Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 19, Issue 39, 2013

The phosphodiesterese-5 (PDE5) inhibitors, including sildenafil (Viagrat), vardenafil (Levitrat), tadalafil (Cialist) and avanafil (Stendrat) have been developed for the treatment of erectile dysfunction. Moreover, sildenafil and tadalafil have been approved for the management of pulmonary arterial hypertension. A number of preclinical studies have shown that PDE5 inhibitors have powerful protective effect against several cli Read More

Cardiomyocytes and neurons are highly susceptible to ischemia-reperfusion injury; accordingly, considerable effort has been devoted to elucidating the cellular mechanisms responsible for ischemia-reperfusion-induced cell death and developing novel strategies to minimize ischemia-reperfusion injury. Maintenance of mitochondrial integrity is, without question, a critical determinant of cell fate. However, there is emerging evidenc Read More

Fatty acids have an important role in providing energy for sustained contractile activity and viability of the heart. However, considerable evidence now supports a role for fatty acids in the modulation of cardiovascular pathology as well. This may be beneficial or detrimental due to the structural differences in the various fatty acids. Polyunsaturated fatty acids appear to provide important protection to the heart during ischemic re Read More

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) from ventricular fibrillation during myocardial infarction is a leading cause of total and cardiovascular mortality. It has a multifactorial, complex nature and aggregates in families, implicating the involvement of heritable factors in the determination of risk. During the last few years, genome-wide association studies have uncovered common genetic variants modulating risk of SCD. We here review the Read More

Background/Aims. The simultaneous supplementation of creatine and D-ribose has been shown to reduce apoptosis in vitro in non-irreversibly injured cultured ischemic cardiomyocytes through down-regulation of the signaling mechanisms governing adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and protein kinase B (Akt). Here, we test the hypothesis that an analogous mechanism exists in vivo when the cha Read More

The purpose of the present study was to assess the impact of brief daily reoxygenation during adaptation to chronic continuous hypoxia (CCH) on protective cardiac phenotype. Adult male Wistar rats were kept at CCH (10% oxygen) for 5, 15 or 30 days; a subgroup of animals was exposed to room air daily for a single 60-min period. While 5 days of CCH did not affect myocardial infarction induced by 20-min coronary artery oc Read More

The signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) transduces stress signals from the plasma membrane to the nucleus but has recently also been identified in mitochondria. Inhibition of cardiomyocyte mitochondrial STAT3 with the STAT3-specific inhibitor Stattic decreases ADP-stimulated respiration and enhances calcium-induced mitochondrial permeability transition pore (MPTP) opening. The aim of the present Read More

Hypothesis. The present study evaluates the hypothesis that sour cherry seed extract (SCSE) protects against cardiovascular disease and inflammation in hypercholesterolemic rabbits, and that this protection correlates with SCSE-induced activity of heme oxygenase- 1 (HO-1), a cytoprotective enzyme contributing to oxidative stress responses. Methods: 18 New Zealand white rabbits were divided into three group Read More

Metabolic disorders such as insulin resistance (IR) and dyslipidemia (DL) might contribute to the induction of diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM). However, few relevant animal models are currently available for studying the time-course of DCM and evaluating experimental therapeutics. The present study proposes a rodent model of dietary-induced IR combined or not with DL in order to investigate the impact of chronic IR an Read More

Autophagy is an intracellular bulk degradation process for elimination of damaged macromolecules and organelles. In the past decades, the scientific community has gained increasingly detailed understanding of the role of autophagy in myocardial homeostasis, although still many controversies remain. In the ischemic myocardium, autophagy appears to be beneficial for survival, whereas upon reperfusion the proc Read More

Obesity arises from an impairment of energy homeostasis, which essentially involves the balance of food intake and energy dissipation. Some secreted molecules in the hypothalamus have become the focus of recent attention for their important roles in the regulation of food intake. One such molecule, nesfatin-1, is a novel molecule originally expressed in the hypothalamic nuclei of the brain, which exerts its satiety functi Read More

Nesfatin-1 is an eighty two amino acid, naturally occurring multifunctional protein encoded in the precursor nucleobindin-2 (NUCB2). A comparison of sequences indicates that NUCB2 is present in a number of animals, from hydra to humans. The 30 amino acid mid-segment of nesfatin-1 is considered to be the bioactive core of the protein, and this region displays the highest identity among nesfatin-1 sequences reported th Read More

Nesfatin-1 is the N-terminal fragment of nucleobindin-2 (NUCB2). The antibody against nesfatin-1 recognizes both full length of NUCB2 and nesfatin-1, thus the immunolabeling represents NUCB2/nesfatin-1. It has been found that NUCB2/nesfatin-1 is widely distributed in the rodent central nervous system. The immunoreactivity is more intensive in the brain autonomic centers that regulate feeding, neuroendocrine a Read More

Nesfatin-1, derived from an 82-amino-acid peptide precursor protein nucleobindin-2 (NUCB2), is a highly conserved peptide across mammalian species. Initial functional and neuroanatomical studies on NUCB2/nesfatin-1 in the central nervous system have supported a role for NUCB2/nesfatin-1 as a novel satiety molecule. In recent years, however, it has become apparent that this neuropeptide is involved in va Read More

The present review summarizes the current understanding of the neuronal activation patterns induced by nesfatin-1 in both the hypothalamus and the brainstem, as well as the physiological outcomes caused by the activation of these neuronal populations. Studies using cFos measurements, Ca2+ imaging techniques, electrophysiological recordings, and microinjections have led to the identification of the paraventricular nucle Read More

Nesfatin-1 was recently identified in the rat brain as a potential post-translational processing product derived from nucleobindin2 (NUCB2). The first biological action identified for nesfatin-1 was the reduction of nocturnal food intake in rats. The anorexigenic effect of nesfatin-1 was corroborated by several independent laboratories and is now established as a physiological action of this peptide based on the regulation of brain NUC Read More

The novel satiety factor nesfatin-1 and its precursor NUCB2 are the neuropeptides widely expressed in the central nervous system. Nesfatin-1/NUCB2 is also localized in peripheral tissues and regulates the glucose and energy metabolism on multiple processes. Nesfatin-1 potentiates both insulin release from pancreatic β-cells and insulin action in liver, contributing to energy storage. Furthermore, nesfatin-1/NUCB2 regulat Read More

Nesfatin-1, derived from the precursor NEFA/nucleobindin2 (NUCB2), was initially identified as a feeding-suppressing neuropeptide, acting at central (mainly, hypothalamic) levels in a leptin-independent manner. However, recent experimental evidence strongly suggests that, rather than being a simple anorectic hypothalamic signal, nesfatin-1 operates at different tissues as an integral regulator of energy homeostasis and closely Read More