Topic Review
Antiepileptic Drugs
For drugs, such as antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), whose therapeutic or toxic effects are more closely related to blood levels than to a specific dose, monitoring of plasma levels plays a crucial role. Many drugs used in epilepsy therapy often cause acute poisonings (carbamazepine, oxcarbazepine, valproic acid, lamotrigine). AEDs do not have an ideal pharmacokinetic profile, which at the same time qualifies them to monitor both in the therapeutic and toxic aspects. Currently, a great benefit for patients using various AEDs is adjusting the dosage to their individual needs and monitoring sufficient blood concentrations. There is still a need to develop new, rapid methods that meet the validation criteria. This trend has been observed in the last few years in the bioanalysis of different type of biological samples, not only blood, serum or plasma, but also saliva and blood/serum/plasma dried spots technique.
  • 549
  • 01 Dec 2020
Topic Review
Target antigens for Approved ADCs
Biologically-based therapies increasingly rely on the endocytic cycle of internalization and exocytosis of target receptors for cancer therapies. However, receptor trafficking pathways (endosomal sorting (recycling, lysosome localization) and lateral membrane movement) are often dysfunctional in cancer. Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) have revitalized the concept of targeted chemotherapy by coupling inhibitory antibodies to cytotoxic payloads. Significant advances in ADC technology and format, and target biology have hastened the FDA approval of nine ADCs (four since 2019). Although the links between aberrant endocytic machinery and cancer are emerging, the impact of dysregulated internalization processes of ADC targets and response rates or resistance have not been well studied. This is despite the reliance on ADC uptake and trafficking to lysosomes for linker cleavage and payload release. 
  • 549
  • 21 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Oral subunit vaccine design
Many pathogens invade the host at the intestinal surface. To protect against these enteropatho-gens, the induction of intestinal secretory IgA (SIgA) responses is paramount. While systemic vaccination provides strong systemic immune responses, oral vaccination is the most efficient way to trigger protective SIgA responses. However, the development of oral vaccines, especially oral subunit vaccines, is challenging due to mechanisms inherent to the gut. Oral vaccines need to survive the harsh environment in the gastrointestinal tract, characterized by low pH and intestinal proteases and need to reach the gut-associated lymphoid tissues, which are protected by chemical and physical barriers that prevent efficient uptake. Furthermore, they need to surmount default tolerogenic responses present in the gut, resulting in suppression of immunity or tolerance. Several strategies have been developed to tackle these hurdles, such as delivery systems that protect vaccine antigens from degradation, strong mucosal adjuvants that induce robust immune responses and targeting approaches that aim to selectively deliver vaccine antigens towards specific immune cell populations.
  • 548
  • 12 Jan 2021
Topic Review
Mexican Medicinal Plants
Some natural compounds belonging to the group of Mexican medicinal plants or “Mexican folk medicine”are  used for pain management in Mexico.
  • 548
  • 14 May 2021
Topic Review
Ethnomedicinal Plant Sonapatha: Oroxylum indicum
Oroxylum indicum, Sonapatha is traditionally used to treat asthma, biliousness, bronchitis, diarrhea, dysentery, fevers, vomiting, inflammation, leukoderma, skin diseases, rheumatoid arthritis, wound injury, and deworm intestine. 
  • 548
  • 07 Jun 2021
Topic Review
Magnesium and Morphine in Chronic Neuropathic Pain
The effectiveness of opioids in the treatment of neuropathic pain is limited. It was demonstrated that magnesium ions (Mg2+), physiological antagonists of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR), increase opioid analgesia in chronic pain. Early data indicate the cross-regulation of mu-opioid receptor (MOR) and NMDAR in pain control. Morphine acting on MOR stimulates protein kinase C (PKC), while induction of NMDAR (for example in a state of neuropathic pain) recruits protein kinase A (PKA) leading to disruption of the MOR-NMDAR complex and promoting functional changes in receptors. The level of phosphorylated NMDAR NR1 subunit (pNR1) and phosphorylated MOR (pMOR) in the periaqueductal gray matter was determined with the Western blot method. The activity of PKA and PKC was examined by standard enzyme immunoassays. Mg2+ administered alone significantly decreased the level of pNR1 and pMOR, and activity of both tested kinases. The results suggest that blocking NMDAR signaling by Mg2+ restores the MOR-NMDAR complex and thus enables morphine analgesia in neuropathic rats.
  • 547
  • 03 Mar 2022
Topic Review
The Pharmacological Activities of Siraitia grosvenorii 
Siraitia grosvenorii (Swingle) C. Jeffrey ex Lu et Z. Y. Zhang is a unique economic and medicinal plant of Cucurbitaceae in Southern China. For hundreds of years, Chinese people have used the fruit of S. grosvenorii as an excellent natural sweetener and traditional medicine for lung congestion, sore throat, and constipation. It is one of the first species in China to be classified as a medicinal food homology, which has received considerable attention as a natural product with high development potential. Various natural products, such as triterpenoids, flavonoids, amino acids, and lignans, have been released from this plant by previous phytochemical studies. Pharmacological research of the fruits of S. grosvenorii has attracted extensive attention, and an increasing number of extracts and compounds have been demonstrated to have antitussive, expectorant, antiasthmatic, antioxidant, hypoglycemic, immunologic, hepatoprotective, antibacterial, and other activities.
  • 545
  • 04 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Anthocyanins in Nano-Delivery Systems
Anthocyanins are among the best-known phenolic compounds and possess remarkable biological activities, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antidiabetic effects. Despite their therapeutic benefits, they are not widely used as health-promoting agents due to their instability, low absorption, and, thus, low bioavailability and rapid metabolism in the human body. Research suggests that the application of nanotechnology could increase their solubility and/or bioavailability, and thus their biological potential. 
  • 546
  • 03 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Tackling Pandemics through Computer-Aided Drug Discovery Approaches
Since its outbreak in December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic has caused the death of more than 6.5 million people around the world. The high transmissibility of its causative agent, the SARS-CoV-2 virus, coupled with its potentially lethal outcome, provoked a profound global economic and social crisis. The urgency of finding suitable pharmacological tools to tame the pandemic shed light on the ever-increasing importance of computer simulations in rationalizing and speeding up the design of new drugs, further stressing the need for developing quick and reliable methods to identify novel active molecules and characterize their mechanism of action. 
  • 545
  • 08 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Ulcerative Colitis
The worldwide epidemiology of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), including Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), still shows an increasing trend in Asia and Iran. Despite an improvement in the treatment landscape focused on symptomatic control, long-term colectomies have not decreased over the last 10-year period. Thus, novel therapies are urgently needed in clinics to supplement the existing treatments. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are multipotent adult stem cells with immunosuppressive effects, targeting IBD as a new treatment strategy. They have recently received global attention for their use in cell transplantation due to their easy expansion and wide range of activities to be engrafted, and because they are home to the mucosa of the intestine. Moreover, MSCs are able to differentiate into epithelial and other cells that can directly promote repair in the mucosal damages in UC. It seems that there is a need to deepen our understanding to target MSCs as a promising treatment option for UC patients who are refractory to conventional therapies. Here, we overviewed the therapeutic effects of MSCs in UC and discussed the achievements and challenges in the cell transplantation of UC.
  • 544
  • 14 Dec 2020
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