Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology - Volume 15, Issue 6, 2014

Autoimmune diseases are a large group of diseases with diverse clinical manifestations. They occur due to uncontrolled abnormal immune responses to self tissue and organs. Biologic therapy as a new weapon in the war to against autoimmune diseases is rapidly expanding owning to their specificity, efficacy and safety profiles compared with the traditional non-biologic disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs Read More

Autoimmune liver diseases are chronic inflammatory conditions leading to an etiologically undefined immunemediated attack aimed at hepatocytes and the biliary epithelium. Drugs used in autoimmune liver disease such as ursodeoxycholic acid, prednisolone and azathioprine are not effective in all patients, therefore, new therapeutic approaches are needed for autoimmune liver diseases that are refractory to standard therapy. Read More

Systemic lupus erythematosus is more than a heterogeneous autoimmune disease. It is in fact a syndrome of many different clinical genotypes and phenotypes. This review covers the most recently studied monoclonal antibodies and those currently being investigated. The key trials are summarized, including those for biologics on the market for two decades and those just approved for lupus less than two years ago. The Read More

Interstitial lung disease (ILD) is one of the most common complications of polymyositis (PM) and dermatomyositis (DM). It is always progressive and does not respond to conventional immunosuppressive agent treatment. Biologics are commonly used in treatment of rheumatic diseases. They are also used in polymyositis and dermatomyositis associated interstitial lung disease. This review will focus on the updated use of biologics i Read More

Psoriatic arthritis (PsA) is an inflammatory arthritis, characterized by mild arthralgia to severe joint deformities. Long term management of these diseases with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and diseasemodifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) is limited due to lack of efficacy and potential organ toxicity. Recently, the approval of injectable biologics, such as T cell inhibitors and TNF-α antagonist, has changed th Read More

Primary Sjogren’s Syndrome (pSS) is a systemic inflammatory autoimmune of unknown aetiology affecting exocrine glands, particularly the lacrimal and salivary glands. Growing evidence that B-cell depletion therapies are remarkably efficacious in the disorder indicate a major role for B-cell in the immunopathogenesis of pSS. B cell-targeted therapies have raised new therapy promise for they interact with B-cell homeost Read More

The use of biologic agents has revolutionized the management of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the past two decades. These biologic agents directly target molecules and cells involved in the pathogenesis of RA. Biologic agents indeed lead to a better prognosis and clinical remission in patients with RA, especially in patients who are not well-controlled with traditional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). Currently, f Read More

Systemic sclerosis (scleroderma) is a heterogeneous autoimmune disorder characterized by collagen overproduction that leads to cutaneous and internal organs sclerosis and pulmonary arterial hypertension. SSc has high morbidity and mortality. SSc pathogenesis is uncertain. At present most therapies of SSc are symptomatic. Effective therapeutic approaches are lacking. Accompanying a growing understanding of SSc pathog Read More

Vasculitides are disease in which injury to blood vessels leads to various degrees and types of organ dysfunction. They are subdivided into different groups dependent on the size of blood vessels involved as well as other particular clinical features. Therapy is dependent upon the size of the blood vessels involved and the nature of the disease. For medium and large vessel vasculitides, glucocorticoids, cyclophosphamide, azathiopri Read More

Pharmacological exploitation of natural compounds has continued to lead to development of non-synthetic and non-toxic anticancer agents that are promising at ameliorating the menace of neoplastic diseases such as leukemia. This study is an attempt to determine the chemopreventive and antileukemic activities of ethanol extracts of Moringa oleifera leaves on benzene induced leukemia bearing rats. Leukemia was induced Read More

Amphotericin B (AmB) is regarded as a life-saving drug in treating severe systemic fungal infections. However, the poor solubility and permeability limits its oral administration. The main purpose of this study is to evaluate AmB nanosuspensions in enhancing its solubility for the oral application. Magnetic stirring method with very low energy input, as a top-down technology, was firstly used to prepare the drug nanosuspensions. S Read More

The paper discussed the protective effect of zinc pretreatment on renal ischemia-reperfusion injury (RIRI) and its mechanism. 50 male ICR mice were randomly divided into five groups: sham-operated group, model group, high-dose group with zinc sulfate pretreatment (60mg/kg body weight), medium-dose group with zinc sulfate pretreatment (30mg/kg body weight) and low-dose group with zinc sulfate pretreatment ( Read More

This work extends in vitro screening of antimicrobial activity of the sesquiterpene hydroquinone avarol, a main secondary metabolite of the Mediterranean sponge species Dysidea avara. The antimicrobial activity was in part evaluated by microdilution method against selected bacterial and fungal strains. Additionally, the screening included evaluation of anti-quorum sensing (anti-QS) effects. At a different extent avarol Read More