Current Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 9, Issue 6, 2002

This review presents a historical overview of the discoveries of retinoic acid receptor (RAR) and retinoid X receptor (RXR) class- and subtype-selective synthetic retinoids. These synthetic retinoids are conformationally restricted by having aromatic rings in place of the tetraene bond systems of all-trans- and 9-cis- retinoic acids. Events leading to the design and synthesis of such retinoid transcriptional agonists as RAR Read More

This review points out that treatment with essential metalloelement (Cu, Fe, Mn, and Zn) chelates facilitate tissue repair processes required for recovery from radiation injury including survival of lethally irradiated mice and rats. Results of studies pertaining to successful uses of bioavailable essential metalloelement chelates and combinations of them as well as aminothiols, Ca-cannel blockers, acyl Melatonin homologs, substi Read More

The discovery of anandamide as an endogenous ligand for the cannabinoid receptors has led to a resurgence of interest in the fatty acid amides. However, N-palmitoylethanolamine (PEA), a shorter and fully saturated analogue of anandamide, has been known since the fifties. This endogenous compound is a member of the N-acylethanolamines, found in most mammalian tissues. PEA is accumulated during inflam-mation and h Read More

The complex taxon embraced in the Pteridium genus, popularly known as bracken fern and notorious weeds in many parts of the world, is one of the few vascular plants known to induce cancer naturally in animals. It has been known for long to be acutely toxic to livestock and sublethal chronic oral feeding of bracken fronds leads to cancerous lesions in the urinary bladder, or bovine enzootic haematuria (BEH) and ileum Read More

Organic structures with fluorine atom are slightly diffuse in nature.Starting '80s researchers have discovered that the selective introduction of fluorine into biologically active molecules exercised an influence on activity. So an important endeavour in drug design have been described and numerous compounds incorporating fluorine as either a bioisosteric replacement for hydrogen or an isoelectronic replacement for the h Read More

The intracellular cysteine proteinases grouped under the common name of caspases are important participants in the process of programmed cell death called apoptosis. Of the nearly fourteen mammalian members discovered thus far caspase 1 or (interleukin-1β converting enzyme ICE), and possibly other related family members also serve as activator of cytokines. In general, caspases act on a number of cellular targets incl Read More