Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 19, Issue 40, 2013

Decades of experimentation with a variety of pharmacological treatments have identified some effective therapies for heroin addiction but not for cocaine addiction. This may be due, at least in part, to our incomplete understanding of the factors involved in the differential vulnerability to these addictions, which are often considered mere variations of the same disorder. Indeed, the preference for one drug or another has been v Read More

Psychostimulant addiction, most notably cocaine and amphetamine - type stimulants are an important public health problem worldwide. It appears that social factors may influence the initiation, maintenance and recovery from addictions. Several animal models have been developed to study addiction, highlighting drug self-administration (SA) and the conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigms. These models have been mo Read More

Stimulant use disorders are an unrelenting public health concern worldwide. Agonist replacement therapy is among the most effective strategies for managing substance use disorders including nicotine and opioid dependence. The present paper reviewed clinical data from human laboratory self-administration studies and clinical trials to determine whether agonist replacement therapy is a viable strategy for managing cocain Read More

This review analyzes the roles of lipid transmitters, especially those derived from the cleavage of membrane phospholipids, in cocaine-associated behaviors. These lipid signals are important modulators of information processing in the brain, affecting transmitter release, neural plasticity, synaptogenesis, neurogenesis, and cellular energetics. This broad range of actions makes them suitable targets for pharmaceutical dev Read More

Different neurotransmitter brain systems have been implicated in the rewarding effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymetamphetamine (MDMA), including dopamine or serotonin. Serotonin selective reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) are a commonly prescribed therapy for psychiatric disorders, and the SSRI fluoxetine is recommended for MDMA users due to its neuroprotective effect against MDMAinduced neurotoxicity. In the present work, w Read More

Addictions are chronic relapsing brain diseases, with behavioral manifestations. Three main factors contribute to the development of an addiction: environment, including stress, the reinforcing effects of the drug, and genetics. In this review we will discuss the involvement of the dysregulation of the stress responsive hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in the acquisition of, and persistence to drug addiction (Section B). Addic Read More

The amphetamine derivative 3, 4 Methylenedioxymethanphetamine (MDMA) is a powerful central nervous system stimulant that displays numerous pharmacological effects, including neurotoxicity. MDMA, or ecstasy, acts by inducing the release of different neurotransmitters depending on the animal species and, in particular, it produces the release of serotonin and dopamine. MDMA induces rewarding and reinforcing effects in Read More

Abuse of psychostimulants presents a significant health and social problem worldwide. Traditionally, the dopaminergic system has received much attention for its role in the development and manifestation of addictive behavior. The identification of the close interaction between the dopaminergic and glutamatergic pathway and by extension the nitric oxide (NO) signaling pathway (the nitrergic system) have provided Read More

The role of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in the development of various malignancies has recently been extensively examined and, since it has been shown to significantly influence many aspect of cancer initiation and progression, the idea of RAS-targeted anticancer therapy has arisen. This article reviews the mechanisms underlying RAS-induced physiological and pathological responses related to cancer biology, includin Read More

Cancer remains one of the major leading causes of death worldwide. Acquisition of multidrug resistance (MDR) remains a major impediment to successful chemotherapy. As the name implies, MDR is not limited only to one drug but often associated to structurally and functionally unrelated chemotherapeutics. Extensive research and investigations have identified several mechanisms underlying the development of MDR. This Read More

Privileged structures can bind to multiple targets with high affinity, thus aiding the discovery of novel bioactive agents. Heterocycle- thioacetic acid derivatives, a group of molecules containing a heterocycle core linked with a thioacetic acid-derived fragment, represent an important type of “privileged scaffold” possessing a wide spectrum of biological properties. Numerous encouraging investigations demonstrated that this p Read More

Glioma is still one of the most aggressive forms of brain tumors. Understanding of the biological and pathophysiological mechanisms of survival can help the researchers to develop new management modalities. Industrial toxins could be one of the most important causes for brain tumors, such as dioxin and other aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR) ligands. Toxicity of these compounds includes a series of cellular events starting from Read More