Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 26, Issue 16, 2019

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) is a progressive respiratory disorder characterized by irreversible chronic inflammation and airflow obstruction. It affects more than 64 million patients worldwide and it is predicted to become the third cause of death in the industrialized world by 2030. Currently available therapies are not able to block disease progression and to reduce mortality, underlying the need for a better u Read More

Asthma is a heterogeneous disease characterized by chronic airway inflammation that results in a wide spectrum of clinical manifestations. Patients with severe asthma represent a substantial share of consumption of healthcare resources and hospitalization. Moreover, these patients are at risk of increased morbidity and mortality. Recently, several phenotypes and endotypes of asthma have been identified. The identification of s Read More

Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory disease characterized by synovial inflammation and hyperplasia, autoantibody production, cartilage and bone destruction and several systemic features. Cardiovascular, pulmonary, psychological, and muscle involvement are the main comorbidities of RA and are responsible for the severity of the disease and long-term prognosis. Pharmacological treatment of rheumati Read More

Despite recent advances in Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (PAH) treatment, this condition is still characterized by an extremely poor prognosis. In this review, we discuss the use of newly-approved drugs for PAH treatment with already known mechanisms of action (macitentan), innovative targets (riociguat and selexipag), and novel therapeutic approaches with initial up-front combination therapy. Secondly, we describe new Read More

Deposition of amyloidogenic proteins leading to the formation of amyloid fibrils in the myocardium causes cardiac amyloidosis. Although any form of systemic amyloidosis can affect the heart, light-chain (AL) or transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR) account for the majority of diagnosed cardiac amyloid deposition. The extent of cardiac disease independently predicts mortality. Thus, the reversal of arrest of adverse cardiac remo Read More

Background: Guanine-rich DNA can fold into highly stable four-stranded DNA structures called G-quadruplexes (G4). In recent years, the G-quadruplex field has blossomed as new evidence strongly suggests that such alternately folded DNA structures are likely to exist in vivo. G4 DNA presents obstacles for the replication machinery, and both eukaryotic DNA helicases and polymerases have evolved to resolve and copy Read More

G4 DNA is a non-canonical DNA structure consisting of a stacked array of Gquartets held together by base pairing between guanine bases. The formation of G4 DNA requires a cluster of guanine-runs within a strand of DNA. Even though the chemistry of this remarkable DNA structure has been under investigation for decades, evidence supporting the biological relevance of G4 DNA has only begun to emerge and point to ve Read More

Some DNA or RNA sequences rich in guanine (G) nucleotides can adopt noncanonical conformations known as G-quadruplexes (G4). In the nuclear genome, G4 motifs have been associated with genome instability and gene expression defects, but they are increasingly recognized to be regulatory structures. Recent studies have revealed that G4 structures can form in the mitochondrial genome (mtDNA) and potential G4 Read More

Ganglioside GM3 is strongly related with human tumors, such as lung, brain cancers and melanomas, and more and more evidences have revealed that GM3 possesses powerful effects on cancer development and progression. GM3 is over expressed on several types of cancers, and can be as a tumor-associated carbohydrate antigen, used for immunotherapy of cancers. GM3 can also inhibit tumor cells growth by anti-angiogene Read More

Homocysteine (Hcy) is a thiol group containing the amino acid, which naturally occurs in all humans. Hcy is degraded in the body through two metabolic pathways, while a minor part is excreted through kidneys. The chemical reactions that are necessary for degradation of Hcy require the presence of folic acid, vitamins B6 and B12. Consequently, the level of the total Hcy in the serum is influenced by the presence or absen Read More

Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease (ADPKD), the most common monogenic kidney disease, is caused by mutations in the PKD1, PKD2 or, in a very limited number of families, GANAB genes. Although cellular and molecular mechanisms of this disease have been understood in the past 20 years, specific therapy approaches remain very little. Both experimental and clinical studies show that the mammalian or mech Read More

Vectors are living organisms that transmit infectious diseases from an infected animal to humans or another animal. Biological vectors such as mosquitoes, ticks, and sand flies carry pathogens that multiply within their bodies prior to delivery to a new host. The increased prevalence of Vector-Borne Diseases (VBDs) such as Aedes-borne dengue, Chikungunya (CHIKV), Zika (ZIKV), malaria, Tick-Borne Disease (TBD), and s Read More