Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 14, Issue 21, 2008

This special issue of Current Pharmaceutical Design is focussed on innovative therapeutical approaches for hematological malignancies based on molecular targeted therapies. Macor group [1] summarizes recent advances in human tumor xenograft models for moving toward more clinically relevant models, which are essential for characterizing potential therapeutic targets in cancer therapy, including hematological maligna Read More

B-cell malignancies account for over the 90% of all lymphoid neoplasms. The clonal proliferations of B-cells show a high degree of variation in terms of clinical and presenting features, histopathology, immuophenotype, and genetics. Primary tumor samples are useful for examining the characteristics of a patient's own tumor, although both primary leukemic cells and cell lines provide an initial step for screening novel co Read More

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are an abundant class of approximately 22-nucleotide-noncoding RNAs, which play important regulatory roles in animal and plant development: they are involved in gene expression at the posttranscriptional level by degrading or blocking translation of messenger RNA (mRNA) targets. miRNAs can induce RNA cleavage and chromatin modifications, and are implicated in apoptotic pathways and regulatio Read More

There is much interest in the potential use of Cox-2 selective inhibitors in combination with other cancer therapeutics. Malignancies of hematopoietic and non-hematopoietic origin often have increased expression of cyclooxygenase- 2 (Cox-2), a key modulator of inflammation. For example, hematological malignancies such as chronic lymphocytic leukemia, chronic myeloid leukemia, Hodgkin's lymphoma, non-Hodg Read More

Synthetic anticancer alkylphospholipids (APLs), such as edelfosine, miltefosine and perifosine, are a group of structurally related lipids that act on cellular membranes rather than the DNA. APLs have essentially one long hydrocarbon chain that allows easy partitioning into membrane lipid bilayers, but they resist catabolic degradation. APLs therefore accumulate in cell membranes and can interfere with normal lipid metab Read More

The serine/threonine protein kinase C (PKC) family, the main target of tumor-promoting phorbol esters, is functionally associated to cell cycle regulation, cell survival, malignant transformation, and tumor angiogenesis. Although PKC isozymes represent an attractive target for novel anticancer therapies, our knowledge of PKC in tumorigenesis is still only partial and each PKC isoform may contribute to tumorigenesis i Read More

Molecular targeted therapies have changed the landscape of cancer research. Agonistic monoclonal antibodies (MoAbs) targeting TRAIL-death receptors (TRAIL-Rs) have been developed and currently used in clinical trials. Binding of such antibodies to TRAIL-R1 and TRAIL-R2 results in death inducing signalling complex (DISC) formation and induction of apoptosis, which represents a natural mechanism of cell growth control a Read More

At variance to solid tumors, which show percentage of p53 deletions and/or mutations close to 50%, more than 80% of haematological malignancies express wild-type p53 at diagnosis. Therefore, activation of the p53 pathway by antagonizing its negative regulator murine double minute 2 (MDM2) might offer a new therapeutic strategy for the great majority of haematological malignancies. Recently, potent and sel Read More

The present review discusses the mechanism of late stent thrombosis and its distinction from restenosis and summarizes the advisory note issued by FDA on the proper usage of different treatments available for atherosclerosis. In light of the latest developments, a plethora of new stents have been and continue to be developed globally. Hence, there is a need to review the available methodology to control their quality and to u Read More

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most frequent diseases that affects women in their reproductive age. The heterogeneity of PCOS makes not only the diagnosis but also the choice of an adequate treatment difficult. The biguanide, N, N’ dimethyl-biguanide : Metformin is an antidiabetic drug that increases glucose utilization in insulinsensitive tissues and is useful in the reduction of both insulin resistance and c Read More