Current pharmaceutical biotechnology
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In the lasts years it has become evident that polyphenols modify cell functionality through epigenetic mechanisms, such as modulating microRNA (miRNA) levels. miRNAs are small non-coding RNAs of about 22 nucleotides in length, that modulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level. miRNAs are involved in almost all biological processes, affect most metabolic pathways and recent evidence suggests their dysregulation in a number of metabolic disorders and diseases. In this sense, miRNAs are emerging as potential biomarkers of numerous pathologies and therefore as new therapeutic targets. Polyphenolic modulation of miRNAs is very attractive as a strategy to target numerous cell processes and potentially reduce the risk of chronic diseases.
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Curr Pharm Biotechnol · Jan 2014
EditorialmiRNA and cancer; computational and experimental approaches.
Human genome sequencing was started to solve four letter algorithm of the genome to understand the complex nature of human metabolism. However, after completion of Human Genome Project many scientists realized that sequence information alone was not sufficient to solve the biochemical mechanism of the organism through classical approaches. Non-coding parts of the genome produce small conserved ribonucleic acids, miRNAs to control cellular and physiological processes [1, 2]. ⋯ This thematic issue presents current efforts in determination of miRNAs at different cancer types. Each day determined miRNAs are deposited to the databases and scientists give a lot of effort to understand the biogenesis of these small molecules. These scientific studies and approaches are expected to improve current technologies for therapy and biomarker detection.
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Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused mainly by members of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. In 2012, the WHO estimated 8.7 million new cases and 1.4 million deaths caused by this disease. ⋯ Much work is therefore ongoing in terms of the development of TB vaccines and more than 10 candidate vaccines are progressing well through the different development stages. The aim of this mini-review is to describe the characteristics of the most promising vaccines, and to give a brief description of some key elements relating to the current and future development of vaccines against TB.
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Curr Pharm Biotechnol · Jan 2013
Short term statin treatment improves survival and differentially regulates macrophage-mediated responses to Staphylococcus aureus.
Staphylococcus aureus is the most prevalent etiologic agent of sepsis. Statins, primarily prescribed for their cholesterol-lowering capabilities, may be beneficial for treating sepsis due to their anti-inflammatory properties. ⋯ Additionally, this work demonstrated the ability of simvastatin to dampen macrophage responses initiated not only by bacteria directly but by membrane vesicles shed in response to infection, revealing a new mechanism of immune modulation by statins. These data demonstrate the ability of short term simvastatin pretreatment to modulate immune responses and identify new insights into the underlying mechanisms of the anti-inflammatory properties of simvastatin that may decrease the pathophysiological effects leading to sepsis.
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Cardiomyopathies are categorized as extrinsic, being caused by external factors, such as hypertension, ischemia, inflammation, valvular dysfunction, or as intrinsic, which correspond to myocardial diseases without identifiable external causes. These so called primary cardiomyopathies can be categorized in four main forms: hypertrophic, dilated, restrictive, and arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. ⋯ Most of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and 20-50% of dilated cardiomyopathy are familial showing a wide genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity. This review presents the current knowledge on the causative genes, molecular mechanisms and the genotype � phenotype relations of hypertrophic and dilated cardiomyopathies.