Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 22, Issue 37, 2016

Background: High blood pressure is the main risk factor worldwide for mortality and morbidity. Subjects with uncontrolled hypertension increased in the last decades. Methods: This review is based on the material searched for and obtained via MEDLINE and PubMed up to June 2016. The search terms used were “hypertension, blood pressure control” in combination with “pathophysiology, lifestyle, antihypertensive drugs, target o Read More

Background: In the last decade, the development of anti-inflammatory strategies emerged as new trend in cardiovascular (CV) pharmacotherapy. Anti-inflammatory properties have been previously identified in different classes of drugs used in primary CV prevention. However, the extent to which the modification of inflammatory profile contributes in determining CV outcome remains controversial. Methods: Focusing on pote Read More

Background: Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease (ASCVD) is the first cause of death in Western Countries. Several risk factors contribute to generate atherosclerosis and the preventive therapeutic approaches, in particular statin therapy, reduce the mortality. However, the residual risk in statin treated patients remains significant, despite reaching the low density lipoproteins cholesterol (LDL-C) goals. Methods: we reviewed Read More

Background: The World Health Organization has emphasized that an increased body mass index (BMI) is a major risk factor for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular disease (CVD) together with diabetes, musculoskeletal disorders and some cancers. The American Heart Association had already identified obesity as an independent risk factor in 1995. There is a significantly increased risk of CVD independe Read More

Background: Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are one of the main factors responsible for human morbidity and mortality. Since mitochondria play a critical role in the regulation of cardiac tissue homeostasis, this organelle is a critical target for the protective effects of several pharmaceuticals. Although specific mitochondria-targeted antioxidants and some pharmacological agents are described as potential cardioprotective age Read More

Background: There is increasing interest in cardiovascular imaging modalities in the detection of subclinical and clinically-manifested coronary artery disease (CAD) to improve cardiovascular outcome in these patients. Methods: SPECT/CT and PET/CT can be applied for the assessment of myocardial perfusion and myocardial blood flow (MBF) quantification in CAD detection and characterization, while CT is predominantly u Read More

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of global mortality. Although extensive efforts have been made to identify valid biomarkers for CVD risk, relatively few are of proven clinical utility. It is recognized that genetic factors play a major role in determining the susceptibility to CVD. Recent genome-wide-association-studies have demonstrated common genetic variants in a region on chromosome 9p21 associated wit Read More

High grade gliomas (HGGs) are the most frequent and highly invasive type of brain tumors, which arise from glial cells. Among HGGs, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the commonest and deadliest tumor type. Standard HGG therapy that involves tumor resection followed by concomitant treatment with radiation exposure and temozolomide (TMZ) cannot prevent recurrent tumor. The median survival of treated patients aft Read More

Despite being widely used for treating cancer, chemotherapy is accompanied by numerous adverse effects as a result of systemic distribution and nonspecific interactions of the drugs with healthy tissues, eventually leading to therapeutic inefficacy and chemoresistance. Cyclophosphamide (Cyp) as one of the chemotherapeutic pro-drugs is activated in liver and used to treat breast cancer in high dose and in combination wit Read More

Phthalimide and hydrazine pharmacophores have been demonstrated to be inhibitors of cyclooxygenases (COX) and lipoxygenases (LOX) and to possess a marked analgesic and anti-inflammatory activity. A new group of hybrid analogs of phthalimide and hydrazine (2-(arylmethylideneamino) isoindolines), possessing a variety of substituents (OMe, OH, NO2, Cl, and F) at different positions of the aryl ring, were synthesized and t Read More