Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 17, Issue 18, 2011

Cardiovascular disease is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in the developed countries, and it accounted for over 600,000 deaths (25% of total mortality) in the U.S. in 2006 [1]. However, despite significant progress in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases, the mortality rate from heart failure still remains very high. Because cardiac hypertrophy is associated with most forms of heart failure, the mechanisms a Read More

Nitric oxide (NO) is produced in almost all tissues and it exerts a variety of biological actions under both physiological and pathological conditions. It is synthesized by three distinct enzymes: endothelial (eNOS), neuronal (nNOS) and inducible (iNOS) nitric oxide synthases. NO is a cardioprotective mediator in powerful cardioprotective processes such as pre- and post-conditioning ischemia; they operate largely in a NO-dependent m Read More

Apoptosis or progress of programmed cell death is a tightly regulated process which plays an important role in various cardiovascular diseases particularly in myocardial infarction, reperfusion injury, and heart failure. Over the past two decades, investigations of several pathways have broadened our understanding of programmed cell death. Many anti-apoptotic interventions have targeted ischemia- reperfusion, howev Read More

Vitamin D3 is made in the skin, modified in the liver to form 25(OH)D, and then further hydroxylated in the kidney to form the active hormone, 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (calcitriol). Calcitriol binds to and activates the vitamin D receptor (VDR), a nuclear receptor, to regulate numerous downstream signaling pathways in different cells and tissues. Emerging evidence suggests that VDR plays an important role in modulatin Read More

Neuregulin1 proteins (NRG1s) are epidermal growth factor (EGF) family members which are ligands for the ErbB receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs). A decade of research has revealed that the NRG1-ErbB signaling is essential for the cardiac development and pivotal for maintaining the physiological function of the adult heart. The first evidence regarding the protective effect of the ErbB2 signaling in the adult heart came from clinical Read More

Heart failure, a major symptom in the progression of cardiac hypertrophy, is a critical risk factor for cardiac death. A large body of research has investigated cardioprotective mechanisms that prevent or minimize hypertrophy, identifying a variety of specific peptide hormones, growth factors, and cytokines with cardioprotective properties. Recent investigation of the downstream effector pathways for these growth factors has i Read More

Nanomedicine is using nanotechnology in the medical application, which could range from medical use of nanomaterials in drug delivery and bio-imaging to development of nano-scale devices and sensors for diagnosis and therapy. Nanomedicine could also include methods to evaluate nanomaterials solely to ensure safe use through careful monitoring for potential toxicity. In this review, we will outline some of the poten Read More

The targeted delivery of theranostic agents to the cancer cells is one of the major challenges and an active field of research in the development of cancer chemotherapeutic approaches. Theranostic metallic nanoparticles (TMNPs) have garnered increasing attention in recent years as a novel tool for theranostic application such as imaging, diagnosis, and therapeutic delivery of active agents to tumour specific cells. This paper Read More

Plants belonging to the genus Maytenus (Celastraceae) are routinely used in folk medicine in Brazil and other countries to treat a variety of illnesses, the most common of which are gastric disorders. Several studies have reported on the importance of these biological effects, and the chemical substances, mostly terpenoids and flavonoid glycosides, responsible for them. This review summarizes the ethnopharmacologi Read More