Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 28, Issue 22, 2021

Background: Major Depressive Disorder(MDD) and its frequent partial response to antidepressants are a major health concern and therefore an important focus of research. Despite the efforts, MDD pathogenesis and the mechanisms of antidepressant action are only partially understood. In the last few years, the need of rethinking the classification of depressive disorders and psychiatric disorders, in general, has been sugge Read More

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) constitute a subpopulation of tumor cells that possess self-renewal and tumor initiation capacity, and the ability to give rise to the heterogeneous lineages of cancer cells that comprise the tumor. CSCs exhibit intrinsic mechanisms of resistance to virtually all conventional cancer therapeutics, allowing them to survive current cancer therapies and to initiate tumor recurrence and metastasis. Di Read More

Cancer is the world’s leading cause of death after heart diseases and involves abnormal cell growth at a primary site and the potential to spread to other parts of the body. Tumors are highly heterogeneous and consist of subgroups of cells with distinct characteristics. Of these, the cancer stem cells (CSC) niche plays a crucial role in driving the spread of the tumor and are thought to provide treatment resistance. CSC is a rare sp Read More

Background: Vaginal drug delivery offers an opportunity for effective microbicide treatments. However, the physiological characteristics of the vagina represent a challenge when preparing microbicide formulations for local delivery that avoid systemic effects. Objective: To review recent advances in vaginal microbicides placing special emphasis on nanocarriers that encapsulate peptide microbicides. The review includes a Read More

Background: COVID-19 has brought the world to its knees, and there is an urgent need for new strategies to identify molecules capable of fighting the pandemic. During the last few decades, NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) spectroscopy has emerged as an intriguing structural biology instrument in the antiviral drug discovery field. Objective: The review highlights how a variety of NMR-based tools can be employed to be Read More

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) is a critical respiratory disease caused by coronaviruses (CoV). The available antiviral agents or host-specific antiinflammatory therapies are the principal treatment modalities, with drug-repurposing as the most viable approach to timely tackle the CoV pandemic. Though these approaches are successful to some extent in reducing the mortality rate, however, it is too far to see a co Read More

Background: The 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), also known as coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) acute respiratory syndrome has recently emerged and continued to spread rapidly with high mortality and morbidity rates. Currently, no efficacious therapy is available to relieve coronavirus infections. As new drug design and development takes time, there is a possibility offindingan effective treatment from existi Read More

Background: The identification of vulnerable subgroups and risk factors associated with the susceptibility to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV- 2) infection and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is of utmost importance in a pandemic scenario. Potential interactions between renin-angiotensin system (RAS), immune markers and COVID-19 play a role in disease outcome in specific groups Read More

Background: The indole framework is considered as one of the privileged structures in the area of medicinal chemistry and drug discovery because compounds containing this framework have shown to possess a remarkable ability to bind with many receptors or proteins with high affinity. It is therefore not surprising that the indole nucleus is a frequently found moiety in many bioactive agents or drugs. Indole derivatives have Read More

Brucellosis caused by bacteria of the genus of Brucella remains a major zoonosis in the wide world, which is an infectious disease with a severe economic impact on animal husbandry and public health. The genus of Brucella includes ten species and the most prevalent is Brucella melitensis. The diagnosis of Brucella melitensis ruminant brucellosis is based on bacteriological and immunological tests. The use of vaccines and th Read More

COVID-19 is an emerging outbreak similar to previous pandemics caused by Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). Till date, SARS-CoV-2 infection is still spreading, representing a major threat to public health, where several control measures are being practiced in order to culminate its spread. The research and development of new drugs require a lot of funding in a Read More

Cell-to-cell transmission of the unfolded protein response (UPR) is one of the most exciting observations recently made in cell biology. One of the most efficient tools to induce UPR response in cell culture is treatment with specific compounds leading to accumulation of misfolded proteins in endoplasmic reticulum. In this article we discussed opposite opinions regarding application of this approach and possible sources of exp Read More