Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 8, Issue 7, 2008

Pathogenic microbial agents continue to cause a large number of infections and deaths. Their effects are particularly strong in people with a compromised immune system such as such as HIV or long-term hospitalized patients. Although effective chemotherapeutic agents are available for these individuals, the battle against infectious diseases is far from being over. The emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance lea Read More

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) has deceived researchers for seventeen years now and although the current therapy regimen has been optimized by the development of pegylated interferon-α and the addition of ribavirin, no new agent to treat HCV infected patients has yet reached the market. A new era is approaching the HCV research due to new developments for the propagation of the virus in a cell-based system, which may l Read More

Plasmodium falciparum is one of the most lethal parasite responsible for human malaria. Until now, the only one solution to counter malaria is the use of antimalarial drugs. Unfortunately, the extensively use of drugs, such as quinolines (i.e. chloroquine, quinine or mefloquine), have led to the emergence of drug resistance. Chloroquine and probably other quinolines act in interfering in the detoxification of hematin in the digesti Read More

The clinical management of tuberculosis and other mycobacterial diseases with antimycobacterial chemotherapy remains a difficult task. The classical treatment protocols are long-lasting; the drugs reach mycobacteriainfected macrophages in low amounts and/or do not persist long enough to develop the desired antimycobacterial effect; and the available agents induce severe toxic effects. Nanotechnology has provi Read More

Fungi can cause life threatening diseases, particularly in patients with weakened immune systems. While treatment options are available for these individuals, dose limiting toxicity and the appearance of drug resistant organisms are growing problems. Therefore, the identification, development, and registration of new, safe, and efficacious agents are needed. Herein, we review recent developments in the field of antifungal drug Read More

Sepsis is a common clinical problem that is responsible for an increasing number of deaths. Many new therapies for severe sepsis have been developed but few have shown benefit in rigorous clinical trials. To date the most successful therapies are relatively simple clinical interventions: appropriate broad spectrum antibiotics; early goal directed therapies to restore tissue oxygen delivery; physiological dose hydrocortison Read More

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