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Topic Review
Biography
Topic Review
Dabigatran in Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is caused by neurodegenerative, but also vascular and hemostatic changes in the brain. The oral thrombin inhibitor dabigatran, which has been used for over a decade in preventing thromboembolism and has a well-known pharmacokinetic, safety and antidote profile, can be an option to treat vascular dysfunction in early AD, a condition known as cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). Dabigatran blocks soluble thrombin, thrombin-mediated formation of fibrin and amyloid-ß protein (Aβ)-containing fibrin clots. These clots are deposited in brain parenchyma and blood vessels in areas of CAA, leading to vascular and blood-brain barrier dysfunction, hypoperfusion and chronically reduced oxygen (hypoxia) and nutrient supply, mainly in hippocampal and neocortical brain areas. Dabigatran has the potential to preserve perfusion and oxygen delivery to the brain, and to prevent parenchymal Aß-, thrombin- and fibrin-triggered inflammatory and neurodegenerative processes, leading to synapse and neuron death, and cognitive decline.
536
06 Jul 2021
Topic Review
Adiponectin System (Rescue Hormone)
The adipose tissue, regardless of its role in generating and storing energy, acts as a key player as an endocrine tissue, producing a wide scale of cytokines/hormones called adipokines. Adipokines such as leptin, resistin, visfatin and osteopontin own pro-inflammatory effects on the cardiovascular system in some cases. In contrast, some adipokines have cardioprotective and anti-inflammatory impacts including adiponectin, omentin, and apelin.
536
12 Jul 2022
Topic Review
Advanced Drug Delivery for Treating Sjögren’s Dry Eye
Sjögren’s syndrome is a chronic and insidious autoimmune disease characterized by lymphocyte infiltration of exocrine glands. Patients typically present with dry eye (keratoconjunctivitis sicca), dry mouth (xerostomia), and other systemic manifestations. The current management for Sjögren's syndrome dry eye (SSDE) has been ineffective as it only targets ocular surface inflammation and dryness without addressing the specific disease process. Ophthalmologists often adopt a trial-and-error approach, which allows the cycle of dry eye disease (DED) to progress and potentially cause permanent damage to the lacrimal functional unit. Topical treatments also depend on patients' ability to administer eye drops and their compliance. These limitations emphasize the need for personalized, targeted treatments that address the underlying pathophysiology of SSDE. This article aims to present new advances in ocular drug delivery for more effective treatment.
537
10 Feb 2023
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.
535
07 Jun 2021
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.
534
14 Dec 2020
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.
534
08 Mar 2023
Topic Review
Fexinidazole: All-Oral Therapy for Human African Trypanosomiasis
Human African trypanosomiasis (HAT or ‘sleeping sickness’) is a neglected tropical disease. If untreated, it is always fatal and leads to death. A few treatments are available for HAT, but most of them require a skilled professional, which increases the financial burden on the patient. Recently, fexinidazole (FEX) has been approved by the European Medicine Agency (EMA) and the United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) as the first all-oral therapy for the treatment of stage-1 (hemolymphatic) as well as stage-2 (meningoencephalitic) of HAT. Before the FEX approval, there were separate treatments for stage-1 and stage-2 of HAT.
532
25 Jan 2022
Topic Review
Ovarian Cancer Stem Cell Niche
Ovarian cancer is an aggressive gynaecological cancer with extremely poor prognosis, due to late diagnosis as well as the development of chemoresistance after first-line therapy.
531
05 May 2021
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.
531
03 Nov 2022
Topic Review
Bowman-Birk Inhibitors
Bowman-Birk inhibitors (BBIs) are found primarily in seeds of legumes and in cereal grains. These canonical inhibitors share a highly conserved nine-amino acids binding loop motif CTP1SXPPXC (where P1 is the inhibitory active site, while X stands for various amino acids). They are natural controllers of plants’ endogenous proteases, but they are also inhibitors of exogenous proteases present in microbials and insects. They are considered as plants’ protective agents, as their elevated levels are observed during injury, presence of pathogens, or abiotic stress, i.a. Similar properties are observed for peptides isolated from amphibians’ skin containing 11-amino acids disulfide-bridged loop CWTP1SXPPXPC. They are classified as Bowman-Birk like trypsin inhibitors (BBLTIs). These inhibitors are resistant to proteolysis and not toxic, and they are reported to be beneficial in the treatment of various pathological states.
530
22 Dec 2020
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