Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 17, Issue 3, 2011

Apoptosis is implicated in numerous pathological processes that include cancer, autoimmune disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. Recent advances in the knowledge of the molecular mechanisms underlying apoptosis is providing a number of potential therapeutic targets and allowing the development of effective drugs that are able to interfere with this type of programmed cell death. This issue of Current Pharmaceuti Read More

The advent of “systems biology” has highlighted that any function of a biological system is rarely attributable to a single molecule or a single process. Hence, complex processes, such as apoptosis and survival, depend on the activity of an integrated network of genes and their encoded proteins, which almost never work alone but interact with each other in highly structured and incredibly complex ways. With the complet Read More

Apoptosis is a regulated process leading to cell death, which is implicated both in normal development and in various pathologies including heart failure, stroke and neurodegenerative diseases. Caspase-3, a key enzyme of the apoptotic pathway, is considered as a major target for the treatment of abnormal cell death. Many factors that inhibit cell death have been identified, but the mechanisms involved are not always Read More

Neurodegenerative diseases that include amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Huntington's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, stroke, brain trauma and spinal cord injury, are associated with the inappropriate activation of a neuronal cell-suicide program called apoptosis. Given that central nervous system tissue has very limited regenerative capacity it is of extreme importance to limit the damage caused by neurona Read More

The purpose of this review is to discuss potential pathways involved in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases, highlighting current pharmacological drug targets in neuronal apoptosis prevention. The incidence of these disorders is expected to rise in the coming years and so finding effective treatments represents a significant challenge for medicine. Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease were both desc Read More

The Bcl-2 protein family plays a central role in mitochondrial membrane permeabilization. This event and the ensuing release of cytochrome c are decisive in the apoptotic cascade. Therefore, a better knowledge of these processes and their regulation will probably lead to the development of novel therapeutic strategies for the treatment of apoptosis-related diseases. However, the mode of action of Bcl-2 protein family and its Read More

The deregulation of apoptosis and the cell cycle are important steps in the onset of cancer, giving cells unlimited reproductive potential and increasing their likelihood of survival. The cell cycle is an essential and tightly regulated four-stage process that effects the accurate duplication and transmission of genetic content to cells' progeny. Cyclin-dependent kinases (CDKs) are key elements of the mammalian cell cycle machi Read More

Apoptosis plays an important role in development, growth, differentiation, altered gravity conditions, tissue homeostasis, immune defense, and cancer. It can be initiated by external signals via death receptors, but may also emerge from mitochondria. Today most of the key players in cellular apoptosis regulation are identified and can be targeted by therapeutic strategies. In this review we focus on recent development of drug Read More

Glial tumors are the main primary adult brain tumor. Even with the most advanced treatments, which include stereotactic microscope aided surgical resection, internal and external radiation therapy and local and systemic chemotherapy, median survival time for patients diagnosed with these malignancies is about 12 months. We explore here the possibility that the endoplasmic reticulum stress response (ERSR) could be Read More

The recent elucidation of molecular regulators of apoptosis and their roles in cellular oncogenesis has motivated the development of biomacromolecular anticancer therapeutics that can activate intracellular apoptotic signaling pathways. Pharmaceutical scientists have employed a variety of classes of biologics toward this goal, including antisense oligodeoxynucleotides, small interfering RNA, proteins, antibodies, an Read More