Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 18, Issue 12, 2012

The modern era of the treatment of major psychotic disorders started in 1927 when Manfred Sakel introduced the insulin-coma therapy but the real revolution came in 1938, when Lucio Bini and Ugo Cerletti documented the first therapeutic use of electrically induced seizures in humans. Later, in 1952 the first antipsychotic, cholpromazine was introduced by Henry Laborit, Jean Delay and Pierre Deniker while lithium was e Read More

NMDA receptors are ionotropic receptors mediating glutamatergic neurotransmission and play a role in several basic functions in the central nervous system, from regulating neurodevelopment and synaptic plasticity, learning and memory formation, cognitive processes, rhythm generation necessary for locomotor activity and breathing, and excitotoxicity. Due to their complex involvement in the above processes, Read More

It is known that early treatment improves the outcome in patients with schizophrenia. Treatment interventions prior to the onset of frank psychosis hold the promise of even better outcomes. Since schizophrenia typically has a year long prodromal phase before becoming clinically manifest, the field has made increasing efforts to define reliable criteria for subjects who are at high risk for psychosis (at-risk mental state, ARMS sub Read More

The Dopamine Hypothesis has been the leading theory used to explain the mechanism of the clinical manifestation of schizophrenia symptoms for decades. It is unclear if excess dopaminergic activity is the primary pathophysiology causing psychosis or if this dopamine excess is triggered by upstream, downstream or neurodevelopmental abnormalities. A corollary hypothesis suggests that the glutamatergic system may be in Read More

Dysregulation of glutamate neurotransmission has been implicated in schizophrenia primarily because antagonists of the nmethyl- d-aspartate (NMDA) subtype of glutamate receptors exacerbate preexisting symptoms of schizophrenia in patients and produce behavioral disruptions that resemble some symptoms of schizophrenia in healthy individuals. Given this, NMDA receptor antagonists have been used extensively to Read More

Glutamate is the most abundant excitatory neurotransmitter in the brain and the ionotropic NMDA receptor is one of the major classes of its receptors, thought to play an important role in schizophrenia and mood disorders. The current systematic review summarized the evidence concerning the involvement of NMDA receptors in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder. Genetic studies point to the genes encoding t Read More

Over recent years, neutrophil functions have extensively been reevaluted. For instance, it has been found that extracellular traps generated by activated neutrophils are able to perform a very effective antimicrobial activity against a plethora of microorganisms. In addition, neutrophils possess the ability to interact with monocytes/macrophages either via release of their granule content or via efferocytosis. Efferocytosis Read More

Carvedilol is a nonselective β-blocker with α1-adrenergic blocking and antioxidant properties. A number of preclinical experiments and clinical trials have demonstrated that carvedilol provides prominent benefit in heart failure. However, less research has been done in the area of animal models of viral myocarditis. This paper reviews the use of carvedilol in animal models of viral myocarditis. The experimental evidence strongly s Read More

P2Y12 receptor mediated inhibition of platelet aggregation is one of the most explored and exploited pathways in antiplatelet drug therapy to prevent ischemic events in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) for the treatment of the acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Ticlopidine, Clopidogrel, Prasugrel, Ticagrelor, Cangrelor and Elinogrel are the P2Y12 inhibitors that act as antiplatelet drugs. In this revi Read More

A lower than normal function of the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) has been identified early in the course of multiple sclerosis (MS) and has been shown to play a role in the pathology of the disease. In addition, the chronic use of many drugs commonly used by MS patients could further downregulate SNS by interfering with norepinephrine (NE) synthesis/release and/or interfering with the function of the adrenergic recept Read More

Resveratrol found in fruits, vegetables and beverages such as red wine, has been extensively evaluated for its anticardiovascular disease and cancer preventive effects. Even though studies have demonstrated its anti-tumor effects, there is still no clear explanation for cancer cell selective mechanisms of action of resveratrol. Initial investigations were focused on its anti-oxidant and cytoprotective mechanism of action, yet, Read More

HM-3, An RGD (Arg-Gly-Asp)-modified polypeptide derived from endostatin, is a potent angiogenesis inhibitor. Its robust inhibitory effects on endothelial cell migration and tumor growth have been demonstrated by activity assay both in vitro and in vivo. However, HM-3 has relatively short half-life in vivo. In order to prolong its half-life and retain its safety and efficacy, previous studies modified HM-3 with four types of PEG (s Read More

Triterpenes have been reported to induce cell death. One relevant group of this family of compounds is cucurbitacins, which have been studied as inducers of apoptosis in various cancer cell lines. The most significant mechanisms with regard to the apoptotic effects of cucurbitacins are their ability to modify transcriptional activities via nuclear factors or genes and their capability to activate or inhibit pro- or anti-apoptotic prot Read More