Discussing recent findings, up-to-date research, and novel strategies, the book integrates perspectives from pharmacology, toxicology, and biochemistry to illustrate the potential of lysosomes in drug discovery and development.• Explores basic principles and properties of lysosomes that allow them to act as regulators of cell metabolism, therapeutic targets, and sites for activation of drug conjugates• Discusses the role of lysosomes in metabolism, drug targeting, apoptosis,...

This revised second edition covers the pharmacologic principles underlying the individualization of patient therapy and contemporary drug development, focusing on the fundamentals that underlie the clinical use and contemporary development of pharmaceuticals. Authors drawn from academia, the pharmaceutical industry and government agencies cover the spectrum of material, including pharmacokinetic practice questions, covered by the basic science section of the certifying examination offered ...

Ischemic brain damage represents a major source of morbidity and mortality in westernized society and poses a significant financial burden on the health care system. To date, few effective therapies have been realized. Recent evidence, however, suggests that channels, pumps, and ionic exchangers are involved in CNS ischemia and ischemic stroke, but the potential contribution of these channels for curing stroke is far less understood than for many other normal and pathological conditions. N...

Non-selective inhibitors of cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase (PDE), such as theophylline, have been used extensively since 1958. In the decade of the '70s, various PDE isoenzymes were defined which led to the development of the second generation of PDE inhibitors. Currently a variety of these new inhibitors are under test as potential anti-inflammatory drugs. During the past five years, molecular biology has revealed a superfamily of these phosphodiesterase isoenzymes. This book summari...

Cytokines have become established as key mediators of the signs and symptoms of inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, dermatitis, asthma and multiple sclerosis. Furthermore, they are involved in the cascade of events leading to cardiovascular shock and are major regulators of the function of immune cells. This book reviews recent advances in the development of new anti-inflammatory drugs. It addresses different therapeutic intervention possibilities for new drugs, such as the cellular s...

With a focus on case studies of R&D programs in a variety of disease areas, the book highlights fundamental productivity issues the pharmaceutical industry has been facing and explores potential ways of improving research effectiveness and efficiency.Takes a comprehensive and holistic approach to the problems and potential solutions to drug compound attritionTackles a problem that adds billions of dollars to drug development programs and health care...

Regenerative medicine is broadly defined as the repair or replacement of damaged cells, tissues and organs. It is a multidisciplinary effort in which technologies derive from the fields of cell, developmental and molecular biology; chemical and material sciences (i.e. nanotechnology); engineering; surgery; transplantation; immunology; molecular genetics; physiology; and pharmacology. As regenerative medicine technologies continue to evolve and expand across the boundaries of numerous scien...

Pharmacogenomics supports personalized medicine by translating genome-based knowledge into clinical practice, offering enhanced benefit for patients and health-care systems at large. Current routine practice for diagnosing and treating patients is conducted by correlating parameters such as age, gender and weight with risks and expected treatment outcomes. In the new era of personalized medicine the healthcare provider is equipped with improved ability to prevent, diagnose, treat and predi...

Connexins: A Guide is a practical and valuable reference and text covering a wide scope of information about the connexin family of membrane channel proteins. The editors and contributing authors intend for this cutting-edge work to be informative to scientists wishing to learn about the field, as well as to those who are active researchers in this area. Connexins: A Guide masterfully addresses specific needs of the scientific community; it is a comprehensive and comprehensible narrative o...

Combinatorial chemistry in conjunction with High Throughput Screening (HTS) is revolutionizing the drug discovery process. Yet, we have much to learn about the integration of these powerful techniques with information from genomics, proteomics, computation and pharmacokinetics before dramatic increases in the drug discovery/development processes can be achieved. The chapters in this book represent the state of the art regarding the integration of combinatorial chemistry and HTS in connecti...

Recent and rapid progress in the field of biotechnology has resulted in an increasing number of novel macromolecular drugs with great promise for further advanced research and clinical application. However, the delivery of these macromolecular drugs by routes other than the parenteral route is difficult. The pipeline of macromolecular drugs derived from biotechnology presents a challenging opportunity to develop practical dosage forms that could be dosed via the oral route. Given this, the...

Medicinal chemistry is both science and art. The science of medicinal chemistry offers mankind one of its best hopes for improving the quality of life. The art of medicinal chemistry continues to challenge its practitioners with the need for both intuition and experience to discover new drugs. Hence sharing the experience of drug research is uniquely beneficial to the field of medicinal chemistry. Drug research requires interdisciplinary team-work at the interface between chemistry, biolog...