Topic Review
Pathophysiology of Takotsubo Syndrome
Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is a transient dysfunction of the left and/or right ventricle, without the presence of ruptured atherosclerotic plaque, thrombus, dissection of the artery or other condition, which may cause the aforementioned symptoms. The term “tako-tsubo” was first used by Sato et al in 1990 because of the similarities between LV morphologic features and the shape of a ceramic fishing pot used since ancient times in Japan for trapping octopi.
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  • 07 Sep 2021
Topic Review
PDE2A for Mouse Liver Development
cAMP and cGMP are intracellular signaling molecules produced in response to a plethora of extracellular signals in order to coordinate cellular metabolism, proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis. Phosphodiesterases (PDEs) are the enzymes that hydrolyze cAMP and cGMP in order to end or to limit the responses to these signals. To date 11 PDE families (named PDE1 to PDE11) have been identified across each cell type expressed in a peculiar pattern. They enclose 21 genes that codify approximately 100 enzymes that form a redundant network ensuring the compensation of activity in case of alteration of activity or lack of expression of one of the members. PDE2A, a cAMP-hydrolyzing enzyme, represents the exception to this picture, as PDE2A knockout is embryonic lethal. Knockout embryos show that the lack of the enzyme has the greatest impact on the development of the heart and of the liver, which is no longer able to assume its hematopoietic role. The increase of the intracellular cAMP level and the downregulation of the anti-apoptotic gene Bcl2 might explain the loss of integrity in the PDE2A knockout liver niche that compromises the hematopoietic function and maturation.
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  • 29 Oct 2020
Topic Review
PDE4 as Therapeutic Targets in Different Diseases
Cyclic nucleotides (cAMP, cGMP) play a major role in normal and pathologic signaling. Beyond receptors, cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases; (PDEs) rapidly convert the cyclic nucleotide in its respective 5′-nucleotide to control intracellular cAMP and/or cGMP levels to maintain a normal physiological state. However, in many pathologies, dysregulations of various PDEs (PDE1-PDE11) contribute mainly to organs and tissue failures related to uncontrolled phosphorylation cascade. Among these, PDE4 represents the greatest family, since it is constituted by 4 genes with multiple variants differently distributed at tissue, cellular and subcellular levels, allowing different fine-tuned regulations.
  • 1.1K
  • 11 Oct 2022
Topic Review
Pectin-Based Hydrogels for Drug Delivery Applications
Among the various reported biopolymer-based hydrogel drug delivery systems, pectin (Pec) is an exceptional natural polymer due to its unique functionalities and excellent properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, low-cost, and simple gelling capability, which has received considerable interest in the drug delivery fields. 
  • 556
  • 05 Jan 2023
Topic Review
Peimine, an Anti-Inflammatory Compound from Chinese Herbal Extracts
Fritillaria bulbs are used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat several illnesses. Peimine (Pm), an anti-inflammatory compound from Fritillaria, is known to inhibit some voltage-dependent ion channels and muscarinic receptors, but its interaction with ligand-gated ion channels remains unexplored.
  • 393
  • 29 Mar 2022
Topic Review
Periodontitis and Systemic Disorder
Periodontitis, a major oral disease, affects a vast majority of the population but has been often ignored without realizing its long-fetched effects on overall human health. A realization in recent years of its association with severe diseases such as carditis, low birth weight babies, and preeclampsia has instigated dedicated research in this area. In the arena of periodontal medicines, the studies of past decades suggest a link between human periodontal afflictions and certain systemic disorders such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, respiratory disorders, preterm birth, autoimmune disorders, and cancer. Although, the disease appears as a locoregional infection, the periodontal pathogens, in addition their metabolic products and systemic mediators, receive access to the bloodstream, thereby contributing to the development of systemic disorders. Mechanism-based insights into the disease pathogenesis and association are highly relevant and shall be useful in avoiding any systemic complications.
  • 949
  • 30 Sep 2021
Topic Review
Peripheralization Strategies Applied to Morphinans
Among therapeutically valuable opioids, morphinans are of the utmost clinical importance as analgesic drugs because of their agonistic actions to the mu-opioid receptor. They include powerful pain relieving agents, such as naturally occurring alkaloids (e.g., morphine and codeine), semisynthetic analogues (e.g., hydrocodone, hydromorphone, oxycodone, oxymorphone and buprenorphine), and synthetic derivatives (e.g., levorphanol).
  • 292
  • 29 Jun 2023
Topic Review
pH-Responsive Vaccine Delivery System in Cancer Vaccines Formulation
Cancer vaccination as an immunotherapy to increase the immune system’s anti-tumor immunity has been extensively studied.  Extracellular and intracellular pH measurements reveal that the endocytic spaces of DCs have a somewhat acidic pH. While being surrounded by endosomal structures, proteases are more quickly destroyed as a consequence of antigen import by endocytosis and the consequent acidification of the lysosome. Low endosomal pH is a suitable internal signal for pH-responsive vaccine delivery techniques for regulating antigen production. Reacting to changes in pH, this intracellular distribution may be achieved by using acid-catalyzed disintegration, particle phase shift, and the “proton sponge effect”. When it comes to the administration of cancer vaccines, pH-responsive biomaterials have attracted the greatest attention.
  • 245
  • 14 Aug 2023
Topic Review
PH-Sensitive Cubosome Liquid Crystalline Nanocarriers
Cubosomes are soft biocontinuous nanoparticles whose 3D geometry can be engineered to render the structures responsive to pH variations, which is of large interest to the production of efficient drug delivery materials. We have reviewed the literature to provide a state of the art in this regard and shed lights on prominent perspectives and strategies for pH-sensitive cubosomes development, taking advantage of the pH changes of the biological media at targeted application sites.
  • 1.1K
  • 27 Oct 2020
Topic Review
Pharmaceutical Hydrates Analysis
This entry discusses a set of instrumental and computational methods that are used to characterize hydrated forms of APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients). The focus has been put on highlighting advantages as well as on presenting some limitations of the selected analytical approaches. This has been performed in order to facilitate the choice of an appropriate method depending on the type of the structural feature that is to be analyzed, that is, degree of hydration, crystal structure and dynamics, and (de)hydration kinetics. The presented techniques include X-ray diffraction (single crystal X-ray diffraction (SCXRD), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD)), spectroscopic (solid state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (ssNMR), Fourier-transformed infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy), thermal (differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA)), gravimetric (dynamic vapour sorption (DVS)), and computational (molecular mechanics (MM), Quantum Mechanics (QM), molecular dynamics (MD)) methods. Further, the successful applications of the presented methods in the studies of hydrated APIs as well as studies on the excipients’ influence on these processes have been described in many examples.
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  • 19 Oct 2020
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