Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 18, Issue 17, 2011

This special issue is dedicated to my former and inspired director of Institute of Organic and Pharmaceutical Chemistry of the National Hellenic Research Foundation Dr. N. Oikonomakos who left this short life early. It is also dedicated to the scientists who use the research amour for advancing our knowledge in the treatment of major diseases and rationalize the drug design. Both experimentalists and theoreticians joi Read More

Rational design is applied in the discovery of novel lead drugs. Its rapid development is mainly attributed to the tremendous advancements in the computer science, statistics, molecular biology, biophysics, biochemistry, medicinal chemistry, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics experienced in the last few decades. The promising feature that characterizes the application of rational drug design is that it uses for d Read More

Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death globally. Design of cardiovascular drugs based on new paradigms is therefore a prominent goal of medicinal chemistry. Designed multiple ligands, targeting two or more proteins involved in pathogenesis of disease have become a viable concept in drug discovery. Although adjustment of the activities ratio at the different targets is a demanding and challenging tas Read More

A pharmacophore represents a simple and intuitive concept that can be used in many different drug discovery applications. Ligand-based and structure-based pharmacophore models continue to play a pivotal role in hit discovery and may guide lead optimization. Moreover, owing to the versatility of the pharmacophore concept, pharmacophore modelling has been routinely used in combination with other molecular mod Read More

The AKR1C aldo-keto reductases (AKR1C1-AKR1C4) are enzymes that interconvert steroidal hormones between their active and inactive forms. In this manner, they can regulate the occupancy and trans-activation of the androgen, estrogen and progesterone receptors. The AKR1C isoforms also have important roles in the production and inactivation of neurosteroids and prostaglandins, and in the metabolism of xenobiotics. Read More

The phospholipase A2 (PLA2) superfamily consists of different groups of enzymes which are characterized by their ability to catalyze the hydrolysis of the sn-2 ester bond in a variety of phospholipid molecules. The products of PLA2s activity play divergent roles in a variety of physiological processes. There are four main types of PLA2s: the secreted PLA2s (sPLA2s), the cytosolic PLA2s (cPLA2s), the calcium-independent PLA Read More

Corticotropin releasing factor (CRF), originally isolated from the mammalian hypothalamus, is a 41 amino acid peptide that plays an important physiological role and is implicated in the pathophysiology of various diseases. In addition to CRF and its related peptides, a large number of small non-peptide CRF analogs have been recently synthesized, some currently in clinical trials having considerable therapeutic potential in th Read More

The binding of various molecules to integral membrane proteins with optimal affinity and specificity is central to normal function of cell. While membrane proteins represent about one third of the whole cell proteome, they are a majority of common drug targets. The quest for the development of computational models capable of accurate evaluation of binding affinities, decomposition of the binding into its principal Read More

Virtual Screening (VS) has experienced increased attention into the recent years due to the large datasets made available, the development of advanced VS techniques and the encouraging fact that VS has contributed to the discovery of several compounds that have either reached the market or entered clinical trials. Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) nonstructural protein 5B (NS5B) has become an attractive target for the develop Read More

The knowledge derived from the three-dimensional structure of a macromolecular receptor either in the native form or in complex with different ligands has given new insights to the development of improved drug candidates contributing to the drug development pipeline. The structure-based drug design approach has been tested on a number of macromolecular targets implicated in various diseases such as hypertension, gla Read More

Aluminum is an experimentally demonstrated neurotoxin and the most commonly used vaccine adjuvant. Despite almost 90 years of widespread use of aluminum adjuvants, medical science's understanding about their mechanisms of action is still remarkably poor. There is also a concerning scarcity of data on toxicology and pharmacokinetics of these compounds. In spite of this, the notion that aluminum in vaccines is safe a Read More

Self-assembled amphiphilic graft copolymers in aqueous solution to form polymeric micelles, have received growing scientific attention over the years. Among the polymeric micelles, hydrophobicized polysaccharides have currently become one of the hottest researches in the field of drug delivery nanosystems. It is attributable to such appealing properties as small particle size and narrow size distribution, distinctive core-sh Read More

Tripartite motif protein 5-alpha (TRIM5α) is a cytoplasmic protein that efficiently recognizes the incoming capsid (CA) protein of retroviruses and potently inhibits virus infection in a species-specific manner. Through directly recognizing and interacting with HIV CA, TRIM5α is capable of disrupting the ordered process of viral uncoating, eventually interfering with HIV-1 reverse transcription and virus replication. TRIM5α pr Read More

Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) is a progressive neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by supranuclear palsy, postural instability, and mild dementia. Neuropathologically, PSP is a four-repeat tauopathy, defined by the accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles and tufted astrocytes. Etiology remains elusive, but genetic background has a key-role in the disease pathogenesis. Recent studies have reported high familial Read More

There is evidence that hyperglycemia results in the generation of reactive oxygen species, leading to oxidative stress in various tissues, including vascular system. An important link between oxidative stress, inflammatory response and insulin activity is now well established. The ability of antioxidants to protect against the deleterious effects of hyperglycemia and also to improve glucose metabolism and intake must be con Read More