Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 9, Issue 2, 2002

Multidrug resistance is one of the main obstacles in the chemotherapy of cancer. Its inhibition by combination of chemosensitizers with antitumor compounds is a very active field of research, since safe and potent reversal agents would be beneficial for clinical use. Most modulators act by binding to membrane transport proteins (specially P-gp and MRP) and inhibiting their drug-effluxing activity, or by indirect mechanisms r Read More

Xanthine oxidase (XO) is a highly versatile flavoprotein enzyme, ubiquitous among species (from bacteria to human) and within the various tissues of mammals. The enzyme catalyses the oxidative hydroxylation of purine substrates at the molybdenum centre (the reductive half-reaction) and subsequent reduction of O2 at the flavin centre with generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), either superoxide anion radical or hyd Read More

Cytokines and chemokines play a very important role in a number of inflammatory diseases. In activated T cells, transcription factors such as the activator protein-1 (AP-1) regulate IL-2 production and production of matrix metalloproteinases, the nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) is essential for the transcriptional regulation of the proinflammatory cytokines IL-1, IL-6, IL-8 and TNFα, and nuclear factor of activated T-cells (NFAT) is Read More

One of the most interesting groups of substances of marine origin, from structural and pharmacological points of view are polyether toxins, which generally pre-sent a great diversity in size and potent biological activities. The subject of this review is limited to okadaic acid (OA). It was the first example of a group of polyether toxins produced by marine microalgae, which is responsible for the natural phenomena known as Diarr Read More

A high proportion (∼40%) of breast cancers are hormone dependent. The female hormones estradiol and androstenediol are believed to play a key role in the initiation and promotion of this disease. In the fight against hormone dependent breast cancers, extensive research has been undertaken to produce compounds which are potent inhibitors against the cytochrome P-450 enzyme aromatase (AR), which converts t Read More

A large number of techniques have been applied to monitor the function of free metal ions in biological systems. Fluorescent ion probes have evolved into an extremely useful tool for contemporary experimentalists. Polycarboxylate indicators are widely used in the determination of metal ion concentrations, especially due to their cell membrane permeability. The design of these probes required detailed knowledge in relat Read More