Current pharmaceutical biotechnology
-
Curr Pharm Biotechnol · Sep 2009
ReviewMicrodialysis: a technique for pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic studies of oncological drugs.
Solid tumors have several barriers that may limit drug penetration and provide inherent mechanisms of resistance. Therefore, the evaluation of antineoplastic agents should base on tumor drug exposure and antitumor activity. Owing to selective access to the extracellular space of the tumor, which acts as target site for most antineoplastic drugs, monitoring drug disposition and corresponding antitumor activity, microdialysis (MD), a probe-based sampling technique, satisfies regulatory requirements for pharmacokinetic- pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) studies. ⋯ Recent progresses in the development of MD for estimating PK-PD studies of oncological drugs are summarized in this review. Special preclinical application examples of MD for PK-PD studies of oncological drugs organized by types of antineoplastic drugs and informations collected are also described. In conclusion, the role of MD in preclinical PK-PD studies of oncological drugs has been confirmed and it has provided a strong foundation for further clinical research.
-
Hyaluronan solutions known as ophthalmic viscoelastic devices (OVDs) are used in surgical procedures within the eye and on the surface of the eye to prevent dryness and to facilitate wound healing. HA and a variety of derivatives facilitate procedures including vitreoretinal surgery, anterior segment surgery, glaucoma surgery, and corneal transplantation.
-
Curr Pharm Biotechnol · Oct 2006
ReviewImmunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs): a new treatment option for myelodysplastic syndromes.
The IMiDs represent a new proprietary class of thalidomide analogues that possess greater potency and less toxicity than the parent compound. As a group, these agents share the pharmacologic property of modulating cellular response to ligand activation, the precise biologic effect of which is cell lineage and stimulant-dependent. Lenalidomide (CC-5013; Revlimid), a second generation IMiD, has shown significant erythropoietic activity in patients with lower risk MDS that have failed or are not candidates for recombinant erythropoietin treatment. ⋯ S. Food and Drug Administration on December 27, 2005, for the treatment of IPSS Low and intermediate-1 risk MDS patients with del(5q) abnormality. A phase III Intergroup trial (ECOG 2905) will test the capacity to potentiate erythropoietin response by comparing response to lenalidomide monotherapy to the combination of darbepoetin and lenalidomide in non-deletion 5q MDS patients.
-
Autonomic neural functions are important to regulate vital functions in the living body. There are different methods to evaluate indirectly and directly autonomic, sympathetic and parasympathetic, neural functions of human body. Among various methods, microneurography is a technique to evaluate directly sympathetic neural functions in humans. ⋯ These countermeasures will be beneficial to prevent autonomic dysfunctions related to gravitational stress such encountered in bedridden subjects as orthostatic hypotension, atrophy of antigravity muscles and so on. This is particularly important in the present aged-society with many bedridden elderly people. The knowledge accumulated from studies on autonomic neural functions in space should be very useful to establish effective countermeasures and preventive methods for gravity-dependent autonomic dysfunctions.
-
Opioids have long been thought to act exclusively within the central nervous system. An increasing number of studies recently reported the existence of opioid receptors outside the central nervous system and therefore suggested that opioids are also able to produce analgesic effects in the periphery. Such effects are particularly prominent under painful inflammatory conditions, both in animals and in humans. ⋯ Environmental stimuli (e.g. stress) as well as releasing agents (e.g. corticotropin releasing factor, cytokines) can liberate these opioid peptides to interact with the neuronal opioid receptors and elicit local analgesia. The inflammation-induced activation of opioid production and the release of endogenous opioids from immune cells may lead to novel approaches for the development of peripherally acting analgesics. Clinical investigation now focuses on the development of new peripheral opioid agonists as well as on ways to stimulate the endogenous analgesic system in order to induce effective peripheral analgesia with reduced central side effects typically associated with opioids.