Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 16, Issue 20, 2010

Pharmacogenomics represents one of the leading emerging translational sciences. It has been rapidly expanding over the past 20 years and especially following the completion of the Human Genome Project and the advent of high-throughput technologies (e.g. microarrays). This has led to a significant accumulation of new information (Fig. 1). Pharmacogenomics, has much to offer to faster drug target identification and Read More

Even though treatment of several types of solid tumors has improved in the past few years with the introduction of molecular targeted agents in the therapeutic armamentarium of the medical oncologist, response rates to these agents are generally modest. Increasing evidence is now revealing that genetic factors are affecting patients' response to these therapeutic agents as well as the frequency and intensity of toxic Read More

Heart disease represents the primary cause of death worldwide, with mortality rates being predicted to remain constant within the next couple of decades. Cardiac disease treatment currently includes the administration of drugs, predominantly aiming at improving heart performance, through controlling heart rhythm, blood pressure, as well as reducing cholesterol and blood clotting. Despite, however, the medical advances tha Read More

It is known that the frequency of men and women suffering from stress-related neuropsychiatric disorders is all but proportionally distributed. Notably, women are far more susceptible than men in the precipitation of depressive symptomatology. Some studies attribute this sex-specific vulnerability to the pronounced genetic predisposition that women may present towards the development of depressive disorders. Furth Read More

The completion of the human genome sequencing project and the establishment of new methods for the detection of point mutations have lead to a remarkable increase of sequence variants identification in a growing number of genes. As a result of this, a new field of research has emerged, pharmacogenomics, which deals with the influence of genetic variation on drug response by correlating gene expression or single-nucle Read More

Inter-individual variations in drug response are all-too common and, throughout medical history have often posed problems, many of them serious ones. The variations could stem from multiple factors, which include those of both the host (age, genetic and environmental factors) and disease (pathophysiological phenotypes, somatic mutations in case of cancers). The complex interplay of these factors can influence pharmaco Read More

Systems biology has emerged as a major trend in biological research during the past decade. As living organisms are described in more and more detail, it aims at filling the gap between understanding basic molecular processes and complex biological systems in which new properties often emerge from the combination of these elementary processes. This approach culminates in the development of computer-based mathe Read More

Understanding of the roles of RNAs within the cell has changed and expanded dramatically during the past few years. Based on fundamentally new insights it is now increasingly possible to employ RNAs as highly valuable tools in molecular biology and medicine. At present, the most important therapeutic strategies are based on non-coding regulatory RNAs inducing RNA interference (RNAi) to silence single genes, and on modul Read More

Carbohydrates have been revealed to play fundamental roles in diverse biological phenomena, such as being recognition sites and biomarkers. Recently, ample nucleic acid aptamers guided for carbohydrate recognition have already been isolated and characterized through SELEX methodology. This review would like to present and discuss these aptamers toward recognizing various carbohydrate targets: monosacc Read More

Since the 1960's much research has focused on biofilms, i.e. microbial-derived populations irreversibly attached to a surface and embedded in a self-produced polymeric matrix. In this matrix, microbial cells are protected from detrimental external factors such as heat, UV radiation and the host immune system. The most relevant biofilm-related property is the unusual high resistance to antimicrobial therapy, although the or Read More