Topic Review
Acetylsalicylic Acid History and Structure
Aspirin (ASA, acetylsalicylic acid ATC code: N02BA01, DrugBank ID: DB00945, brand names: Arthritis Pain, Aspi-Cor, Aspirin 81, Aspirin-Low, Bayer Plus, Bufferin, Ecortin, Eciprin, Miniprin, Vazalore), is one of the first drugs to be obtained by synthesis. It is regarded as, being the most used drug with the longest lasting commercial success.
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  • 06 Dec 2022
Topic Review
Ciguatoxins in Fish
Ciguatoxins are very potent marine neurotoxins, that accumulate to toxic levels in edible fish in certain circumtropical areas, and are associated with ciguatera fish poisoning worldwide. Ciguatoxins are produced by specific benthic dinoflagellates, enter the marine food chain via herbivorous fish and invertebrates, and eventual are biotransformed in herbivorous, omnivorous, and carnivorous fishes to more poisonous forms. Ciguatoxins cause risks to human health at very low concentrations. To decrease the risk of ciguatera fish poisoning, it is important to know fishing areas with low concentrations of ciguatoxins, as well as to test fish tissue for toxins before consumption. Modern laboratories use several detection techniques, such as mouse bioassay, cell-based assays, receptor-binding assays, antibody-based immunoassays, electrochemical methods, and analytical techniques, to obtain information about the total toxicity of fish tissue samples, as well as to identify toxins and to determine the toxin profile. State-of-the-art ciguatoxin detection involves the combination of a cell-based assay or receptor-binding assay to screen total toxicity, and liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry to confirm toxins and provide toxin profiles. 
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  • 25 Aug 2020
Topic Review
DNA Damage Response in Autoimmunity
The DNA damage response and repair (DDR/R) network, a sum of hierarchically structured signaling pathways that recognize and repair DNA damage, and the immune response to endogenous and/or exogenous threats, act synergistically to enhance cellular defence. On the other hand, a deregulated interplay between these systems underlines inflammatory diseases including malignancies and chronic systemic autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis. Recent data demonstrate accumulation of endogenous DNA damage in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from these patients, which is related to augmented formation of DNA damage and epigenetically regulated functional abnormalities of fundamental DNA repair mechanisms. Since endogenous DNA damage accumulation has serious consequences for cellular health, including genomic instability and enhancement of an aberrant immune response, these results can be exploited for understanding pathogenesis and progression of systemic autoimmune diseases, as well as for the development of new treatments.
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  • 03 Nov 2020
Topic Review
Childhood Asthma
Asthma is a complex and multifactorial respiratory disease with a high prevalence in the pediatric population. Variation in treatment response to asthma therapies has been described among patients, and difficult-to-treat asthma carries both high healthcare and socioeconomic burden to the patients and society. Omic studies can be used to discover the molecular mechanisms underlying asthma susceptibility and treatment response, contributing to a better knowledge and definition of asthma pathogenesis and therefore, to the development of precision medicine. This entry aims to summarize the recent findings of omic studies of treatment response in childhood asthma. Between 2018-2019 a total of 13 omic studies has been performed involving genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and the microbiome. These have been focused on the response to three common asthma medications: short-acting beta agonists, inhaled corticosteroids, and leukotriene receptor antagonists. Novel associations of different biomarkers with asthma treatment response have been described. However, stronger evidence and more consistent results are required to implement these molecular biomarkers into clinical practice by establishing the most appropriate therapy for each patient.
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  • 29 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Drug Resistance in Cancer Chemotherapy
Cancer is one of the main causes of death worldwide. Despite the significant development of methods of cancer healing during the past decades, chemotherapy still remains the main method for cancer treatment. Multidrug resistance (MDR) is responsible for over 90% of deaths in cancer patients receiving traditional chemotherapeutics or novel targeted drugs. The mechanisms of MDR include elevated metabolism of xenobiotics, enhanced efflux of drugs, growth factors, increased DNA repair capacity, and genetic factors (gene mutations, amplifications, and epigenetic alterations). Rapidly increasing numbers of biomedical studies are focused on designing chemotherapeutics that are able to evade or reverse MDR.
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  • 28 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Primary Cilia and Calcium Signaling
The calcium ion (Ca2+) is a diverse secondary messenger with a near-ubiquitous role in a vast array of cellular processes. Cilia are present on nearly every cell type in either a motile or non-motile form; motile cilia generate fluid flow needed for a variety of biological processes, such as left–right body patterning during development, while non-motile cilia serve as the signaling powerhouses of the cell, with vital singling receptors localized to their ciliary membranes. Much of the research currently available on Ca2+-dependent cellular actions and primary cilia are tissue-specific processes. However, basic stimuli-sensing pathways, such as mechanosensation, chemosensation, and electrical sensation (electrosensation), are complex processes entangled in many intersecting pathways; an overview of proposed functions involving cilia and Ca2+ interplay will be briefly summarized here. Next, we will focus on summarizing the evidence for their interactions in basic cellular activities, including the cell cycle, cell polarity and migration, neuronal pattering, glucose-mediated insulin secretion, biliary regulation, and bone formation. Literature investigating the role of cilia and Ca2+-dependent processes at a single-cellular level appears to be scarce, though overlapping signaling pathways imply that cilia and Ca2+ interact with each other on this level in widespread and varied ways on a perpetual basis. Vastly different cellular functions across many different cell types depend on context-specific Ca2+ and cilia interactions to trigger the correct physiological responses, and abnormalities in these interactions, whether at the tissue or the single-cell level, can result in diseases known as ciliopathies; due to their clinical relevance, pathological alterations of cilia function and Ca2+ signaling will also be briefly touched upon throughout this review.
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  • 02 Aug 2022
Topic Review
Drug–Food Interactions of DOACs
In recent years direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) have become the anticoagulant treatment of choice. DOACs were initially considered drugs with no significant food interactions; however, clinical observations from daily practice have proved otherwise as interactions with food ingredients have been reported. Food, dietary supplements or herbs may contain substances that, when administered concomitantly with DOACs, can potentially affect the plasma concentration of the drugs. 
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  • 27 Aug 2021
Topic Review
The Bioactivity and Health Benefits of Alpha-Phellandrene
Aromatic essential oils play a significant role in pharmaceuticals, food additives, cosmetics, and perfumery. Essential oils mostly comprise aliphatic hydrocarbons, monoterpenoids, sesquiterpenoids and diterpenes. Plant extracts comprise a complex mixture of terpenes, terpenoids, aliphatic and phenol-derived aromatic components. Terpenes are a significant class of hydrocarbons with numerous health benefits. Monoterpenes are the most important constituents of essential oils. α-phellandrene (α-PHE) is a cyclic monoterpene with two double bonds in a heterocyclic ring (endocyclic).
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  • 20 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Blood-Brain Barrier
The blood-brain barrier (BBB) limits pharmacotherapy of several brain disorders. In addition to structural and metabolic characteristics of the BBB, the ATP-driven, drug efflux transporter P-glycoprotein (Pgp) is a selective gatekeeper of the BBB, and thus, a primary hindrance to drug delivery into the brain.
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  • 26 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Seed Waste from Custard Apple
Annona squamosa L. (custard apple or sugar apple), belonging to the Annonaceae family, is a small tree or shrub that grows natively in subtropical and tropical regions. Seeds of the custard apple have been employed in folk medicines because of the presence of bioactive chemicals/compounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids and phenolic compounds and acetogenins and cyclopeptides that are responsible for various biological activities. The seeds also show the presence of tannins, vitamin C, vitamin E and a higher content of amino acids. From investigations, it has been shown that the seeds of A. squamosa have considerable potential to be used as an antibacterial, hepatoprotective, antioxidant and antitumor/anticancer agent. Cyclosquamosin B, extracted from the custard apple seed, possesses vasorelaxant properties. Tocopherols and fatty acids, notably oleic acid and linoleic acid, are also found in the seed oil. A. squamosa seeds contain a high amount of annonaceous acetogenins compounds, which are potent mitochondrial complex I inhibitors and have high cytotoxicity. A survey primarily based on the nutritional, phytochemical and biological properties showed that A. squamosa seeds can be used for the discovery of novel products, including pharmaceutical drugs.
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  • 01 Nov 2022
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