Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 21, Issue 25, 2015

The causes of neurodegenerative disorders are multiple, and for most of them a mechanistic understanding is still lacking. However, neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer disease (AD), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson disease (PD) all share common features that include elevated oxidative stress levels and impaired energy metabolism in the nervous system. Most of the current treat Read More

The genetic, cellular, and molecular changes associated with Alzheimer disease provide evidence of immune and inflammatory processes involvement in its pathogenesis. These are supported by epidemiological studies, which show some benefit of long-term use of NSAID. The hypothesis that AD is in fact an immunologically mediated and even inflammatory pathological process may be in fact scientifically intrig Read More

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that develops after experiencing trauma. Actual therapies do not help majority of patients with PTSD. Moreover, extinguished fear memories usually reappear in the individuals when exposed to trauma cues. New drugs to reduce the impact of conditioned cues in eliciting abnormal fear responses are urgently required. Cotinine, the main metabolite of nicotine, dec Read More

Metabolic homeostasis requires a tight balance between energy intake and energy expenditure; hence, the physiological circuits implicated in the regulation of energy metabolism must be able to quickly adjust to changes in either side of the equation. Circulating orexigenic and anorexigenic factors, including ghrelin and leptin, are produced in the gastrointestinal tract and adipose tissue, respectively, in relation to an individua Read More

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is one of the most prevalent chronic diseases and has been a leading cause of death in the last decades. Thus, methods to detect, prevent or delay this disease and its co-morbidities have long been a matter of discussion. Nowadays, DM patients, particularly those suffering with type 2 DM, are advised to alter their diet and physical exercise regimens and then proceed progressively from monothera Read More

Male infertility has been increasing over the last decades being nowadays a pressing health problem. Diabetes mellitus (DM) can contribute directly or indirectly to male infertility due to an abnormal spermatogenesis, which results in a decreased sperm quality. Type 2 Diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is responsible for the vast majority of DM cases, being frequently treated with oral antidiabetic drugs. Metformin is the most cost-effective Read More

Stem cells, by definition, are the primitive cells that have the potential of both self-renewal and differentiation into a number of mature and functional cells, and thus they have great applications in cell therapy and tissue engineering for regenerative medicine. Bone morphogenetic protein 6 (BMP6) belongs to transforming growth factor β(TGF-β) superfamily. The fate determinations of stem cells require complex reg Read More

The current global portfolio of oncology drugs is unlikely to produce durable disease remission for millions of cancer patients worldwide. This is due, in part, to the existence of so-called cancer stem cells (CSCs), a particularly aggressive type of malignant cell that is capable of indefinite self-replication, is refractory to conventional treatments, and is skilled at spreading and colonizing distant organs. To date, no drugs from big Read More

Despite recent advances in therapy, heart failure remains a major cause of mortality and morbidity and is a growing healthcare burden worldwide. Alterations in myocardial energy substrate metabolism are a hallmark of heart failure, and are associated with an energy deficit in the failing heart. Previous studies have shown that a metabolic shift from mitochondrial oxidative metabolism to glycolysis, as well as an uncoupling betw Read More

Apoptosis is essential for skeletal muscle development and homeostasis. It has been frequently involved in several muscle myopathies and sarcopenia, as well as in denervation, in disuse and acute strenuous or eccentric physical exercise. In this work skeletal muscle cell death, induced in vitro by a variety of physical triggers, has been investigated. C2C12 myoblasts and myotubes were exposed to UVB for 30 min, hypert Read More

As the second leading cause of death in the world, the total number caused by cancer in 2008 is 1.4 million. The great cancer incidence worldwide increases the search for new, safer and efficient anticancer agents (especially to find the new structures and more active anticancer drugs from the natural products) aiming the prevention or the cure of such illness. For a century, matrine (an alkaloid isolated from sophorae flaves Read More

The pharmacokinetics of different barbiturates have been studied extensively and the relationship of their duration of action to their clinical use has been known for decades. While these particular compounds have largely been displaced by agents with better therapeutic indices, barbiturate use remains relatively common and important in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Their mechanism of action is to bind to inhibitory GA Read More

Polysaccharide is a kind of biological material, which has good biocompatibility, non-toxicity, and non-immunogenicity. So, the polysaccharide has widely been applied in drug delivery system. The applications of chitosan, hyaluronic acid and dextran in drug delivery have been summarized herein.