Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 12, Issue 15, 2012

Drug delivery systems for gene transfer are called ‘vectors’. These systems were originally invented as a delivery system for the transfection in vitro or in vivo. Several vectors are then developed for clinical use of gene medicines and currently some of them are approved as animal drugs. Conventional drug delivery system generally consists of approved (existing) materials to avoid additional pre-clinical or clinical studies. H Read More

The decoy oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN) serves as a decoy sequence for a target transcription factor, then inhibiting its binding to the authentic sequence at the promoter, and consequently hinders the gene expression. ODNs should be properly up taken by the cell and tissue, be specific for one nuclear factor, and be stable against intracellular and serum nucleases. Since phosphodiester oligos are easily degradated by nucle Read More

Although organ transplantations have been broadly performed in humans, occurrence of rejection has not yet been resolved. Several inflammatory factors, such as cytokines and adhesion molecules, enhance the rejection. Specific treatments that target in the attenuation of rejection have not been well studied in organ transplantation. Recent progress in the nucleic acid drugs, such as antisense oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) to Read More

Recent progress in molecular and cellular biology has resulted in the development of numerous effective drugs. However, there are still a number of diseases for which no known effective therapy exists, such as ischemic heart disease, vascular bypass graft failure and heart failure. Despite its limitations, oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN)-based therapy is emerging as a potential strategy for the treatment of patients with cardiovascu Read More

Novel therapeutic strategies using nucleic acid drugs, such as plasmid DNA (pDNA) and nuclear factor-κB (NFκB) decoy, have been sought for non-treatable neurological disorders. Among them, the application of pDNA has been extensively studied in diabetic neuropathy. Since growth factors, such as vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), have both neurotrophic and angiogenic properti Read More

Gene therapy offers a novel approach for the prevention and treatment of a variety of diseases, but it is not yet a common method in clinical cases because of various problems. Viral vectors show high efficiency of gene transfer, but they have some problems with toxicity and immunity. On the other hand, plasmid deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-based gene transfer is very safe, but its efficiency is relatively low. Especially, plasmid Read More

In medical oncology, targeted therapy has emerged over the last decade, as the most promising strategy to fight cancer. In addition, a more complete understanding of tumor heterogeneity and pharmacology of the more conventional anti-cancer agents has led to development of metronomic chemotherapy (MC) (i.e. a more frequent administration of anticancer agents at lower doses then the usual maximally toler Read More

Targeted therapies have dramatically modified treatment strategies in oncology since the early 2000's, especially for treating digestive cancers. These new biotherapies such as anti-VEGF (bevacizumab) or anti-EGFR (cetuximab) monoclonal antibodies have given oncologists new opportunities to use innovative treatment schedules or combinations with cytotoxics. Consequently, significant improvements in respons Read More

Conventional chemotherapeutic regimens have limited impact against most solid tumors and deal with significant toxicity. During the last years novel anticancer treatments targeting specific molecules or genes involved in cancer development are being developed to improve outcome and reduce side-effects. In particular several tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKIs, gefitinib, erlotinib, sorafenib and sunitinib) have been approved Read More

The primary goal of phase I studies in oncology is to determine the MTD (Maximum Tolerated Dose) for a drug. This MTD is determined with respect to an accepted risk (usually 33%) to see a limiting toxity for patients. In this paper we propose a new mathematical model to determine the MTD. An important feature of this model is that the limiting toxicity can be formulated as a combination of several basic graded toxicities such Read More

Combining several cytotoxics is the current mainstay for treating breast cancer patients. The combination between capecitabine and docetaxel was found to be more efficient than capecitabine or docetaxel when both were used as single agents. However, the administration protocol for this combination has been empirically chosen from single-agent trials. Based on already available population analysis, we propose here to o Read More

Several findings suggest that patient outcome would be improved with individualized doses. The aim of this paper is to describe major approaches, methods and underlying basic foundations implemented, in clinical practice, for dosage individualization. Also we propose a new method codified by kinetic nomograms as reliable alternative to traditional Bayesian methods. Clinical and simulation data were reported to evaluate perfor Read More

Target therapies and notably monoclonal antibodies are currently being considered for esophageal, gastric, and gastroesophageal junction cancers. EGFR was found to be overexpressed in 60-86% of gastric or gastroesophageal tumors and in 50-70% of esophageal cancers. Cetuximab was shown to be a radiosensitizing agent in the treatment of ENT neoplasia. These results led to several phase II encouraging therapeutic tri Read More

Background: Dysembryoplastic Neuroepithelial Tumours (DNT) are benign brain lesions arising during childhood that are characterized by early onset partial seizures, no neurological deficit and cortical location. Pathological diagnosis is easy when the glioneuronal element is present. Its absence might lead to the diagnosis of non-specific DNT or low-grade glioma (LGG). Objective: The aim of this retrospective study was t Read More

For many years, nanocarriers have been investigated to modify pharmacokinetics and biodistribution of various active molecules. In the cancer domain, one of the biggest challenges still remains the improvement of the therapeutic index, often too low, for the majority of antitumor drugs. The application of nanotechnologies for the treatment and the diagnosis of cancers are nowadays currently developed, or under develo Read More

Purpose: The anticancer drug 5-fluorouracile (5-FU) which is indicated for the treatment of a variety of solid malignancies such as colorectal, breast, head and neck neoplasms is extensively biotransformed to 5fluoro-5,6- dihydrouracil (5-FDHU) by the dihydropyrimidine deshydrogenase enzyme (DPD). DPD deficiency is recognized as an important risk factor, predisposing patient to undergo severe/lethal toxicities. To date, Read More

Pharmacogenetics has progressively become a major concern in personalized medicine. The development of modern technologies in genetic testing and cost-effectiveness have rendered genotyping strategies easy to perform comparing to time-consuming phenotyping methods. In oncology, canonical markers such TPMT, DPYD or UGT1A1 are routinely included in clinical practice but their use is still controversial part Read More