Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 5, Issue 3, 2005

In the closing days of 2004, the American Heart Association released its annual statistics on heart disease and stroke (http: / / www.americanheart.org). To the surprise of no one, these data showed that cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death in the US, claiming over 900,000 lives in 2002. The direct and indirect costs of cardiovascular disease are estimated to reach $393 billion in 2005. Read More

The treatment of dyslipoproteinemia has proven a successful strategy in the prevention of cardiovascular diseases. The major target of hypolipidemic drugs is the reduction of low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). HMGCoA reductase inhibitors (HMGRI) effectively lower LDL-C by inhibiting the mevalonate pathway and enhancing the activity of the LDL receptor (LDL-R). Numerous clinical studies demonstrated conv Read More

Atherosclerotic coronary artery disease remains a major healthcare concern especially in developed countries. While lowering plasma cholesterol levels via diet, exercise, and pharmacoptherapy can reduce this risk of developing coronary artery disease, there remains a need for more effective drug therapies. The azetidinone cholesterol absorption inhibitors typified by ezetimibe represent the first new approach to lipid Read More

Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) facilitates the exchange of neutral lipids (such as cholesteryl esters and triglycerides) between anti-atherogenic HDL particles and pro-atherogenic VLDL and LDL particles in human plasma. Individuals possessing a genetic deficiency for CETP have higher HDL cholesterol and lower LDL cholesterol and may have a reduced risk for developing cardiovascular disease. Small molecule in Read More

This review describes the role of nuclear receptors in the regulation of genes involved in cholesterol transport and synthetic modulators of these receptors. Increasing the efflux of cholesterol from peripheral cells, such as lipid-laden macrophages, through a process called reverse cholesterol transport (RCT) requires HDL. Increasing the circulating levels of HDL, as well as the efficiency of the RCT process, could result in a redu Read More

The microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (MTP), along with its partner, protein disulphide isomerase, performs a wide range of lipid transport functions necessary for maintenance of whole-body lipid homeostasis. In this review, we summarize the recent deluge of comparative and functional genomic data that have forced a radical reappraisal of the evolutionary processes that established the major lipid transport p Read More

Arylacetamide analgesics that stimulate k opioid receptors in the central nervous system mediate dysphoria and psychosis as well as analgesia. However, the naturally occurring peptide agonist, dynorphin A, is analgesic in the absence of dysphoria and psychosis, indicating that the therapeutic effects of k opioid agonists may be separated from their side effects. As part of our effort to discover κ opioid receptor anal Read More

As a whole, the G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) superfamily displays no overall sequence homology. Nevertheless, enough short sequences and even individual amino acid residues are shared by these receptors to afford a common three-dimensional structure and a similar signal transduction mechanism. Some of these sequence commonalities, or structural motifs, are dedicated to preserving receptor infrastruct Read More

The opioid receptor-like 1 (ORL1) system has attracted a lot of attention owing to its diverse physiological role and by its close structural proximity toward the classical opioid receptors. Even though they share a close sequence similarity, the ligand recognition pattern for the ORL1 receptor and the classical opioid receptors remains highly distinct. In addition, functional diversification observed between the ORL1 receptor system Read More

Opioids are involved in the physiological control of numerous functions of the central nervous system, particularly nociception. It appears that some endogenous neuropeptides, called “anti-opioids“, participate in an homeostatic system tending to reduce the effects of opioids. Neuropeptide FF (NPFF) and cholecystokinin (CCK) possess these properties and, paradoxically, the opioid peptides nociceptin and dynorphin display som Read More

Pain management using opioid analgesics strives to achieve three goals: maximum efficacy, minimal risk of tolerance and physical dependence, and negligible side effects. Following the cloning of opioid and nociceptin receptors, novel ligands can be designed to target specific residues of these membrane proteins with the goal of improving efficacy and reducing side effects through selectivity. For the most part, ligand desi Read More