Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 14, Issue 6, 2008

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are a family of enzymes that regulate chromatin remodeling and gene transcription. They consequently control critical cellular processes, including cell growth, cell cycle regulation, DNA repair, differentiation, proliferation, and apoptosis. Histone deacetylases are known to play an important role in the regulation of gene expression by catalyzing the deacetylation of the acetylated e-amino grou Read More

Histones undergo extensive posttranslational modifications that affect gene expression. Acetylation is a key histone modification that is primarily regulated by two enzymes, one of which is histone deacetylase (HDAC). The activity of HDAC causes transcriptional silencing of DNA. Eleven distinct zinc-dependent histone deacetylase isoforms have been identified in humans. Each isoform has a unique structure and function, and re Read More

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) catalyze the deacetylation of the acetylated lysine residues of histones and non-histone proteins, and are involved in various fundamental life phenomena, such as gene expression and cell cycle progression. Thus far, eighteen HDAC family members have been identified and they can be divided into two categories, i.e., zinc-dependent enzymes (HDAC1-11) and NAD+-dependent enzymes (SIRT1- Read More

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are one of two counteracting enzyme families whose activity controls the acetylation state of lysine protein residues, notably those contained in the N-terminal extensions of the core histones. Deregulation of the acetylation state of specific lysine residues has been implicated in a multitude of biologic processes, notably cancer, where HDACs are known to be involved in the control of cell cycle progre Read More

Histone deacetylases (HDACs) are enzymes that deacetylate acetyl lysines in histones and various non-histone proteins. Three classes of histone deacetylases have been described in humans: class I, II and IV were shown to be zinc dependent amidohydrolases and eleven subtypes are known today (HDAC1-11). Class III enzymes depend in their catalysis on NAD+ with the subsequent formation of nicotinamide and O-acetyl-ADP Read More

Fibrate derivatives have a 40-year history in the management of dyslipidemia. Although this class of drugs is generally well tolerated, several safety issues have arisen from their use. In the present article we review the literature describing side effects associated with the use of fibrates except for those that are liver and muscle related. These effects are less well known but are clinically relevant.

Understanding the interactions between protein receptor-ligand pairs is of great pharmaceutical interest for structure-based drug design. It has become apparent that identifying interesting ligand-receptor pairs by computational techniques can offer new insights into functional studies of uncharacterized proteins. More importantly, the matching protein families of ligands and their receptors make it possible more easily to Read More

Chlamydiae are important human pathogens which are leading causative agents for a variety of disease conditions including ocular, respiratory and sexually transmitted diseases, thus causing significant morbidity worldwide. Many of the human diseases caused by Chlamydia species are considered to be immunopathologically mediated. Toll like receptors (TLRs) have emerged as one of the major components of the immu Read More