Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 17, Issue 29, 2010

Cytokines are a large and growing family of hormone-like proteins that play a variety of roles in different physiological and pathological circumstances such as inflammation and immunity. Given their ability of influencing a number of biological phenomena such as cell growth, apoptosis, migration, angiogenesis and immune surveillance, cytokines play a key role also in cancer development and progression. Cyt Read More

Cancer immunotherapy with interleukin-2 (IL-2) has demonstrated long term disease control in metastatic renal cell carcinoma and malignant melanoma. With introduction of novel kinase inhibitors, immunomodulatory molecules, cytokines, and vaccines for treatment of cancer there is an increased interest in combining these therapeutic strategies with IL-2. Here we discuss toxicity and established activity of IL-2 in the ma Read More

The prominent role of interleukin (IL)-12 in inflammatory responses, especially in TH1 T cell differentiation, is well established. Moreover, in murine models of tumorigenesis, IL-12 displays remarkable antitumor properties that are mainly mediated by interferon (IFN)-γ secretion by CD4+, CD8+ T cells, natural killer (NK) or NK-T cells. Importantly, IL-12 through IFN-γ-dependent induction of the antiangiogenic factors interferon-indu Read More

Tumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis inducing ligand (TRAIL) is a promising anticancer agent that selectively triggers apoptosis in various cancer cells by interacting with its proapoptotic receptors DR4 and KILLER/DR5. The intensive studies of TRAIL signaling pathways over the past decade have provided clues for understanding the molecular mechanisms of TRAIL-induced apoptosis in carcinogenesis and identified an array Read More

IL-24, previously known as melanoma differentiation antigen 7 (mda-7), is a member of the IL-10 family of cytokines and is mainly produced by Th2 cells and activated monocytes. Binding of IL-24 to either of its two heterodimeric receptors IL-20R1/IL-20R2 and IL-22R/IL-20R2 triggers phosphorylation and consequently activation of STAT3 and/or STAT1 in target tissues such as lung, testis, ovary, keratinocytes and skin. Read More

Alpha interferons (IFN) are type I IFNs that have pleiotropic effects on cell functions. A wealth of evidence exists that these cytokines exhibit a variety of biological effects different from those on viral replication, including antitumor activity. IFNs-alpha represent the cytokines exhibiting the longest record of use in clinical oncology for the treatment of over a dozen of cancer types, including some hematological malignancies Read More

Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) is a cytokine with well known anticancer properties and is being utilized as anticancer agent for the treatment of patients with locally advanced solid tumors. However, TNF role in cancer biology is debated. In fact, in spite of the wealth of evidence supporting its antitumor activity, the cascade of molecular events underlying TNF-mediated tumor regression observed in vivo is still incompletely eluc Read More

Interleukin-18 (IL-18) is an immunostimulatory cytokine belonging to the IL-1 family. IL-18 can regulate both innate and adaptive immune responses through its effects on natural killer (NK) cells, monocytes, dendritic cells, T cells, and B cells. IL-18 acts synergistically with other pro-inflammatory cytokines to promote interferon-γ (IFN-γ) production by NK cells, T cells, and possibly other cell types. Systemic administration of IL-18 h Read More

Different intervention trials have been so far conducted and others are ongoing to evaluate the effect of increased intake of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) in the prevention of several disorders affecting lungs and airways. They have been focused on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, acute respiratory distress syndrome, acute lung injury, pulmonary fibrosis, alteration of lung function in cystic fibrosis, as well a Read More

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infected hepatitis is the common infectious disease. In the World Conservative Estimate Plan, the number of persons chronically infected with HBV is more than 300 million. Current regimen of treatment is far from satisfactory, as it is associated with certain side effects and viral resistance capacity. Therefore, a serious attention has recently been paid to the design and development of new potent Read More

In recent years, the number of useful chemical biology information of protein-protein interactions in the HIV life cycle and related inhibitors, is growing rapidly, which makes protein-protein interactions a new investigative area for antiviral drug intervention. This review will summarize recent work in this field, mainly focusing on the utilization of small molecules targeted against a variety of protein-protein interactions that hav Read More

In the last decades, the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) has been revolutioned by the introduction into the clinical practice of the selective serotonin (5-HT) reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), following the observation of the unique response of OCD patients to clomipramine. However, if with no doubt the 5-HT system is central to the pharmacological treatment of OCD, it is unlikely that it represents the whole story. In fa Read More

We have designed a number of 2-hydroxy (alkoxy)-2-aryl-4-alkyl-(5,6-alkyl)-morpholines with interesting biological activities, i.e. sympathomimetic, analgesic, drug metabolizing enzyme modulating ability, antioxidant potential, anti-inflammatory and anti-dyslipidemic properties. They are synthesised by reaction of the proper 2-aminoethanol with aryl-bromomethyl-ketone. The intermediate hydroxyaminoketone is spontan Read More

Aneuploidy in the conceptus or fetus, occurs in 5-10% of all pregnancies and is a common reproductive problem in humans. Most aneuploid conceptuses die in utero, resulting in early pregnancy loss. Causes of recurrent miscarriage may include abnormal chromosomes in either partner, particularly translocations, antiphospholipid antibodies and uterine anomalies. Chromosomal aberrations in parents are a major pre-disp Read More

G-quadruplex stabilizing compounds have recently received increased interest due to their potential application as anticancer therapeutics. A significant number of structurally diverse G-quadruplex ligands have been developed. Some of the most potent and selective ligands currently known are macrocyclic structures which have been modeled after the natural product telomestatin or from porphyrin-based ligands dis Read More