Brain 11: what's new in stroke research?

Yenari, Midori A,Lee, Jong Eun Future Drugs Ltd 2011 Expert review of neurotherapeutics Vol.11 No.9

<P>The International Society for Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism promotes research centered on furthering the understanding of neurological conditions that result from ischemia and related injuries. This previous meeting (Brain 11) focused on state-of-the-art research, which shed light on the pathophysiology of these conditions as they pertained to the cerebral vasculature - including the BBB - and angiogenesis, immune mechanisms, regeneration and repair following such insults. The meeting also covered a variety of potential therapeutic strategies ranging from cell-based therapy, induced tolerance and the targeting of specific immune or cell death pathways. In addition, there was a focus on how the peripheral circulation contributes to such types of brain injury.</P>

Lipid raft proteome reveals that oxidative phosphorylation system is associated with the plasma membrane.

Kim, Bong-Woo,Lee, Chang Seok,Yi, Jae-Sung,Lee, Joo-Hyung,Lee, Joong-Won,Choo, Hyo-Jung,Jung, Soon-Young,Kim, Min-Sik,Lee, Sang-Won,Lee, Myung-Shik,Yoon, Gyesoon,Ko, Young-Gyu Future Drugs Ltd 2010 Expert review of proteomics Vol.7 No.6

<P>Although accumulating proteomic analyses have supported the fact that mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) complexes are localized in lipid rafts, which mediate cell signaling, immune response and host-pathogen interactions, there has been no in-depth study of the physiological functions of lipid-raft OXPHOS complexes. Here, we show that many subunits of OXPHOS complexes were identified from the lipid rafts of human adipocytes, C2C12 myotubes, Jurkat cells and surface biotin-labeled Jurkat cells via shotgun proteomic analysis. We discuss the findings of OXPHOS complexes in lipid rafts, the role of the surface ATP synthase complex as a receptor for various ligands and extracellular superoxide generation by plasma membrane oxidative phosphorylation complexes.</P>

DNA microarray for the identification of pathogens causing bloodstream infections.

Yoo, Seung Min,Lee, Sang Yup Future Drugs Ltd 2010 Expert review of molecular diagnostics Vol.10 No.3

Viral membranes: an emerging antiviral target for enveloped viruses?

Song, Jae-Min,Seong, Baik-Lin Future Drugs Ltd 2010 Expert review of anti-infective therapy Vol.8 No.6

<P>Evaluation of: Wolf MC, Freiberg AN, Zhang T et al. A broad-spectrum antiviral targeting entry of enveloped viruses. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 107, 3157-3162 (2010). The emergence and re-emergence of viruses and the widespread antiviral resistance calls for the development of a broad-spectrum strategy for viral infection. The article under review describes an approach to achieve this goal by developing an antiviral rhodanine derivative effective against enveloped viruses targeting the viral lipid membrane. By intercalating into the viral membrane, the compound irreversibly inactivates the virions with virucidal effects. Potential toxic effects on hosts could be minimized by continuous regeneration of cellular membranes. The present strategy exploits the therapeutic window that exists between static viral membranes and biogenic cellular membranes and provides a useful guideline for future research endeavors towards broad-spectrum antiviral approaches for enveloped viruses. Developing a formulation that ensures efficient delivery and pharmacokinetic properties while minimizing systemic toxicity on cell membranes remains a challenge. The advantages and disadvantages of a viral membrane-targeting approach for the control of emerging and re-emerging viruses will be discussed.</P>

Preparing multiple-reaction monitoring for quantitative clinical proteomics.

Kim, Kyunggon,Kim, Youngsoo Future Drugs Ltd 2009 Expert review of proteomics Vol.6 No.3

Cytokines and their receptors as biomarkers of systemic lupus erythematosus.

Suh, Chang-Hee,Kim, Hyoun-Ah Future Drugs Ltd 2008 Expert review of molecular diagnostics Vol.8 No.2

<P>Systemic lupus erythematosus is the most clinically diverse autoimmune disease. Owing to its heterogeneous presentation, clinical management of systemic lupus erythematosus remains as one of the greatest challenges. Therefore, there is a great need to assess disease activity accurately. Biomarkers can be objectively measured and evaluated as an indicator of normal biologic processes, pathogenic processes or pharmacologic responses to a therapeutic intervention, and may also predict the risk of the disease, confirm diagnosis, monitor disease activity and provide prognostic information. Cytokines play an important and diverse role in the immune dysregulation in systemic lupus erythematosus. Measuring serum levels of soluble IL-2 receptor, IL-6, IL-10, soluble TNF receptor and IFN-alpha/IFN-induced genes may be promising biomarkers of disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus.</P>

Structural proteomics by NMR spectroscopy.

Shin, Joon,Lee, Woonghee,Lee, Weontae Future Drugs Ltd 2008 Expert review of proteomics Vol.5 No.4

<P>Structural proteomics is one of the powerful research areas in the postgenomic era, elucidating structure-function relationships of uncharacterized gene products based on the 3D protein structure. It proposes biochemical and cellular functions of unannotated proteins and thereby identifies potential drug design and protein engineering targets. Recently, a number of pioneering groups in structural proteomics research have achieved proof of structural proteomic theory by predicting the 3D structures of hypothetical proteins that successfully identified the biological functions of those proteins. The pioneering groups made use of a number of techniques, including NMR spectroscopy, which has been applied successfully to structural proteomics studies over the past 10 years. In addition, advances in hardware design, data acquisition methods, sample preparation and automation of data analysis have been developed and successfully applied to high-throughput structure determination techniques. These efforts ensure that NMR spectroscopy will become an important methodology for performing structural proteomics research on a genomic scale. NMR-based structural proteomics together with x-ray crystallography will provide a comprehensive structural database to predict the basic biological functions of hypothetical proteins identified by the genome projects.</P>

Rapamycin: could it enhance vaccine efficacy?

Future Drugs Ltd 2009 Expert review of vaccines Vol.8 No.11

<P>EVALUATION OF: Araki K, Turner AP, Shaffer VO et al. mTOR regulates memory CD8 T-cell differentiation. Nature 460(7251), 108-112 (2009). The prime goal of vaccination is to induce an effective memory T-cell response, because memory T cells have a pivotal role in adaptive immunity. When a specific pathogen is encountered after vaccination, memory immune cells induce an adaptive immune response against that pathogen, which is faster and stronger than a primary immune response. Therefore, the development of a successful vaccine requires a T-cell response of adequate magnitude. Although many vaccines effectively induce protective immune responses against specific pathogens, some vaccines require boosting due to inadequate generation of memory immune cells. It was reported recently that rapamycin, which is used as an immunosuppressive drug for organ transplantation, stimulates the production of memory CD8 T cells. This means that rapamycin or related drugs could be used to enhance the efficacy of many types of vaccines.</P>

Epigenetic biomarkers in urothelial bladder cancer.

Kim, Wun-Jae,Kim, Yong-June Future Drugs Ltd 2009 Expert review of molecular diagnostics Vol.9 No.3

<P>Bladder cancers comprise heterogeneous cell populations, and numerous factors are likely to be involved in dictating recurrence, progression and patient survival. While several molecular markers that are used to evaluate the development and prognosis of bladder cancer have been studied, the limited value of these established markers has created the need for new molecular indicators of bladder cancer prognosis. Of particular interest is the silencing of tumor-suppressor genes by epigenetic alteration. Recent progress in understanding epigenetic modification and gene silencing has led to new opportunities for the understanding, detection, treatment and prevention of cancer. Moreover, epigenetic silencing of tumor-suppressor genes is interesting from a clinical standpoint, because of the possibility of reversing epigenetic changes and restoring gene function in a cell. This review focuses on the prognostic relevance of epigenetic markers in bladder cancer.</P>

Association of sedative-hypnotic medications with suicidality.

Pae, Chi-Un,Koh, Jun Sung,Lee, Soo-Jung,Han, Changsu,Patkar, Ashwin A,Masand, Prakash S Future Drugs Ltd 2011 Expert review of neurotherapeutics Vol.11 No.3

<P>Evaluation of: Brower KJ, McCammon RJ, Wojnar M, Ilgen MA, Wojnar J, Valenstein M. Prescription sleeping pills, insomnia, and suicidality in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication. J. Clin. Psychiatry DOI: 10.4088/JCP.09m05484gry (2010) (Epub ahead of print). Several studies have investigated the association between sedative-hypnotics and suicidality, as such medications not only serve as a method for suicide, but are also involved in the usual options for treating psychiatric and medico-surgical disorders. According to population-based studies in Europe, Asia and the USA, sedative-hypnotic medications were significantly associated with suicide. However, these studies failed to address psychiatric comorbidities, new hypnotic medications, such as zolpidem, and the specific times at which such medications were used. Recently, Brower and colleagues have investigated the association of the prescription of sedative-hypnotic drugs with suicidality, to determine whether such medications were associated with suicidal ideation, suicide plans and suicide attempts in a large-cohort sample. They found that the use of sedative-hypnotic medications was significantly associated with suicidal ideation, suicide plans and suicide attempts. In addition, the use of sedative-hypnotic medications was a stronger predictor than insomnia of both suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. This article will discuss the relationship between prescription of sedative-hypnotic medications and suicide in the context of the potential limitations and significance of this recent research.</P>