Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 15, Issue 4, 2008

Potent antagonists of growth hormone-releasing hormone (GHRH) have been developed for the treatment of disorders caused by excessive GHRH or growth hormone (GH) production and for therapy of cancers. GHRH antagonists suppressed the release of GH and insulin-like growth factor (IGF)-I in transgenic mice overexpressing human (h) GHRH gene, an animal model of human acromegaly. It was also shown in GH3 rat pi Read More

Poor oxygenation of solid tumors is a major indicator of adverse prognosis after standard treatment, e. g. radiotherapy. This observation founded on intratumoral pO2 electrode measurements has been supported more recently by studies of injected hypoxia markers (pimonidazole, EF5) or hypoxia-related proteins (hypoxia-inducible factor-1α, carbonic anhydrase IX) detected immunohistochemically. Alternative approaches i Read More

Tumor cell lines are widely used as oncologic models and resources, forming, along with primary patient material and animal models, one of three major subjects for cancer investigation. With the advent of the Human Genome Project (HGP) and the ensuing provision of sequencing data and mapped clones, human cancer cell lines, notably those derived from leukemia-lymphoma (LL) have become increasingly productive tool Read More

The cellular response to DNA damage is critical for determining whether carcinogenesis, cell death or other deleterious biological effects will ensue. Numerous cellular enzymatic mechanisms can directly repair damaged DNA, or allow tolerance of DNA lesions, and thus reduce potential harmful effects. These processes include base excision repair, nucleotide excision repair, nonhomologous end joining, homologous recombinatio Read More

Sulfonamide hydroxamates were designed and synthesized as efficient matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) inhibitors since the discovery of CGS 27023A in 1994. The sulfonamide group was incorporated in the inhibitor to improve the enzyme-inhibitor binding, not only by forming hydrogen bonds to the enzyme but also by properly directing the hydrophobic substituent to the S1' pocket and enabling it to plunge in deeply. So Read More

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) play an important role in many physiological and pathological processes. MMP inhibitors have been considered as potential therapeutics for neoplasitc, rheumatic and cardiovascular diseases. Our group and others have been developing pyrrolidine scaffold-based MMP inhibitors for a number of years, and numerous compounds have been reported in the literature. These compounds can be Read More

Most proteins undergo post-translational modification (PTM), which is known to play roles in normal physiological processes and the progression of many diseases. In this review, we summarized and discussed the mass spectrometry (MS)-based studies of various PTMs of nuclear co-repressor, receptor interacting protein 140 (RIP140), as well as the significance of these PTMs in modulating the biological activities of RIP140, spec Read More

Pulmonary surfactant is a lipid-protein complex that coats the interior of the alveoli and enables the lungs to function properly. Upon its synthesis, lung surfactant adsorbs at the interface between the air and the hypophase, a capillary aqueous layer covering the alveoli. By lowering and modulating surface tension during breathing, lung surfactant reduces respiratory work of expansion, and stabilises alveoli against collap Read More

The overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) is a common underlying mechanism of many neuropathologies, as they have been shown to damage various cellular components, including proteins, lipids and DNA. Free radicals, especially superoxide (O2 .-), and non-radicals, such as hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), can be generated in quantities large enough to overwhelm end Read More

Malignancy-associated hypercalcemia (MAH) is the commonest cause of hypercalcemia in hospitalized patients. Its incidence is 15 cases per 100,000 person-year. Such complication develops in almost 10% of patients with advanced cancer representing, ultimately, the most frequent cause of death in several patients with cancer. Parathyroid hormone related protein (PTHrP), which has strong homology to parathyroid Read More