Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 18, Issue 26, 2011

Three years ago, halting of the Merck & Co Inc clinical trial (STEP trial) and subsequent discovery that this HIV vaccine candidate MRK Ad5 HIV-1 gag/pol/nef had no positive impact but actually caused harm in some of the participants generated lots of pessimism in the research community. After the initial shock, it became apparent, however that valuable lessons were learned from this negative experience. For one, it becam Read More

Mucosal tissues are major sites of HIV entry and initial infection. Induction of a local mucosal cytotoxic T lymphocyte response is considered an important goal in developing an effective HIV vaccine. In addition, activation and recruitment of memory CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in systemic lymphoid circulation to mucosal effector sites might provide the firewall needed to prevent virus spread. Therefore a vaccine that gener Read More

The development of an effective HIV vaccine is still hampered by the lack of clearly defined immune correlates of HIV control. Although a number of immune markers have been associated over last years with relative viral control and slower HIV disease progression, these associations are oftentimes complicated by the causality dilemma that does not allow to directly assign cause or effect to the identified parameters. In a Read More

Programmed death-1 (PD-1) is a negative immunoregulatory cell surface receptor molecule whose interaction with its ligands PD-L1 and PD-L2 downmodulates T-cell immune responses. Originally investigated in the context of self-tolerance, PD-1 has more recently been discovered to be upregulated on T cells of HIV-infected individuals. High levels of PD-1 on HIV-infected T cells are correlated with viral load and with a stat Read More

The HIV pandemic continues to be a public health crisis with over 30 million people currently living with the disease and, depending on the estimate, another 2 - 2.8 million infected annually. The disappointing results of the first Phase II study of a highly immunogenic adenovirus-vectored vaccine, named the STEP trial, was a wake up call to both the clinical and preclinical HIV vaccine fields. A vaccine designed only to elicit T cells an Read More

HIV remains one of the most important deadly infections today, due to the lack of a preventive vaccine and limited access to medical care in developing countries. In developed countries antiretroviral therapy is available but the regime is unable to eliminate the virus, implying that life-long therapy is necessary. Dendritic cells (DCs) are important mediators of cellular and humoral immune responses and hence offer a promis Read More

The importance of reactive drug metabolites in the pathogenesis of drug-induced toxicity has been investigated since the early 1950s, mainly to reveal the link between toxic metabolites and chemical carcinogenesis. This review mainly focuses on biologically active compounds, which generate reactive quinone methide (QM) intermediates either directly or after bioactivation. Several examples of anticancer drugs actin Read More

Aberrant activation of the signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) 3 occurs in many human tumors. Constitutive STAT3 activity induces specific target genes that stimulate cell proliferation, prevent apoptosis, promote angiogenesis and facilitate tumor immune evasion. Thus, STAT3 is an attractive molecular target for the development of novel cancer therapeutics. Targeting and disruption of oncogenic STAT3 s Read More

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a significant world health threat with frequently ineffective problem existed in the present treatment, thus representing a major unmet medical need. The nonstructural viral protein 5B (NS5B), one of the best-studied polymerase, has emerged as an attractive target for the development of novel therapeutics against hepatitis C virus. In this work, both ligand- and receptor- based three Read More

Bile acids (BAs) are a family of steroidal molecules derived from cholesterol and biosynthesised in the pericentral hepatocytes of the liver. Structurally they may be regarded as consisting of two components, a rigid steroid nucleus and a short aliphatic side chain terminating in an alcohol or carboxyl group. Traditionally BAs are known for their ability to act as solubilising agents in the gut, aiding in the absorption of Read More

Coenzyme Q10 is a small electron carrier of the respiratory chain with antioxidant properties, widely used for the treatment of mitochondrial disorders. Mitochondrial diseases are neuromuscular disorders caused by impairment of the respiratory chain and increased generation of reactive oxygen species. Coenzyme Q10 supplementation is fundamental in patients with primary coenzyme Q10 deficiency. Furthermore, coenz Read More

As the concepts of pharmaconutrition are receiving increasing attention, it seems essential to clearly assess the effects of specific dietary compounds in specific groups of patients or clinical conditions. We are herein interested in better defining the differential anti-neoplastic effects of the two major n-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids present in fish oil, eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA Read More

This review is the first attempt at systematization and analysis of the literature data (covering the last decade) on the chemical structures and specific activities of cholesterol-regulating agents. Six of thirty currently known biological targets for treating hyperlipidemia were selected and considered. All of the chemical structures under study are divided into two classes with different mechanisms of their activity: cholestero Read More