Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 18, Issue 22, 2011

The " 3rd International Conference on Drug Discovery and Therapy" was held from February 7-10, 2011 at Dubai Women's College, UAE. It was a major scientific event with several hundred lectures delivered in 35 thematic sessions, poster presentations and an associated commercial exhibition. The 3rd International Conference on Drug Discovery and Therapy provided renowned scientists the opportunity to present th Read More

Recent progress in understanding of the nitric oxide and cGMP signaling pathway provided evidence for mechanism of action of known drugs and identified novel targets for drug development. These discoveries resulted in numerous efforts in drug and formulation discovery. Some of the most promising approaches were applied for efficient therapies of various diseases.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in the older people and 7th leading cause of death in the United States. Deposition of amyloid-beta (Aβ) plaques, hyperphosphorylation of microtubule associated protein tau (MAPT), neuroinflammation and cholinergic neuron loss are the major hallmarks of AD. Deposition of Aβ peptides, which takes place years before the clinical onset of the disease can trigger hy Read More

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia in the United States and is increasing in prevalence every year throughout the world. Recent clinical trial failures highlight the need for further insights into the molecular events that underlie the neurobiology of AD. Pathological aberrations in AD are believed to result, in part, from excess accumulation of amyloid-beta peptide (Aβ), a product of Aβ precursor prot Read More

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a common disorder in psychiatric practice and drugs are widely used in its treatment, targeting symptom clusters, such as affective dysregulation, impulsive-behavioural dyscontrol, and cognitive-perceptual symptoms. In last period, a growing number of studies on pharmacological treatment of BPD have been performed, but different proposals of treatment guidelines are not completely i Read More

Brain capillary endothelial cells form the blood-brain barrier (BBB) that denotes a major restraint for drug entry to the brain. The identification of many new targets to treat diseases in the brain demands novel thinking in drug design as new therapeutics could often be proteins and molecules of genetic origins like siRNA, miRNA and cDNA. Such molecules are otherwise prevented from entry into the brain unless encapsulated i Read More

The HIV-1 integrase (IN) and reverse transcriptase (RT) are essential enzymes in the virus cycle. RT is crucial for the retrotranscription of the RNA viral genome, while IN is involved in the insertion in host chromosome of the proviral double strand DNA produced by RT. This enzyme has two associated functions: the RNA- and DNA-dependent DNA polymerase (RDDP and DDDP) and the ribonuclease H (RNase H). The RNase H Read More

Aptamers based on nucleic acids are a promising alternative to antibodies in therapy and diagnostics. Several DNA aptamers against human thrombin have been developed by selection from random libraries: a 15-mer and its derivatives, a 29-mer, and a 31-mer. Some of them are patented and already under clinical trial. The 15-mer structure was determined by X-ray and NMR and turned out to be a monomolecula Read More

Thiazolidinediones (TZDs) are a class of drugs used for treatment of type 2 diabetes. However, the therapy with currently available TDZs (e.g. rosiglitazone) is associated with important side effects, such as edema and weight gain, suggesting that the investigation of alternative TZDs with better pharmacological properties is warranted. In this study, we investigated both anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of a ne Read More

The biological role of carbon monoxide (CO) has completely changed in the last decade. Beyond its widely feared toxicity, CO has revealed a very important biological activity as a signaling molecule with marked protective actions namely against inflammation, apoptosis and endothelial oxidative damage. Its direct use as a therapeutic gas showed significant and consistent positive results but also intrinsic severe limitatio Read More

Nature has created an array of superhydrophobic surfaces that possess water-repellent, self-cleaning and anti-icing properties. These surfaces have a number of potential applications in the biomedical industry, as they have the potential to control protein adsorption and cell adhesion. Natural superhydrophobic surfaces are typically composed of materials with a low intrinsic surface free-energy (e.g the cuticular waxes Read More

Nanotechnology and tissue engineering are promising scientific fields in the development of advanced materials useful to human health. This article describes the preparation of a nanocarrier for the controlled release of a photosensitizer compound associated with low-level light therapy for skin wound healing treatment and applicable to other skin diseases. A biological model was used as an in vitro skin equivalent based Read More

Cardiovascular disease is the largest single cause of mortality and its major underlying pathology is atherosclerosis. The proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) is a key event in the pathogenesis of the various vascular diseases, including atherosclerosis and hypertension. Thrombin (Thr) is involved in the abnormal proliferation of VSMCs associated with atherosclerosis and hypertension. ADAMs (A Disintegri Read More

This review describes the breast cancer resistance protein ABCG2 through its structure, functional roles and involvement in cell multidrug resistance, especially in cancer cells resistance to chemotherapeutics. The different types of known inhibitors are described, some being non-selective, since they also bind to other targets, and others being quite specific such as flavonoids. The different classes of active flavonoi Read More

We apply noval techniques, the Scaling Index Method (SIM), which reveals local topology of the structure, and the Minkowski Functionals (MF), which provide four global topological characteristics, to assess strength of the trabecular network of the human bone. We compare capabilities of these methods with the standard analysis, biomechanical Finite Element Method (FEM) and morphological parameters, in prediction of bone st Read More

Type I collagen is the most abundant protein in human body. Fibrosis is characterized by excessive synthesis of type I collagen in parenchymal organs. It is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, about 45% of all natural deaths are attributable to some fibroproliferative disease. There is no cure for fibrosis. To find specific antifibrotic therapy targeting type I collagen, critical molecular interactions regulati Read More

It has been well propounded that there exists five basic taste modalities, e.g., sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami. Recent compelling evidence from rodents and human beings raises the possibility for an additional sixth taste modality devoted to the perception of lipids. A number of studies have suggested that lingual CD36, a glycoprotein, mainly expressed by circumvallate papillae of the tongue, might be implicated in the p Read More

In the search for acetylcholinesterase inhibitors as a potential target for the discovery of anthelmintic drugs, a series of 27 pyridinic and pyrazinic compounds have been designed on the basis of molecular hybridization of two known AChE inhibitors, namely, tacrine and (-)-3-O-acetylspectaline, and on the concept of isosterism. The synthesized compounds generally presented moderate anticholinesterasic activities when compar Read More

Research has been conducted on the chemical and biological properties of combinatorial succinylated derivatives of interferon-γwith various levels of acylation, which create quasi-life, self-organizing ensembles. As a result of the research, it has been established that acylation by succinic anhydride of two lysines in the structure of interferon-γ (Gammaferon) leads to both an increase in its affinity to cell receptors and a dec Read More

Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) play an increasingly important role providing solutions to the significant challenges faced today by both large pharmaceutical and smaller biotechnology companies, not to mention academia. NPOs chartered for the public benefit are common in the USA and in selected other parts of the world. SRI International, originally founded as the Stanford Research Institute in 1946, is one of the lar Read More