Medicinal Chemistry Reviews - Online (Discontinued) - Current Issue

The Wilms' tumor gene WT1 is highly expressed not only in hematopoietic malignancies, including leukemia and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), but also in various kinds of solid tumors, including lung, breast, and colorectal cancer. Human cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) which could specifically lyse WT1-expressing tumor cells with HLAA* 0201 or HLA-A*2402 restriction were generated in vitro. We have also demonstr Read More

In the last five-six years there has been a rapid increase in publications reporting that neuronal nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChR) play a role in neurodegenerative disorders. Furthermore, there is a well-established loss in nAChR in post-mortem brains from patients with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and a range of other disorders. In the present review we discuss (1) the new pharmacological ligands for st Read More

Cognition enhancers are drugs able to facilitate attentional abilities and acquisition, storage and retrieval of information, and to attenuate the impairment of cognitive functions associated with head traumas, stroke, age and agerelated pathologies such as MCI and AD. Development of cognition enhancers is still a difficult task because of the complexity of the brain functions, poor predictivity of animal tests and lengthy Read More

This report is the first part of an updated review of a previous survey published in this journal (2002, 2, 419-439). Since the discovery of the Human Genome Project dramatically increased our knowledge in regard of the mutated cancer cell, it is worthy to follow up those findings, that have brought progress in the therapy of malignant diseases. The molecular targeted drug therapy with transtuzumab or imatinib produced gr Read More

Trypanosoma cruzi, the agent of the American Trypanosomiasis, Chagas Disease, contains cysteine, serine, threonine and metallo proteinases. Aspartic proteinases have not been found so far. The most abundant among these enzymes is cruzipain, a cysteine proteinase expressed as a complex mixture of isoforms by the major developmental stages of the parasite, including some membrane-bound isoforms. The enzym Read More

Histamine exerts its biological effect an humans through interaction with four histamine receptors (H1R, H2R, H3R and H4R). Histamine is a major mediator of allergic rhinitis (AR) that produces classical symptoms (sneezing, itching, rhinorrhea and congestion) both in adults and children. Nasal itch, sneezes, and rhinorrhoea are predominantly neural, while congestion is predominantly vascular. Antagonism of H1 receptors reduc Read More

The genus Mycobacterium contains two of the most important human pathogens, Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae, the etiological agents of tuberculosis and leprosy, respectively. Other mycobacteria are mostly saprophytic organisms, living in soil and water, but some of them can cause opportunistic infections. The increasing incidence of tuberculosis as well as infections with non-tuberculous mycobact Read More