Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 26, Issue 8, 2019

With the emergence of nanotechnology, new methods have been developed for engineering various nanoparticles for biomedical applications. Nanotheranostics is a burgeoning research field with tremendous prospects for the improvement of diagnosis and treatment of various cancers. However, the development of biocompatible and efficient drug/gene delivery theranostic systems still remains a challenge. Green synth Read More

Epigenetics is defined as somatically inheritable changes that are not accompanied by alterations in DNA sequence. Epigenetics encompasses DNA methylation, covalent histone modifications, non-coding RNA as well as nucleosome remodeling. Notably, abnormal epigenetic changes play a critical role in cancer development including malignant transformation, metastasis, prognosis, drug resistance and tumor recurrence, w Read More

Precision medicine is in an urgent need for public healthcare. Among the past several decades, the flourishing development in nanotechnology significantly advances the realization of precision nanomedicine. Comparing to well-documented nanoparticlebased strategy, in this review, we focus on the strategy using enzyme instructed selfassembly (EISA) in biological milieu for theranostics purpose. In principle, the design o Read More

Intelligent polymeric nanogels, with the rationally designed stimuli-responsive drug delivery and controlled drug release, have attracted considerable attention as an ideal nanoplatform for activatable therapy. On the other hand, functional inorganic nanomaterials are widely used as medical imaging agents due to their unique magnetic or optical properties. The construction of stimuli-responsive polymeric nanogels in Read More

An emerging focus in nanomedicine is the exploration of multifunctional nanocomposite materials that integrate stimuli-responsive, therapeutic, and/or diagnostic functions. In this effort, cysteine-rich proteins have drawn considerable attention as a versatile platform due to their good biodegradability, biocompatibility, and ease of chemical modification. This review surveys cysteine-rich protein-based biomedical materi Read More

Phototherapies including photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT) have emerged as one of the avant-garde strategies for cancer treatment. Photoacoustic (PA) imaging is a new hybrid imaging modality that shows great promise for real-time in vivo monitoring of biological processes with deep tissue penetration and high spatial resolution. To enhance therapeutic efficacy, reduce side effects and m Read More

The development of materials, chemistry and genetics has created a great number of systems for delivering antibiotics, neuropeptides or other drugs to neurons in neuroscience research, and has also provided important and powerful tools in neuron-related applications. Although these drug delivery systems can facilitate the advancement of neuroscience studies, they still have limited applications due to various drawbacks, s Read More

Multiple, both endogenous and exogenous, sources may induce DNA damage and DNA replication stress. Cells have developed DNA damage response (DDR) signaling pathways to maintain genomic stability and effectively detect and repair DNA lesions. Serine/ threonine kinases such as Ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) and Ataxia-telangiectasia and Rad3-Related (ATR) are the major regulators of DDR, since after sens Read More

Cancer is a heterogeneous disease with a high degree of diversity between and within tumors. Our limited knowledge of their biology results in ineffective treatment. However, personalized approach may represent a milestone in the field of anticancer therapy. It can increase specificity of treatment against tumor initiating cancer stem cells (CSCs) and cancer progenitor cells (CPCs) with minimal effect on normal cells and ti Read More

DNA double-strand breaks are considered one of the most lethal forms of DNA damage. Many effective anticancer therapeutic approaches used chemical and physical methods to generate DNA double-strand breaks in the cancer cells. They include: IR and drugs which mimetic its action, topoisomerase poisons, some alkylating agents or drugs which affected DNA replication process. On the other hand, cancer cells are mo Read More

Infections with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, are difficult to treat using currently available chemotherapeutics. Clinicians agree on the urgent need for novel drugs to treat tuberculosis. In this mini review, we summarize data that prompts the consideration of DNA repair-associated proteins as targets for the development of new antitubercular compounds. We discuss data, including gene expre Read More