Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 19, Issue 17, 2012

The use of chelating agents to remove toxic metal ions in different human pathologies has been largely developed in the last thirty years. Up to now, the most studied chelators are those concerning the treatment of iron overload in β-talassemia, and, in a minor extent, of copper in Wilson’s disease. Nowadays the relevance of the research on chelators has furthermore increased for its applications in neurodegenerative dise Read More

Radiopharmaceuticals constitute diagnostic and therapeutic tools for both clinical and preclinical applications. They are a blend of a tracer moiety that mediates a site specific accumulation and an effector: a radioisotope whose decay enables either molecular imaging or exhibits cytotoxic effects. Radioactive halogens and lanthanides are the most commonly used isotopes for radiopharmaceuticals. Due to their ready availa Read More

The study of iron chelators as anti-tumor agents is still in its infancy. Iron is important for cellular proliferation and this is demonstrated by observations that iron-depletion results in cell cycle arrest and also apoptosis. In addition, many iron chelators are known to inhibit ribonucleotide reductase, the iron-containing enzyme that is the rate-limiting step for DNA synthesis. Desferrioxamine is a well known chelator used for Read More

The opportunistic fungal pathogen, Candida albicans, causes a range of diseases in susceptible individuals. The adverse sideeffects of many of the current anti-fungal prescription drugs and the emergence of C. albicans isolates and other Candida species which are resistant to these compounds have accelerated the search for new drug candidates which have different modes of action. A family of metal chelators, which are base Read More

Infections caused by resistant microorganisms often fail to respond to conventional therapy, resulting in prolonged illness, increased treatment costs and greater risk of death. Consequently, the development of novel antimicrobial drugs is becoming more demanding every day since the existing drugs either have too many side-effects or they tend to lose effectiveness due to the selection of resistant strains. In view of the Read More

In this work, latest reports about metal toxicity, transport and homeostasis have been thoroughly described and discussed. Although diseases associated with transport and homeostasis abnormalities are those of great interest, still a variety of the phenomena associated with these processes are under debate. In this paper, we try to summarize the newest theses on this topic, presenting contradictory points of view. Read More

It has become apparent in the last years that metal ion homeostasis and its dysfunction which results in increased accumulation in brain, notably of copper, iron and zinc, may be associated with a number of neurodegenerative diseases, such that chelation therapy may be one therapeutic option. We briefly outline chelators currently available together with strategies to develop new chelators capable of crossing the blood-b Read More

This review is focused on recent developments on hydroxypyri(mi)dines, as aluminum and actinide chelating agents to combat the toxicity due to accumulations of these metal ions in human body resulting from excessive metal exposure. After a brief update revision of the most common processes of aluminum (Al) exposure, as well as the associated toxicities and pathologies, we will focus on the current available Al chelat Read More

In this paper we took into examination the use of chelation therapy for treating metal intoxication in humans. We divided this paper in four main parts: before all the principal causes of toxicity are exposed; second the chemical requirements (thermodynamic and kinetic), the interactions with the endogenous molecules and the target organs, as well as the biomedical restraints; as a third step the classes of chelators in use alo Read More

The first successful therapeutic iron chelator was desferrioxamine which was introduced in the late 1960’s by Ciba (now Novartis). Desferrioxamine has been an extremely successful compound having received the MMW “Pharmaceutical of the year” award for 1991. It is a life saving and a life – prolonging drug which improves the quality of life. However it is not orally active and its administration is both uncomfortable and expen Read More

Oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction have been identified by many workers as key pathogenic mechanisms in ageing-related metabolic, cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases (for example diabetes mellitus, heart failure and Alzheimer’s disease). However, although numerous molecular mechanisms have been advanced to account for these processes, their precise nature remains obscure. This auth Read More