Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 12, Issue 35, 2006

Infection of viruses usually results in considerable mortality and morbidity worldwide for our human beings. Such as notorious HIV virus, it has imperiled the very fabric of human society as no disease in human history has before. It is estimated that deaths from this pandemic will rival those of the bubonic plague, which killed 93 million people. Epidemic infection of any other viruses has been always a deadly dream in human Read More

A severe atypical pneumonia designated as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) by The World Health Organization broke out in China and menaced to more than other 30 countries between the end of the year 2002 and June of the year 2003. A novel coronavirus called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) has been recently identified as the etiological agent responsible for the infectious SARS di Read More

The SARS coronavirus 3C-like proteinase is recognized as a potential drug design target for the treatment of severe acute respiratory syndrome. In the past few years, much work has been done to understand the catalytic mechanism of this target protein and to design its selective inhibitors. The protein exists as a dimer/monomer mixture in solution and the dimer was confirmed to be the active species for the enzyme reactio Read More

Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) first appeared in 2002 in China, which fastly affected about 8000 patients over 29 countries and caused 774 fatalities. As its pathogen was identified as a new kind of coronavirus (SARS_CoV), its genome was quickly sequenced on several isolates. Studies on its functional genomics were performed by combinatorial application of all the available bioinformatics tools and the develop Read More

Coronaviruses (CoVs), a genus containing about 26 known species to date, cause highly prevalent diseases and are often severe or fatal in humans and animals. In 2003, a previously unknown coronavirus was identified to be the etiological agent of a global outbreak of a form of life-threatening pneumonia called severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). No efficacious therapy is currently available, and vaccines and drugs are u Read More

The sweet taste receptor is a heterodimer of two G protein coupled receptors, T1R2 and T1R3. This discovery has increased our understanding at the molecular level of the mechanisms underlying sweet taste. Previous experimental studies using sweet receptor chimeras and mutants show that there are at least three potential binding sites in this heterodimeric receptor. Receptor activity toward the artificial sweeteners aspa Read More

Over forty years have elapsed since Hansch and Fujita published their pioneering work of quantitative structure- activity relationships (QSAR). Following the introduction of Comparative Molecular Field Analysis (CoMFA) by Cramer in 1998, other three-dimensional QSAR methods have been developed. Currently, combination of classical QSAR and other computational techniques at three-dimensional level is of greatest intere Read More

Extensive research suggests that a number of plant-derived chemicals and traditional Oriental herbal remedies possess cognition-enhancing properties. Widely used current treatments for dementia include extracts of Ginkgo biloba and several alkaloidal, and therefore toxic, plant-derived cholinergic agents. Several non-toxic, European herbal species have pan-cultural traditions as treatments for cognitive deficits, including Read More

In recent years sphingolipids have emerged as important signaling molecules regulating fundamental cell responses such as cell death and differentiation, proliferation and aspects of inflammation. Especially ceramide has been a main focus of research since it possesses pro-apoptotic capacity in many cell types. A counterplayer of ceramide was found in sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P), which is generated from ceramid Read More

Hepatorenal syndrome is a severe, but not uncommon complication of decompensated liver cirrhosis. In particular, the rapidly progressive form of hepatorenal syndrome (type 1) is associated with a dismal prognosis. Established hepatorenal syndrome has a spontaneous reversibility below 5%. Hepatorenal syndrome is involved in more than 50% of cirrhosis-related mortality. Thus, any treatment capable of reversing hepatorena Read More

By searching the literatures, it was found that a total of 32 drugs interacting with herbal medicines in humans. These drugs mainly include anticoagulants (warfarin, aspirin and phenprocoumon), sedatives and antidepressants (midazolam, alprazolam and amitriptyline), oral contraceptives, anti-HIV agents (indinavir, ritonavir and saquinavir), cardiovascular drug (digoxin), immunosuppressants (cyclosporine a Read More