Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 15, Issue 8, 2008

There are several types of primary tumors of the central nervous system (CNS), and almost half of them are gliomas. In particular, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is very aggressive and infiltrates into the CNS parenchyma. Despite intense clinical efforts, the prognosis of patients with this type of tumors remains very poor, and has not improved in decades, with a median survival of approximately one year after diagnosis. Curre Read More

The passage of hydrophilic drugs, such as oxime acetylcholinesterase reactivators, into the central nervous system is restricted by the blood-brain and the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barriers. The present review summarizes morphological and functional properties of the blood-brain barrier, blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier and cerebrospinal fluid-brain interface and reviews the existing data on brain entry of oximes. Due to t Read More

Despite the conventional and high-dose chemotherapy with hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, multiple myeloma eventually relapses, resulting in an incurable hematological malignancy. Therefore, novel therapeutic approaches in clinical settings are desired. Recently, thalidomide was introduced for the treatment of myeloma, and many clinical trials have since confirmed its efficacy in patients with relapsed/refract Read More

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an age-related disorder that causes brain damage resulting in progressive cognitive impairment and death. Three decades of progress have given us a detailed understanding of the underlying molecular mechanisms. Over the past 10 years, this knowledge has translated into a range of targets for therapy, the most promising of which is amyloid β (Aβ). An imbalance between the production and Read More

Opioids have been used as pain control medications for thousands of years. Opioids are highly effective analgesics clinically available for controlling moderate and severe pain. Recent genetic knockout and knockin studies have definitively demonstrated that the analgesic effect is mediated through opioid receptors. In addition to their analgesic effect, opioids also have the potential to develop tolerance and physical depende Read More

Viral proteins sometimes interfere with human transmembrane receptors to gain access into a cell or they use transmembrane domains to interfere with cellular signal cascades in human cells. Such interference can lead to a deregulation of tightly regulated processes and eventually to different forms of cancer. There is still little knowledge about how proteins act and interact in biological membranes but the membrane Read More

Purpose of review: Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease of the vessel wall. Although it has become common knowledge that hyaluronic acid (HA), an important component of the extracellular matrix, is strongly involved in atherosclerotic disease development it has only recently become evident that HA, instead of being a static matrix polymer, is an active modulator of proliferation and inflammation of the athero Read More

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Dyslipidemia is one of the main risk factors leading to atherosclerosis. Moreover, there is evidence for a role of oxidation in linking lipids and inflammation to development and progression of atherosclerosis. Current therapeutic approaches with lipid-lowering agents, such as statins, fail to protect more than half of patients fro Read More

There is a pressing need for the development of new therapies for emphysema, particularly as no existing treatment has been shown to reduce disease progression. Compounds with a potential activity against the pathological mechanisms postulated to play a role in the development and progression of emphysema should be tested in vivo in animal models of this disease. The choice of the model is of capital importance. Read More

Tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of mortality due to a single infectious agent. The currently used combination drug regimens produce cure rates that exceed 95%, given good patient adherence during the multiple months treatment period. However the recent surge in HIV infections and the synergy between HIV and TB as well as the emergence of resistance resulted in an unforeseen increase in the number of TB cases, i Read More

Microarray gene expression profiling is a high throughput system recently used in basic and applied research. It provides a large amount of data —at molecular level— that once acquired, must be functionally integrated in order to find common patterns within a defined group of biological samples. In addition to identification of differentially expressed genes and the establishment of gene regulation patterns, microarrays m Read More