Posted by admin on Aug 15, 2010 in |
Pharmacogenomics is the branch of pharmacology and genomics that deals with the influence of genetic variation on drug response in patients by correlating molecular expressions and single-nucleotide polymorphisms with a drug’s efficacy or toxicity. Pharmacogenomics aims to develop rational means to optimize drug therapy, with respect to the patients’ genotype, to ensure maximum efficacy with minimal adverse effects. Such approaches promise the advent of “personalized medicine”; in which drugs and drug combinations are optimized for each individual’s unique genetic makeup. Pharmacogenomics is the whole genome application of pharmacokinetics, which examines the single gene interactions with drugs. Pharmacogenomics has a high potential to revolutionize cancer therapy. Some of the examples of genetic variations in drug metabolizing enzymes and drug targets described appear to play major roles in influencing drug efficacy or toxicity. In addition to the single gene variations described above, identification of genetic profiles to subtype the breast cancer and to identify the prognosis by microarray analysis has shown great promise towards individualized cancer therapy. Pharmacogenomics is the study of how an...
Read More
Posted by admin on Aug 15, 2010 in |
Direct genetic alterations leading to deregulated PI3K/Akt signaling are common in a significant fraction of human malignancies. Both Akt and Aurora A kinase have been shown to be important targets for intervention for cancer therapy. Nuclear Akt1 expression and Akt activation are common in cancer invasion. However, the mechanisms for this association and its causal role in invasion are uncertain. It is a key downstream effector of phosphoinositide 3’-kinase (PI3K) and directly modulates a wide range of pro-apoptotic and metabolism regulating proteins. Inhibition of Akt is a significant therapeutic goal due to the prevalence of activating mutations in the PI3K/Akt...
Read More
Posted by admin on Aug 1, 2010 in |
The community pharmacist, being an important member of the healthcare team and society, can make successful efforts to counsel the sufferer and guide him about this disease. Pharmacist is now becoming more patient oriented than product oriented and have brought many changes in life of patients. Hypertension or high blood pressure is a condition in which the blood pressure in the arteries is chronically elevated. With every heart beat, the heart pumps blood through the arteries to the rest of the body. Blood pressure is the force of blood that is pushing up against the walls of the blood vessels. If the pressure is too high, the heart has to work harder to pump, and this could lead to organ damage and several illnesses such as heart attack, stroke, failure, aneurysm, or renal failure. Cardiovascular diseases caused 2.3 million deaths in India in the year 1990; this is projected to double by the year 2020. Hypertension is directly responsible for 57% of all stroke deaths and 24% of all...
Read More
Posted by admin on Aug 1, 2010 in |
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality and its prevalence is continuously increasing. AD is characterized to varying degrees by Amyloid β, neurofibrillary tangles, gliosis, synaptic and neuronal loss leading to a decline in memory & apraxia agnosia and several neuropsychiatric changes like anxiety and depression etc. Increased age, oxidative stress and neuroinflammation are considered to be the major risk factors implicated in the progression of AD. Various signaling systems, such as vasoconstrictor peptides, inflammatory mediators, growth factors, are involved in the pathogenesis of AD. At present, no promising therapy is available due to lack of understanding of signaling culprits involved in the pathogenesis of AD. Animal models are being developed to better understand the disease pathogenesis and develop drugs for this ailment. In the present review, various common lab animal models for AD are discussed, which has been used, can be used and which will open new vistas for developing new drugs to treat this cognitive...
Read More
Posted by admin on Aug 1, 2010 in |
Filariasis is the name for a group of tropical diseases caused by various thread-like parasitic round worms (nematodes) and their larvae. The larvae transmit the disease to humans through a mosquito bite. Filariasis is characterized by fever, chills, headache, and skin lesions in the early stages and, if untreated, can progress to include gross enlargement of the limbs and genitalia in a condition called elephantiasis. While filariasis is rarely fatal, it is the second leading cause of permanent and long-term disability in the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) has named filariasis one of only six “potentially eradicable” infectious diseases and has embarked upon a 20-year campaign to eradicate the disease. These infections have a significant economic and psychosocial impact in endemic areas, disfiguring and/or incapacitating more than 40 million individuals. Studies from the Indian subcontinent have shown that infected patients lose significant time from work because of the disease costing the national treasury a minimum of $842 million per year. The treatment of filariasis consists of using medicines that kill the worms combined with...
Read More
