Current Pharmaceutical Biotechnology - Volume 15, Issue 8, 2014

Objective: We sought to evaluate the safety of imipenem and meropenem in the treatment of infections in neurosurgical patients. Methods: An observational retrospective study was conducted of consecutive cases treated with imipenem from Sept. 2007 to Sept. 2009 and meropenem within 1 year from Sept. 2008 in Beijing Tiantan Hospital, China. Data including the dosage and duration of the drug use, occurrence of s Read More

An in silico screening method for novel dipeptides from a dipeptide training set was performed. A 3D pharmacophore model with three H-bond acceptor projections (Acc2), and one H-bond donor projection (Don2) was obtained. To validate the pharmacophore model, a test set containing 10 reported dipeptides was screened and all were found to be bioactive. Eleven novel dipeptides (IF, GD, DA, TE, TA, ES, SS, ST, SD, QD, QE Read More

Platonin, a photosensitizing dye, is known to possess antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity. Platonin has been used to treat trauma, ulcers and some acute inflammations and it also reported to improve blood circulation and reduce mortality in endotoxin-induced rat models. Our previous studies established that platonin suppresses the lipopolysaccharides (LPS)-induced inflammatory cytokines, including interleukin-1β (IL-1 Read More

Gene delivery into cells offers opportunities to treat various human genetic diseases. Effective gene delivery is dependent on its stability and ability to transfect across cells. DNA is susceptible to enzymatic degradation and its negatively charge are barriers towards successful transfection. DNA has to be protected from degradation and neutralised. Non-viral vectors are preferred carrier systems, therefore, the use of cyclodextri Read More

Staphylococcus aureus is a leading causative agent in sepsis, endocarditis, and pneumonia. An emerging concept is that prognosis worsens when the infecting S. aureus strain has the capacity to not only colonize tissue as an extracellular pathogen, but to invade host cells and establish intracellular bacterial populations. In previous work, we identified host CDC42 as a central regulator of endothelial cell invasion by S. aur Read More

The activities of carnosine (β-alanyl-L-histidine), carnosine imidazole containing dipeptide based derivatives (N-acetylcarnosine, carcinine, homocarnosine) and a carnosine degrading enzyme (serum carnosinase (EC 3.4.13.20); [human tissue carnosinase (EC 3.4.13.3), CN2 (CNDP2)] ) activities have been discrepantly linked to neuropathophysiological processes. Approximately 82% of the U.S. population will experience Read More