Current Medicinal Chemistry - Immunology, Endocrine & Metabolic Agents - Volume 5, Issue 2, 2005

For thousand of years plants provided drugs to therapists, but humans have eaten such compounds at various concentrations in common foods for even more years. It is conceivable that during evolution, phytochemicals shaped the human genoma, as bioactive substances synthesized by plants for their own purposes could produce either harmful or beneficial effects depending on human digestion, absorption and metabolism an Read More

Directing metabolic fluxes in plants for the production of nutraceuticals or fine chemicals (e.g. drug precursors) is becoming increasingly attractive and feasible. We review first recent accomplishments of plant metabolic engineering. Both experimental evidence and theoretical predictions point out that (i) metabolic flux increases require manipulation of most of the enzymes in a biosynthetic pathway, (ii) modulating all enzymes i Read More

Despite the continued development and release of new antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), 20-30% of all patients with epilepsy do not respond to conventional therapy or have related side effects that preclude their continued use. Presently, the most important AEDs used in paediatric population are: phenytoin, carbamazepine, valproic acid, vigabatrin, lamotrigine and topiramate. Their mechanisms of action are only p Read More

Elevated homocysteine is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease, with recent evidence supporting a causal relationship. The exact mechanism by which homocysteine causes vascular disease is unclear, but it may be both atherogenic and thrombogenic. Homocysteine concentration can be influenced by a variety of factors, including, age, sex, genetics, B-vitamin status, disease state and lifestyle. The B- Read More

Phytoestrogens are a large family of plant derived molecules possessing various degrees oestrogen like activity. Food or food supplements containing phytoestrogen are often been advocated as an alternative to hormonal replacement therapy (HRT)in women with contra-indications to the use of conventional oestrogen replacement, or simply wanting a more "natural" alternatives. There have been several studies perfo Read More

Chronic subclinical inflammation is frequently found in chronic degenerative diseases including cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes and obesity. Much evidence suggests that inflammation is pathogenically involved in these diseases. The molecular mechanisms have been recently elucidated and the central role of the nuclear factor κB has been established in orchestrating the multiple cellular respons Read More

One of the most important metabolic actions of insulin is to promote glucose transport in skeletal muscle and adipose tissue. Insulin-stimulated glucose transport in these target tissues is mediated by translocation of the insulinresponsive glucose transporter GLUT4 from an intracellular location to the plasma membrane where GLUT4 facilitates entry of glucose into the cell. Over the past decade, tremendous progress ha Read More

Insulin is largely responsible for the mobilization of dietary glucose in muscle and fat tissues, through exocytosis of glucose transporters from intracellular stores to the plasma membrane. Here we review the current understanding of insulin-induced translocation of GLUT4 in cultured muscle cells expressing myc-tagged GLUT4, and compare and contrast this knowledge with that obtained using adipose cells in culture. Read More

Insulin increases the rate of glucose uptake into muscle and fat cells. Numerous studies provide evidence that this is accomplished through an increase in the cell-surface amount of the facilitative glucose transporter GLUT4. Diverse techniques have been used to document a time-dependent gain in surface GLUT4, often in conjunction with a decrease in its intracellular content. These include subcellular fractionation Read More

The glucose transporters (GLUTs) are currently a 13 member family of facilitative transmembrane proteins which transport glucose down its concentration gradient. The GLUTs have a tissue specific expression and regulation. Dysregulation of GLUTs have been implicated in the pathogenesis of a number of diseases including diabetes and cancer and are known to play an important role in the developing embryo. Read More

The overall objective of this paper is to review the mechanisms by which various metabolic and cellular signals, as well as nuclear transcription factors, regulate the expression and function of the insulin responsive glucose transporter-4 (GLUT4) gene. Reviewing this information will help the reader to understand the molecular processes involved in both glucose homeostasis and the pathogenesis of abnormal metabolic states Read More

The GLUT4 gene is subject to complex tissue-specific and metabolic regulation that has a profound impact on insulin-mediated glucose disposal. The regulation of this gene is of special clinical interest because insulin-mediated glucose homeostasis is highly sensitive to the levels of GLUT4 protein in muscle and adipose tissue. For this reason, the mechanisms of regulated expression of the GLUT4 gene have been intensively Read More