Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 21, Issue 12, 2014

Despite significant advances in early diagnosis and treatment, skin cancer is one of the leading causes of death. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a new therapeutic modality that is emerging as an important resource against malignant tumors. This strategy is based on the action of photosensitizers, i.e. of molecules which may accumulate preferentially inside tumor cells where they exert a cytotoxic effect after excit Read More

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection affects about 160 million people worldwide. It is treated with pegylatedinterferon (peg-IFN) and ribavirin, and in the case of patients affected by genotype 1, also with a protease inhibitor (telaprevir or boceprevir). Despite a good success rate, IFN-based combinations are contraindicated in several patients (e.g. decompensated cirrhosis, patients with psychiatric disorders, severe heart dis Read More

The ongoing emergence of bacterial strains resistant to even third- and fourth-generation β-lactam antibiotics is one of the most pressing and challenging issues in clinical therapy. Furthermore, under the pressure of antibiotics used ubiquitously over the last 80 years, functional mutations and new resistances are continuously increasing. Therefore, new drugs and new approaches to the infections produced by multidrug-re Read More

Cholesterol gallstone disease is one of the most prevalent and the most costly digestive diseases in Western countries. Its pathogenesis is a complex paradigm resulting from the interaction of genetic factors, hepatic hypersecretion of cholesterol, increased intestinal absorption of cholesterol, a constantly “supersaturated” bile, crystallization of biliary cholesterol, and gallbladder stasis. De novo cholesterol biosynthe Read More

It is widely believed that Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis is driven by the production and deposition of the amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) in the brain. In this study, we employ a combination of in silico and in vitro approaches to investigate the inhibitory properties of selected arginine-rich D-enantiomeric peptides (D-peptides) against amyloid aggregation. The D-peptides include D3, a 12-residue peptide with anti-amyloid pote Read More

Cationic peptides (polylysines and polyarginines) are being developed as drug delivery systems to nuclei. Therefore, a detailed description of tissue response changes upon the application of cationic peptides over intact basement membranes of excitable tissue is of interest in pharmacology. In this paper we examine the effects of two naturally occurring cationic peptides protamine (polyarginine) and crotamine (polylysine) on th Read More