Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 8, Issue 2, 2001

Sickle cell anemia is a genetic blood disorder arising from a point mutation in the b-globin gene that leads to the replacement of glutamic acid residue by valine at the sixth position of the b-chain of hemoglobin. At low oxygen tension, the mutant hemoglobin, sickle hemoglobin, polymerizes inside the red blood cells into a gel or further into fibers leading to a drastic decrease in the red cell deformability. As a result, micro-vas Read More

Early antidepressant medications e.g. tricyclic antidepressants (TCAs) and monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) are effective because they enhance either noradrenergic or serotonergic mechanisms, or both. Unfortunately, these compounds block cholinergic, histaminergic and alpha 1 adrenergic receptor sites, interact with a number of other medications and bring about numerous undesirable side effects. Several che Read More

Blood coagulation involves a complex cascade of enzymatic reactions, ultimately generating fibrin, the basis of all blood clots. This cascade is comprised of two arms, the intrinsic and extrinsic pathways which converge at factor Xa to form the common pathway. Factor Xa activates prothrombin to thrombin, which in turn catalyzes the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin. Recently, both natural and synthetic factor Xa in Read More

The reductive conversion of ribonucleotides to deoxyribonucleotides by ribonucleotide reductase (RR) is a crucial and rate-controlling step in the pathway leading to the biosynthesis of DNA, since deoxyribonucleotides are present in extremely low levels in mammalian cells. Mammalian ribonucleotide reductase (RR) is composed of two dissimilar proteins, often referred to as R 1 , which contains polythiols and R 2 , which Read More

Citrus flavonoids encompass a diverse set of structures, including numerous flavanone and flavone O- and C-glycosides and methoxylated flavones. Each of these groups of compounds exhibits a number of in vitro and in vivo anti-inflammatory and anticancer actions. These biological properties are consistent with their effects on the microvascular endothelial tissue. Evidence suggests that the biological actions of the citrus flavon Read More

AMPA Receptor antagonists have received considerable attention in recent years. Within the class of excitatory amino acid receptor antagonists AMPA receptor antagonists have shown excellent neuroprotection in several models of cerebral ischemia and neuronal injury. However, poor physical properties have been a major limiting factor in developing these as viable drug candidates. The quinoxaline-2,3-dione template Read More

Malaria, resulting from the parasites of the genus Plasmodium, places an untold burden on the global population. As recently as 40 years ago, only 1 0 percent of the worlds population was at risk from malaria. Today, over 40 percent of the worlds population is at risk. Due to increased parasite resistance to traditional drugs and vector resistance to insecticides, malaria is once again resurgent. An emergent theme from current s Read More

The natural products teleocidins, phorbol esters, asplysiatoxin, ingenol esters, and bryostatins are all potent protein kinase C (PKC) activators. The fact that they act at the same site of PKC implied that these structurally diverse molecules might contain the common structural elements. Several pharmacophores for these compounds have been proposed based on the molecular modeling studied and experimental results. In orde Read More

The development of a series of potent and selective antitumour agents, the 2-(4-aminophenyl) benzothiazoles, is described. The original lead compound in this series, CJM 126, exhibits nanomolar in vitro activity against certain human breast cancer cell lines. Structure-activity relationship studies within this simple antitumour benzothiazole pharmacophore revealed that 2-(4-aminophenyl) benzothiazoles bearing a 3-methyl, Read More

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) and histone acetyltransferase (HAT) are enzymes that influence transcription by selectively deacetylating or acetylating the e-amino groups of lysines located near the amino termini of core histone proteins. It is well-established that in transcriptionally active chromatin, histones generally are hyperacetylated and, conversely, hypoacetylated histones are coincident with silenced chromat Read More