard of care for the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer. Combination of gemcitabine with certain other cytotoxic drugs, including cisplatin, oxaliplatin, capecitabine, and 5-fluorouracil have bee Read More

The TNF family member Fas ligand (FasL) induces apoptosis in Fas-expressing cells and serves as a key death factor in the immune system. It is involved in the termination of immune responses by activation-induced cell death, the selection of thymocytes and T and NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity. FasL also participates in the establishment of immune privilege and contributes to tumor cell survival. Besides its death-indu Read More

Systemic inflammation is a pathogenetic component in a vast number of acute and chronic diseases such as sepsis, trauma, type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, and Alzheimer's disease, all of which are associated with a substantial morbidity and mortality. However, the molecular mechanisms and physiological significance of the systemic inflammatory response are still not fully understood. The human endotoxin Read More

In the hit to lead process, a drug candidate is selected from a set of potential leads by screening its binding with potential targets. This review focuses on the lead identification assays that employ a bio-chemical or bio-physical test to detect molecular recognition events between proteins and small molecules in a parallel format.These tests require either the lead or the target immobilization followed by incubation with the Read More

Recent researches have discovered that MDM2 (murine double minute 2, or HDM2 for the human congener) protein is the main negative regulator of p53, which is an attractive therapeutic target in oncology because its tumor-suppressor activity which can be stimulated to eradicate tumor cells. Inhibiting the p53-MDM2 interaction is a promising approach for activating p53, because this association is well characterized at the stru Read More

The heart is extensively innervated, and its performance is tightly regulated by the autonomic nervous system. To maintain cardiac function, innervation density is stringently controlled, being high in the subepicardium and the central conduction system. In diseased hearts, cardiac innervation density varies, which in turn leads to sudden cardiac death. After myocardial infarction, sympathetic denervation is followed Read More

The serotonin transporter protein (SERT) has been the target for the development of several modern antidepressants with an objective of achieving selectivity over other monoamine transporters, thereby minimising side effects observed in the older generation of tricyclic antidepressants. The clinical selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) have been shown to be among the most effective therapies in the treatment of de Read More