Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 18, Issue 6, 2012

During the last decade, scientific and clinical research witnessed a progressive shift from genomics to proteomics. Actually, the genomic era promised much [1] and much has left unfulfilled [2], thus also explaining the rapid development of proteomics and its application to drug discovery at the beginning of this century [3]. Proteomics is giving a significance to genes by providing a direct link to their biological activity. Curre Read More

Mass spectrometry information has long offered the potential of discovering biomarkers that would enable clinicians to diagnose disease, and treat it with targeted therapies. PeptideAtlas currently provides access to large-scale spectra data and identification information. This data, and the generation of targeted peptide information, represents the first step in the process of locating disease biomarkers. Reaching the goal of Read More

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with devastating effects. The greatest risk factor to develop AD is age. Today, only symptomatic therapies are available. Additionally, AD can be diagnosed with certainty only post mortem, whereas the diagnosis “probable AD” can be established earliest when severe clinical symptoms appear. Specific neuropathological changes like neurofibrillary tangles and a Read More

Appetite regulation is highly complex and involves a large number of orexigenic and anorexigenic peptide hormones. These are small, processed, secreted peptides derived from larger prepropeptide precursors. These peptides are important targets for the development of therapeutics for obesity, a global health epidemic. As a case study, we consider the ghrelin axis. The ghrelin axis is likely to be a particularly useful drug t Read More

The intestinal epithelial barrier is indispensable to our immune system. Defects in this barrier function have been observed in intestinal disorders such as inflammatory bowel diseases, food allergies, and celiac diseases. Therefore, the modulation of the barrier function is currently viewed as a potentially positive pharmacological outcome. This review describes a unique peptide, Asn-Pro-Trp- Asp-Gln (NPWDQ), which can finely a Read More

The oral cavity is home to numerous viruses and micro-organisms recognized as having a role in various oral diseases as well as in infections in other parts of the body. Indeed, in general a microbial infection underlies or is believed to underlie the ample spectrum of oral diseases, from tooth enamel decay to periodontal lesions, from candidiasis to virus-induced oral squamous cell carcinomas, and bullous autoimmune oral dis Read More

The discovery of apelin, an endogenous ligand of the orphan APJ receptor is an important advance for fundamental research and clinical medicine. Apelin and its receptor have a wide tissue distribution not only in the brain but also in peripheral organs including kidney, heart, vessels, and adipose tissue. Apelin is implicated in many physiological and pathophysiological processes such as the regulation of body fluid homeost Read More

Clinical interventions leading to improved survival in patients with acute myocardial infarction have, paradoxically, increased the need for cardiac regenerative strategies as more people are living with heart failure. Over the last 10-15 years there have been significant advances in our understanding of cell-based therapy for cardiac repair. Evidence that paracrine stimulation largely underlies the functional benefits in ce Read More

The emergence of infections caused by multi-drug resistant (MDR) pathogens pose a major burden to modern healthcare. Exacerbating this issue is the substantial decline in development of new classes of antibiotics by pharmaceutical companies. This has led to renewed interest in the therapeutic potential of natural anti-infective agents such as host defense peptides (HDPs). The broad antimicrobial and immunomodula Read More

Peptides derived from tumor associated antigens can be utilized to elicit a therapeutically effective immune response against melanoma in experimental models. However, patient vaccination with peptides - although it is often followed by the induction of melanoma- specific T lymphocytes - is rarely associated with tumor response of clinical relevance. In this review I summarize the principles of peptide design Read More

The development of vaccines for new and re-emerging pathologies and infections is based on the ability to define immunogenic epitopes. An immunogenic B-cell peptide epitope is a specific restricted antigen region that is capable of eliciting a humoral immune response and of combining with a specific site on antibodies. Using a number of experimental models and based on data from several literature reports, we identifi Read More

Microparticles (MPs) are submicron vesicles (0.1-1 μm) shed from the membrane of platelets, monocytes, endothelial cells and other cell types. Abundant clinical evidence relates increased plasma levels of MPs with several cardiovascular and inflammatory diseases, being a topic of tremendous interest in recent years. MPs have been proposed as potential effectors in thrombosis, inflammation, vascular injury or angi Read More

Aspirin has long been the mainstay of primary and secondary prevention against myocardial infarction and ischemic cerebrovascular events. However, the incremental value of aspirin for primary prevention has recently been subject to debate given data from recent large clinical trials, as the net clinical benefit is small. In secondary prevention, aspirin is still strongly recommended. Efforts in obtaining more efficient antiplat Read More