Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 20, Issue 6, 2013

Ischemic insults and neurodegenerative diseases are by far the leading cause of mortality and disability. Whole-body hypoperfusion, as it occurs in polytraumatic and hemorrhagic shock, is alike an increasingly frequent condition, especially due to traffic accidents, wars and acts of terrorism. It is now clearly established that inflammatory processes play a fundamental role in the pathophysiology of both hypoperfusion/ischemia da Read More

In spite of the unquestionable positive impact of HAART in the treatment of HIV infection, the discovery and development of novel agents directed towards other targets of the replicative cycle of the virus that differ from those targeted by the clinically approved drugs, emerges nowadays as an imperative need. The blockade of HIV entry is a highly promising strategy against the pathogen and glycoprotein gp120 is a central acto Read More

In recent years, there has been escalating interest in the biomedical applications of nanoparticles (NPs). In particular, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are increasingly being investigated as tools for novel cancer therapeutics, capitalizing on their unique properties to enhance potential therapeutic efficacy. However, questions as to are we able to contain or control the toxicity effects of AgNPs, and how much do we know about the t Read More

This review summarized the progress of glyconanoparticles in the aspects of types, synthesis, and applications for recent five years. A major challenge in the development of Au glyconanoparticles for the study of cellular interactions is to span the cellular membrane, which is used for the drug delivery. A majority of glyco-functionalized quantum dots have been utilized as fluorescent probes for biolabeling, imaging and bios Read More

Elemental analysis can be applied in the medical field to investigate the causes of disease. In patients with some pulmonary diseases, elements can be found in the exogenous dust deposited in the lungs and are also accumulated through the loss of cell homeostasis. Diseases induced by inhalation of dust typically affect the lungs. Although there are many pulmonary diseases induced by dust inhalation, it is often difficult t Read More

the present review focuses on the synthesis and biological evaluation of polycyclic 4(3H)-quinazolinones containing fused aromatic or heteroaromatic rings. The first part of the review is related to compounds with ring fused to the pyrimidine part of the quinazoline core. Most of the quinazolinone alkaloids belong to this class of molecules. The second part presents molecules bearing extra ring(s) fused to the benzo m Read More

The term multivalency (polyvalency) in the biological science is defined as the simultaneous binding of multiple ligands to one receptor (or multiple receptors to one ligand). The possibility of gaining potency and selectivity was significantly increased through the use of multivalent ligand as a homo- or hetero-dimer, thus multivalent ligands provided a more attractive strategy to design novel anti-HIV agents with therapeutic ap Read More

Urinary bladder cancer is a common malignancy in industrialized countries. More than 90% of bladder cancer originates in the transitional cells. Bladder transitional cancer prognosis is, according to the most recent definition related to the level of tumor infiltration, characterized by two main phenotypes, Non Muscle Invasive Bladder Transitional Cancer (NMIBC) and Muscle Invasive Bladder Transitional Cancer (MIBC). The gene Read More

Methods using fluorogenic peptide substrates have been proposed for screening of proprotein convertase (PC) inhibitors and they are attractive since they offer the advantage of being sensitive, cost-effective and susceptible to miniaturization. Several polyphenols, including epigallocatechin gallate ((-)EGCG), the main component of green tea, and quercetin, widely distributed in fruit and vegetables, however, led to false posit Read More