Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 16, Issue 9, 2009

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-protein-coding RNA that negatively control mRNA expression at a posttranscriptional level. They regulate various cellular functions and bioinformatic data suggest that they collectively control about 30% of human mRNAs. MiRNAs have been recently implicated in several carcinogenic processes, where they can act either as oncogenes or as tumor suppressors. This is the case in lung c Read More

Chalcones are a group of plant-derived polyphenolic compounds belonging to the flavonoids family and possess a wide variety of cytoprotective and modulatory functions. The results showed that chalcones inhibit the proliferation of MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 by inducing apoptosis and blocking cell cycle progression in the G2/M phase. Immunoblot assay showed that chalcones significantly decreased the expression of cyclin Bl, c Read More

Pharmacologic blockade of β-adrenergic receptors is a frequent therapeutic intervention in critically ill patients. Today's strategies predominantly include the treatment of cardiovascular diseases like hypertension and cardiac arrhythmias. Furthermore, β-adrenergic antagonists are routinely used to prevent the catecholamine-induced hypermetabolism in critically ill patients suffering from severe burn injury. In addition to thes Read More

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), the pro-inflammatory cytokine, first described in 1966, plays an essential role in both, innate and adaptive immune response. It has been implicated in tumour growth and angiogenesis and it exerts an antagonistic action against glucocorticoid immunosuppressive effect. Its perplexing enzymatic tautomerase activity has attracted considerable interest in the last decade. It has b Read More

Chronic hepatitis C affects 130,000,000 people worldwide. Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is a single-strand RNA virus responsible for most cases of chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in the Western world. The gold standard for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C (combination of pegylated-interferon α and ribavirin) results in a sustained virological response (namely, clearance of serum HCV RNA 6 Read More

Cyclodepsipeptides show an interesting spectrum of biological activity. Members of this new class of potential drugs may also serve as lead compounds for more pharmacologically potent and toxicologically safe derivatives. Some of these natural products and (semi-)synthetic derivatives have already been evaluated in clinical trials. A common feature of cyclodepsipeptides is their ionophoric properties. However, their pha Read More

Substantial body of data generated from cultured bone cells and rat models of osteoporosis supports a significant bone-conserving effect of phytochemicals. Flavonoids including isoflavones, stilbenes and lignans with variable efficacy have shown promising therapeutic application in osteoporosis. Majority of the phytochemicals assessed for their effects on bone cells revealed multiple beneficial actions such as promot Read More

Canonical transient receptor potential (TRPC) channels are Ca2+-permeable non-selective cation channels, which on stimulation allow influx of Na+ and Ca2+ ions into cells. It is proposed that stimulation of TRPC conductances by neurotransmitters and hormones such as noradrenaline, angiotensin II and endothelin-1 have important functions in vascular smooth muscle cells including vasoconstriction, cell growth and prol Read More

The goal of cancer chemotherapy with classical drugs - the destruction of the tumor cells - is often complicated by significant toxicity. As an alternative, induced differentiation modulates the cell programme by transforming malignant cells into mature cells with no proliferative potential. Our data demonstrate that (+/-)-1-{[3-(2-hydroxyethoxy)-1- isopropoxy]propyl}-5-fluorouracil inhibits proliferation, induces myogenic dif Read More