Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 10, Issue 27, 2004

This issue of Current Pharmaceutical Design, for which I have the great pleasure to be Executive Guest Editor, addresses topical issues relating to the pathogenesis and treatment of the diabetic microvascular complications, retinopathy and nephropathy. Wilkinson-Berka and Fletcher [1] discuss the role of the renin-angiotensin and kallikrein-kinin systems in vascular and neuroglial dysfunction in diabetic retinopathy. Evidence fro Read More

The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) and kallikrein-kinin system (KKS) are complex pathways linked by a number of molecules that participate in both systems. Apart from modulating a variety of normal physiological processes, both the RAS and KKS are up-regulated following tissue injury where they influence vascular function, inflammation, cell growth and differentiation and angiogenesis. The RAS exerts its effects by the Read More

The pathogenetic agents involved in the development of diabetic retinopathy are diverse. In the setting of hyperglycaemia and retinal hypoxia a number of vasoactive factors may interact to promote pathology in a variety of cell types including the microvasculature, neurons and glia. Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is universally accepted as a primary factor in the regulation of vessel patency in vascular net Read More

Diabetic retinopathy remains the most common microvascular complication suffered by diabetic patients and is the leading cause of registerable blindness in the working population of developed countries. The clinicopathological lesions of diabetic retinopathy have been well characterised and although a multitude of pathogenic mechanisms have been proposed, the underlying dysfunctional biochemical and molecular pathway Read More

Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in diabetic nephropathy have been extensively researched over the last decade and are now firmly established as major players in this disease. The enigma remains the search for the ideal AGE inhibition therapy, which is a great challenge in the context of the structural diversity inherent to AGE chemistry. Certainly, there is a requirement to standardize measurements of circulati Read More

Ongoing investigation into the relationship between the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) and the progression of diabetic renal disease has persisted for the past two decades. Experimental and clinical evidence suggests that the RAS has a pathogenic role, induced by its haemodynamic and non-haemodynamic mechanisms. The discovery of a local intrarenal RAS provides a rationale for investigating the components of RAS, speci Read More

At present, diabetic kidney disease affects about 15-25 % of patients with type 1 diabetes (T1D) and 30-40 % of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D). Several decades of extensive research have elucidated various pathways to be implicated in the development of diabetic kidney disease. These include metabolic factors beyond blood glucose (e.g. advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs)), haemodynamic factors (e.g. the renin an Read More

Risk factors for the microvascular complications (nephropathy and retinopathy) of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes mellitus and the associated accelerated atherosclerosis include: age, diabetes duration, genetic factors, hyperglycaemia, hypertension, smoking, inflammation, glycation and oxidative stress and dyslipoproteinaemia. Hypertriglyceridaemia, low HDL and small dense LDL are common features of Type 2 diabetes Read More

The modern pharmaceutical industry based on synthetic chemistry severed the historical connection between plants, food and medicines. The growing costs of discovering new chemical entity-based drugs through high throughput screening methods may yet again reconnect plants and human health at a new level of technological sophistication. Multicomponent botanical therapeutics that comprise functional foods, diet Read More

Eph receptors are a unique family of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTK) that play critical roles in embryonic patterning, neuronal targeting, and vascular development during embryogenesis. In adults, Eph RTKs and their ligands, the ephrins, are frequently overexpressed in a variety of cancers and tumor cell lines, including breast, prostate, non-small cell lung and colon cancers, melanomas, and neuroblastomas. Unlike Read More