Endocrine, Metabolic & Immune Disorders-Drug Targets (Formerly Current Drug Targets - Immune, Endocrine & Metabolic Disorders) - Volume 10, Issue 1, 2010

The treatment against cancer is being flooded by targeted therapies. Imatinib mesylate (Gleevec©) was the first molecule to provide the proof of principle that targeting an aberrant tyrosine kinase responsible for the uncontrolled cell cycle progression allows for the eradication of tumors. The ideal targeted therapy should eliminate the molecular event responsible for the disease, an oncogenic product such as c-KIT, ABL/BCR a Read More

The reverse cholesterol transport mediated by high-density lipoprotein (HDL) is an important mechanism for maintaining body cholesterol at normal levels and, hence, the critical anti-atherogenic action of the lipoprotein. Recent studies, however, showed that HDL exerts a variety of anti-inflammatory and anti-atherogenic actions independently of the cholesterol metabolism. On the other hand, statins, inhibitors of HMG-C Read More

The rising incidence of diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and subsequent vascular diseases is now a major public health problem in industrialized countries. New therapeutic strategies to prevent these diseases are urgently needed worldwide. It is well known that calorie restriction (CR) can retard the aging process in organisms ranging from yeast to rodents, and delay the onset of numerous age-related diseases including di Read More

Animal models have enriched understanding of the physiological basis of metabolic disorders and advanced identification of genetic risk factors underlying the metabolic syndrome (MetS). Murine models are especially appropriate for this type of research, and are an excellent resource not only for identifying candidate genomic regions, but also for illuminating the possible molecular mechanisms or pathways affected in indi Read More

The worldwide incidence of malignant melanoma has been steadily increasing, and it has become a major public health problem in many countries. Melanoma has been considered as a prototypical “immunogenic” tumor on the basis of clinical observations showing that primary lesions can spontaneously regress and that immunosuppressed individuals have an increased incidence of melanoma. Thus, various immunological Read More

Thyroid nodules are quite common and present approximately in 10% of the population. Fine-needle aspiration biopsy has become the mainstay of thyroid nodule evaluation and the overall accuracy is excellent; however, some aspirates demonstrating indeterminate cytology results do not permit definitive diagnosis of malignancy, and in addition, there are no clear guidelines for the management of these lesions because th Read More

Epidemiological studies indicated that more than 15% of the population in western countries suffer because of severe forms of periodontitis. In this respect, the recognition of the relationship between oral and systemic health is growing, thus receiving remarkable interest in scientific literature. In fact, periodontitis may increase the risk for a group of life-threatening conditions such as atherosclerosis, stroke or low birth weight. T Read More

Bovine African trypanosomiasis causes severe economical problems on the African continent and one of the most prominent immunopathological parameters associated with this parasitic infection is anemia. In this report we review the current knowledge of the mechanisms underlying trypanosomiasis-associated anemia. In first instance, the central role of macrophages and particularly their activation state in determini Read More

It has come to our notice that the article published in Current Drug Targets-Immune Endocrine and Metabolic Disorders, Volume 4, Issue 1, page numbers 75-78, is largely the same as that published in the Journal Biochemical Pharmacology. The publishers have therefore decided to retract the article in question.