Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 18, Issue 14, 2011

Drug discovery is constantly stimulated by new technologies and new paradigms. Nanotechnology has already had unprecedented impacts on every area of modern technologies, from energy to materials to medicine [1-3], and more impacts and discoveries are still to come. The term “nanomedicine” appeared in the literature only a decade ago, and now it has already become a rapidly advancing research field with fo Read More

Fullerenes as a unique class of carbon allotropes have been studied extensively for their distinctive material properties and potential technological applications, including those in biology and medicine. Since a major focus in the latter has been on drug development and formulation, in this paper we highlight some representative studies related to such a focus, including the use of fullerenes for drug-like functions and for their impr Read More

Over the past decade, diagnostics and therapeutics have changed gradually towards the use of more specific and targeted approaches. The most profound impact has been in the nanotechnology sectors, where an explosion in directing biomolecules to specific biomarkers has illustrated great potentials not only in detection but also in targeted therapy. Increased knowledge of the diseases at the molecular level catalyzed a shift Read More

This review aims to highlight many of the difficulties encountered in trying to achieve the task of delivering proteins and peptides through oral administration. The necessity of controlled protein and peptide release, protection and stability in the gastrointestinal tract, and ability to target specific areas are only a handful of the many problems associated with trying to engineer a useful solution. Current research gives stron Read More

Nanotechnology has provided many promising nanoplatforms for targeted cancer imaging and therapy. Among these platforms, gold nanoparticles (GNPs) play a unique role in medicine because of their excellent physical and chemical properties. To expand the applications of GNPs in medicine, amounts of targeting moieties, imaging labels, and therapeutic agents have been integrated into these particles to form multifunctionali Read More

Tremendous developments in the field of biomedical imaging in the past two decades have resulted in the transformation of anatomical imaging to molecular-specific imaging. The main approaches towards imaging at a molecular level are the development of high resolution imaging modalities with high penetration depths and increased sensitivity, and the development of molecular probes with high specificity. The development Read More

Although nanotechnology is a relatively new scientific field, quite many different products are already introduced in the market containing nanosized particles. A special class of nanosized materials namely the carbon nanotubes (CNT) possesses outstanding new properties and extraordinary potential for creating new products. Carbon nanotubes are already used in various consumer products, industrial applicati Read More

Bacteria are able to adapt to undesirable changes in nutrient availability, environmental conditions and presence of antimicrobial products, as well as to immunological defenses. One particularly important example of bacterial adaptation is the ability to grow as part of a sessile community, commonly referred to as biofilm. It is a natural tendency of microorganisms to attach to biotic or abiotic surfaces, to multiply and to em Read More

In the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) with Bcr-Abl kinase inhibitors, the T315I gatekeeper mutant has emerged as resistant to all currently approved agents, such as imatinib, nilotinib and dasatinib, by discrupting important contact interactions between the inhibitors and the enzyme. To overcome this particular resistance, several different strategies have been explored and many molecules have been investig Read More

The development of novel drugs against obesity is one of the top priorities of worldwide drug research. In recent years, it has been facilitated by the application of virtual screening methods. In this review, we give a short introduction into obesity-related protein targets and computer-aided drug design techniques. Furthermore, we highlight the most successful virtual screening studies, outline their results, and provide sugge Read More

Lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis and loiasis caused by human filarial nematodes are diseases of tropical and subtropical countries causing considerable morbidity. The available control strategies have significant limitations such that current drugs are ineffective against macrofilariae (adult worms), require repeated and prolonged treatment over years and are threatened by emergence of drug resistance. Due to this Read More

Twenty years of effective clinical application have consolidated non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI) as essential components of the Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) employed in the treatment of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). However, as the disease has come under control, there has been growing emphasis on the long-term adverse effects induced by this chronic pharmacological therap Read More

In this review we consider diseases associated with pathological mineralization/ossification, namely, ankylosing spondylitis (AS), osteoarthritis (OA), generalized artery calcification of infancy (GACI), vascular calcification as well as chondrocalcinosis (CC) and pseudo gout. Deciphering the key enzymes implicated in the calcification process is an objective of prime importance and the ultimate goal is to synthesize inhibitors of th Read More