Current Molecular Pharmacology - Volume 4, Issue 3, 2011

The main goal of this review is to provide more specific and effective targets for prevention and treatment of insulin resistance and associated atherosclerosis. Modern technologies and medicine have vastly improved human health and prolonged the average life span of humans primarily by eliminating various premature deaths and infectious diseases. The modern technologies have also provided us abundant food and co Read More

Tumor cells display progressive changes in metabolism that correlate with malignancy, including development of a lipogenic phenotype. Highly proliferating cancer cells need to synthesise fatty acids de novo to continually provide glycerophospholipids particularly for membrane production. The synthesised fatty acids are also used for energy production through β-oxidation and lipid modification of proteins. In addition, dereg Read More

Endothelin (ET) is one of the most investigated molecules in vascular biology. Since its discovery two decades ago, several ET isoforms, receptors, signaling pathways, agonists and antagonists have been identified. ET functions as a potent endothelium-derived vasoconstrictor, but could also play a role in vascular relaxation. In endothelial cells, preproET and big ET are cleaved by ET converting enzymes into ET-1, -2, -3 and -4. Read More

The preservation of a functional pancreatic β-cell mass has become a major point of research in type 2 diabetes (T2D) and the future therapies of T2D notably aim at protecting the β-cell from dysfunction and apoptotic death. β-cell proliferation, survival and insulin secretion are regulated by crucial transcription factors which are activated by signalling pathways engaged by nutrients, G-protein coupled receptors or tyrosine ki Read More

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a progressive retinal degenerative disease and a common cause of blindness. In AMD, there are two phenotypes; “atrophic (dry)” and “neovascular (wet)”. The former is characterized by the geographic atrophy due to death of retinal pigment epithelium, and the latter is developed due to choroidal neovascularization. While wet AMD can be treated by the inhibition of vascular e Read More