Anti-Inflammatory & Anti-Allergy Agents in Medicinal Chemistry (Formerly Current Medicinal Chemistry - Anti-Inflammatory and Anti-Allergy Agents) - Volume 9, Issue 3, 2010

Neuroinflammation is believed to be the common pathological process in many neurodegenerative diseases, and what was believed to be a naive housekeeping process, as a result of neurodegeneration, can be a hostile contributor of the disease. Several primary neurological disorders are associated with inflammatory responses, in many cases they aggravate the initial problem and lead to acute symptoms and disability or Read More

Primary headaches including the migraine, cluster, and tension headaches are common neurological disorders which cause pain and disability to the patients. The pathomechanism of migraine is not very well understood however, current clinical findings indicate a possible primary brain disorder due to activation of the brain and brainstem as triggers for migraine. The headache phase of migraine may be due to activatio Read More

While the exact causes or mechanisms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) are still not known, the most critical risk factor is aging. Cellular oxidative stress is known to occur in the brain during aging and some pathology of AD could be explained by the oxidative stress, including senile plaques, deposition of amyloid peptide (Aβ) and tangles (deposition of an abnormally phosphorylated tau). Also gliosis, which may release inflam Read More

Endotherapia is a new therapeutic approach against chronic diseases such as multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. It combines the evaluation of circulating antibodies directed against specific self-antigens and self-antigens modified by free radicals. Here, we review the literature concerning this topic. In addition, our biological assays have allowed us to follow up the evolution of chronic dise Read More

Increasing evidence suggests that activation of the innate immune system may play a seminal role in the pathophysiology of depression. Several lines of evidence support the association of inflammation and depression. Peripheral administration of cytokines, such as interferon-alpha, can induce many of the symptoms of the depressive syndrome. In addition, medically healthy patients with major depression exhibit elevate Read More

Vasogenic edema resultant from malignant brain and spine tumors can impart neurological disability and life threatening compression of the central nervous system. Clinical management of edema requires a working understanding of the blood brain barrier, blood cerebrospinal fluid barrier, and the major mechanisms that tumors utilize to disrupt the normal function of these barriers. Corticosteroids and anti-angioge Read More

The immune system is a sophisticated and complex system that is influenced by various exogenous insults such as surgical stress and endogenous factors like the sympathetic nervous system. It has been demonstrated that sedative agents used in clinical practice alter the balance of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines. These effects may be reversible following short exposure to anaesthetic agents and sedative drugs. Howev Read More

Algae are eaten as healthy foods in Asian countries. We summarize our recent results on the immunoregulatory role of polysaccharide fractions from edible algae on immediate hypersensitivity, delayed-type hypersensitivity, and antitumor immune responses. They are divided into two types. One is to manipulate immune response through toll-like receptor 4 (TLR 4). The other uses different receptors to modify the immune res Read More

RNA interference (RNAi) is an endogenous process initiated by short double stranded RNAs, which results in sequence-specific posttranscriptional gene silencing. Since its discovery RNAi has become the most widely used experimental tool providing powerful and sequence-specific knockdown of protein expression to elucidate the function of genes. The possibility of blocking the expression of any protein carries huge expectatio Read More

Asthma is a chronic airway disease with a relatively high prevalence. Although the etiology of asthma is still not fully clear, there are effective treatments available. The treatment strategy for asthma consists of two steps: maintenance therapy with anti-inflammatory agents (inhaled corticosteroids and/or leukotriene antagonists) to reduce airway inflammation and retain proper lung function and secondly, the use of b Read More