Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 16, Issue 15, 2009

Cancer cells show an up-regulation of glycolysis, they readily take up vitamin C, and they appear more susceptible to an oxidative stress than the surrounding normal cells. Here we compare, analyse and discuss these particular hallmarks by performing experiments in murine hepatomas (TLT cells) and freshly isolated mouse hepatocytes. The results show that rates of lactate formation are higher in TLT cells as compared to m Read More

Members of the cell division cycle 25 (Cdc25) family of proteins are highly conserved dual specificity phosphatases, which play a fundamental role in transitions between cell cycle phases during normal cell division through the activation of CdK/cyclin complexes. Furthermore, they are important targets of checkpoints in cellular pathways in the response to DNA damage. Over the past few years, more information about the basic Read More

Epinephrine and Norepinephrine, typically released during stress bind to nine different adrenoceptors (AR) which classically control the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. New targets were described for the many agonists and antagonists developed for these AR, as the central nervous system. During the last three decades, AR expression and action on the mammary gland/breast were extensively investigated. I Read More

The cardiovascular benefits of menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) remain controversial. The earlier clinical observations that cardiovascular disease (CVD) was less common in MHT users compared to non-users suggested cardiovascular benefits of MHT. Also, experimental studies have identified estrogen receptors ERα, ERβ and GPR30, which mediate genomic or non-genomic effects in vascular endothelium, smooth mu Read More

Overweight and obesity, if sustained, are serious medical problems reaching an epidemic proportion. It is estimated that over 55% of the adult population is affected by overweight and obesity. Both overweight and obesity put these individuals at a high risk for the development of insulin resistance, hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. A weight loss of between 5% and 10% of the initial b Read More

Tuberculosis is still a major health problem worldwide. Although treatment regimens currently available can cure almost all tuberculosis drug susceptible cases, problems such as the length of treatment, the need for multidrug therapy, the emergence of drug resistance, HIV co-infection and persistent Mycobacterium tuberculosis bacilli, stress the need for new anti-tuberculosis drugs. Strategies to search for new anti-tub Read More

In assisted reproductive technology (ART), the pregnancy and birth rates following in vitro fertilization (IVF) attempts are still low. Recently, apoptotic markers have been suggested as new criteria for oocyte and embryo quality selection. Many studies have provided evidence that poor oocyte and embryo quality can be associated with apoptosis. The aim of this review is to summarize our current knowledge on the apop Read More

The mechanisms of lithium action are not known in detail. First messengers, second messengers, and gene expression all appear to be involved: the wide breadth of targets makes the lithium therapeutic path difficult to disentangle. In the present paper, we focused on the most direct biochemical lithium targets at therapeutic concentration, for which some pharmacogenetic finding is present (i.e. inositol mono phospha Read More