Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 15, Issue 17, 2015

The serotonin 5-HT6 receptor (5- HT6R) is amongst the recently discovered serotonergic receptors with almost exclusive localization in the brain. Hence, this receptor is fast emerging as a promising target for cognition enhancement in central nervous system (CNS) diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (cognitive function), obesity, schizophrenia and anxiety. The last decade has seen a surge of literature reports on th Read More

Curcumin, a natural yellow polyphenol, is isolated from the herb Curcuma longa L. (turmeric), a member of the ginger family. It has been extensively studied due to their multiple pharmacological properties. Nevertheless, curcumin has disadvantages such as poor water solubility, poor bioavailability and rapid metabolism, which has prompted the search for analogues that overcome these shortcomings while maintainin Read More

Cholinesterase inhibition is the only current validated target in clinics in the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Therefore, there is continuous interest in the development and discovery of novel cholinesterase inhibitory molecules. Coumarins, beside their employment in other pharmacological groups, have also attracted attention to be utilized in cholinesterase inhibitory molecule discovery and development. N Read More

Plants are one of the most important resources for the discovery of new drugs. The potential of natural compounds as new drug leads is clearly illustrated by the discovery and development of many modern medicines. This is an encouraging factor that drives natural products research in the vegetable kingdom. Neocryptolepine is a tetracyclic nitrogen heterocycle isolated from the African climber Cryptolepis sanguinolenta, w Read More

A growing number of studies have revealed that natural molecules own interesting antioxidant and anti-apoptotic properties in cell culture as well as in animal models of human diseases such as cancer, inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. During the past sixty years, several cucurbitacins have been isolated from a number of cucurbitaceous species, amongst others. Cucurbitacins are triterpenoid compounds Read More

In last decades, diet and dietary components have been regarded as important strategies to prevent the development or mitigate numerous chronic diseases, including inflammation, cardiovascular pathologies, cancer, etc. One of the most common dietary components of Asian population is soy. A plethora of research shows the promising effect of soy soy-based foodstuffs and genistein, which is one of the predo Read More

Piperine is the main constituent of pepper, a commonly used kitchen spice and has been reported to possess various pharmacological activities. The structural features, an aromatic ring with a methylenedioxy bridge, a conjugated dienone system and a piperidine ring constituting an amide bond, possessed by the molecule have been considered important for the molecule to exhibit an array of bioactivities. Several modificat Read More

Quercetin, a prominent dietary antioxidant present in vegetables, especially onions, fruits, highlighting apples and berries, wine and tea, belongs to a group of plant derived heterocyclic polyphenols. These compounds could be important mediators of the biological actions attributed to healthy diets. Chemically, quercetin is a type of flavonoid that specifically belongs to the flavonols group. It naturally occurs either as glycoside o Read More

Phytochemical investigation of Azorella madreporica led to the isolation of four known compounds and an unknown chalcone. The structure of the new compound was identified by spectroscopy, including two-dimensional NMR techniques and comparison with published spectral data. The antioxidant activity of chalcone (compound 1) was measured using the 1,2-diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging ass Read More

Anxiety is one of the behavior disorders that has been studied more together with depression in the world, and that has enormous interference in the mental health of the affected patients. The states of panic and phobia are a part of the psychological characteristics that some drugs have tried to control though with varied side effects that are proven to be difficult to control. The use of perimidinone derivatives against the effect Read More

Nature is an ancient pharmacy that is largely used as an inspiring source for drug discovery processes for the early eras. Several drugs used nowadays are of natural product origin or inspired on the basis of natural product structures and approximately half of the 20 best-selling non-protein drugs are related to natural products. However, a largely unexplored marine world that presumably harbors the most biodiversit Read More