Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 23, Issue 40, 2017

Background: Although medications should only be prescribed in pregnancy if benefits to the mother outweigh the risk to the fetus, drug use in pregnancy especially prescribed and over-the-counter analgesics, is very common. Objective: The objective of this review is to present an update on known changes in analgesic disposition in pregnancy caused by pharmacokinetic mechanisms. Method: Herein, we discuss a wide ra Read More

Preterm birth (PTB) is clinically defined as process of giving birth before 37 weeks of gestation and is a leading cause of death among neonates and children under the age of five. Prematurity remains a critical issue in developed countries, yet our understanding of the pathophysiology of PTB remains largely unknown. Among pregnancy complications, subclinical infections such as chorioamnionitis (CAM) are implicated in up to Read More

Preterm birth and associated prematurity-related morbidity can significantly affect neonatal health and outcomes. While the mechanisms of preterm labor are yet to be fully understood, there is a need for prenatal therapeutic interventions to treat these conditions. As it is recognized from literature, the immune mechanisms responsible for preterm labor may be different from those responsible for prematurity-related Read More

Preterm birth (PTB) is a leading cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity worldwide, and surviving infants are at increased risks of lifelong complications. PTB has been firmly linked to inflammation regardless of infection, specific aetiology or timing of birth. Deleterious inflammation is observed in maternal and fetal tissue, and correlates with the severity of perinatal complications. At present, PTB is treated with tocolyti Read More

Background: Preterm birth (PTB) is a multifactorial syndrome occurring before the 37th week of fullterm pregnancy [1]. Babies delivered preterm experience short-term and long-term complications affecting multiple organ systems, and serious maternal complications include hemorrhage and infection. Each year, an estimated 15 million babies are born preterm, and complications from prematurity are the leading cause of dea Read More

Diverse histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors have been developed to date. They control not only histone modification but also gene expression of diverse proteins and thus are expected to provide useful therapeutic effects on various diseases, including cancers, psychiatric and cognitive disorders and neurodegenerative diseases, as well as cardiovascular and diabetic diseases. Some isoform-nonselective HDAC inhibitors Read More

Despite the value of vaccination, the control of re-emerging infectious and non-infectious diseases remains a challenge for researchers. In this topic, mucosal immunization, in particular at airway mucosa, is receiving increased investigational focus. Innovative vaccine platforms to deliver immunogens with or without adjuvants in a safe and stable manner have been explored to improve vaccine efficacy and induce long-ter Read More

Background: Atherosclerosis is the leading cause of death and morbidity throughout industrialized nations, accounting for one-fifth of all deaths globally. Exosomes are bi-lipid membranous vesicles containing protein, lipid and nucleic acid contents that are released from the cells via the endolysosomal pathway. Exosomes are derived from several cells including macrophages, dendritic cells, platelets as well as human ser Read More

Photodynamic therapy is an evolving treatment modality for cancer owing to its non-invasive approach. This mode of therapy depends on the dynamic interaction of light, oxygen and a photoactive drug to induce oxidative damage to affected cells. This apparently simple technique could be complicated by several factors, mainly contributed by the nature of the physicochemical properties of the photoactive drug, variation in Read More

Recently, extracellular vesicles (EVs), like exosomes and microvesicles, have attracted attention as potent carriers of intercellular communication throughout the body, including the brain. They transmit biological signals from donor cells to recipient cells, and recent evidence suggests that they may even carry such signals to distant destinations through peripheral circulation. In the central nervous system (CNS), EVs contribute t Read More

NO produced by eNOS plays important roles in the cardiovascular system. Alterations in eNOS activity and expression occur in various cardiovascular disorders and eNOS constitutes a therapeutic target. In addition to posttranslational modifications of eNOS that affect eNOS activity, transcriptional and post-transcriptional regulation of eNOS expression also controls eNOS-derived NO production. Bradykinin is an impor Read More

Antioxidants have the potential to prevent cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (IR)-associated secondary damage induced by reactive oxygen species (ROS); however, the short therapeutic time window of IR is a considerable obstacle. Nano-sized nasal delivery systems provide an effective means of delivering drugs through the BBB, but few such systems have been developed to extend the treatment time window in IR. In this work Read More

The rare, chronic, autosomal-recessive lysosomal storage disease Niemann-Pick disease type C1 (NPC1) is characterized by progressively debilitating and ultimately fatal neurological manifestations. There is an urgent need for disease-modifying therapies that address NPC1 neurological pathophysiology, and passage through the blood-brain barrier represents an important consideration for novel NPC1 drugs. Read More