Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 18, Issue 30, 2018

Since their discovery in the 1990's, the study of a class of non-coding, single-stranded RNAs, christened the microRNAs has opened up new vistas in the field of cancer biology. MicroRNAs bind to their target mRNAs to act as either oncogenes or tumour suppressors. With the near-complete elucidation of the biogenesis pathway, and the advent of rapid sequencing technologies, microRNAs have slowly cemented their place a Read More

The resistance to chemotherapeutics by the cancerous cells has made its treatment more complicated. Animal venoms have emerged as an alternative strategy for anti-cancer therapeutics. Animal venoms are cocktails of complex bioactive chemicals mainly disulfide-rich proteins and peptides with diverse pharmacological actions. The components of venoms are specific, stable, and potent and have the ability to modif Read More

Nature has been a source of a wide range of products being utilized for the treatment of various diseases like malaria, cancer, diabetes etc. Among these, cancer is emerging as a leading cause of deaths worldwide and the development of cross-resistance to already established drugs increases the need for novel anticancer drugs. To discover novel anticancer molecules, it is a necessity to unearth the molecules which can act as Read More

Chemoresistance is one of the major hurdles in cancer treatment leading to recurrence of cancer and affects the overall survival of patients. Cancer chemoresistance can be associated with various phenomena including modulation of vital cellular pathways. Unrevealing these alterations could provide a better understanding of chemoresistance and assist in the identification of new targets to overcome it. Recent advances Read More

Autophagy is an intracellular biological catabolic process of mammalian cells to maintain the homeostasis. It plays a wide role in the clearance of damaged cellular organelles, misfolded or aggregated proteins like alpha-synuclein, β-amyloid peptides, Tau proteins and pathogens. Recent studies have clearly demonstrated that dysfunction in autophagy leads to the development of cancer, cardiomyopathy, chronic infection, neuro Read More

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a heterogeneous malignancy leading to increased mortality and poor prognosis due to the lack of efficient early diagnostics. Metastasis of the tumor being the most common cause of mortality is accountable for almost 90% of CRC associated deaths. Intensified screening procedures and molecular target identification has inflated the median survival rate of in CRC patients. microRNAs Read More