Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 17, Issue 18, 2017

Nitrones have been extensively used for the detection of transient free radicals using electron paramagnetic resonance. Since the mid-80's, nitrones have also been widely used as protective agents against oxidative stress in several biological models. Due to the high potency of nitrones, there has been extensive research on the development of derivatives with improved biological and spin trapping properties as well as e Read More

Elucidating details of the relationship between molecular structure and a particular biological end point is essential for successful, rational drug discovery. Molecular docking is a widely accepted tool for lead identification however, navigating the intricacies of the software can be daunting. Our objective was therefore to provide a step-by-step guide for those interested in incorporating contemporary basic molecular docking Read More

The zebrafish is fast becoming a leading and prominent model organism used by researchers for developmental biology, and research in modeling human diseases in zebrafish is being undertaken at a fast pace. Many therapeutic areas, including oncology and cardiovascular diseases to name a few all have zebrafish models based on known disease mechanisms that are translatable to modes of action in humans. Many novel ass Read More

Ascidians (tunicates; sea squirts) are marine animals which provide a source of diverse, bioactive natural products, and a model for toxicity screenings. Compounds isolated from ascidians comprise an approved anti-tumor drug and many others are potent drug leads. Furthermore, the use of invertebrate embryos for toxicological screening tests or analysis offers the possibility to image a large number of samples for hi Read More

Small molecule screens using C. elegans as a model are becoming increasingly popular as the number of high-throughput methodologies has steadily increased over the years. Here we focus on the biology that underlies this increased popularity and outline the reasons that make C. elegans an attractive model for drug discovery. We discuss successful C. elegans based drug discovery projects in the literature and futu Read More

Robert Koch utilized animal model systems to put forward his postulates while discovering the etiological agents of anthrax and tuberculosis, Bacillus anthracis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis, respectively. After more than 130 years, we have achieved limited success towards understanding these two pestilences, which have propagated as scourge against humans. B. anthracis and M. tuberculosis are diverse o Read More

Targeted therapeutics is a new generation therapy that can increase the efficacy of chemotherapeutic drugs, by facilitating site-specific delivery with minimum off-target effects. Amongst the targeted therapy, nucleic-acid based aptamers are increasingly gaining interest due to their small size, long shelf-life and ease in synthesis. Further, lactoferrin, a milk protein belonging to the transferrin family is now an established mul Read More