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Diverse Pathologies (diverse + pathology)
Selected AbstractsCardiac hypertrophy and failure: lessons learned from genetically engineered miceACTA PHYSIOLOGICA, Issue 1 2001Y. Takeishi Congestive heart failure is a major and growing public health problem. Because of improved survival of myocardial infarction patients produced by thrombolytic therapy or per-cutaneous revascularization it represents the only form of cardiovascular disease with significantly increased incidence and prevalence. Clinicians view this clinical syndrome as the final common pathway of diverse pathologies such as myocardial infarction and haemodynamic overload. Insights into mechanisms for heart failure historically derived from physiological and biochemical studies which identified compensatory adaptations for the haemodynamic burden associated with the pathological condition including utilization of the Frank Starling mechanism, augmentation of muscle mass, and neurohormonal activation to increase contractility. Therapy has largely been phenomenological and designed to prevent or limit the deleterious effects of these compensatory processes. More recently insights from molecular and cell biology have contributed to a more mechanistic understanding of potential causes of cardiac hypertrophy and failure. Many different analytical approaches have been employed for this purpose. These include the use of conventional animal models which permit serial observation of the onset and progression of heart failure and a sequential analysis of underlying biochemical and molecular events. Neonatal murine cardiomyocytes have been a powerful tool to examine in vitro subcellular mechanisms devoid of the confounding functional effects of multicellular preparations and heterogeneity of cell type. Finally, significant progress has been made by utilizing tissue from human cardiomyopathic hearts explanted at the time of orthotopic transplantation. Each of these methods has significant advantages and disadvantages. Arguably the greatest advance in our understanding of cardiac hypertrophy and failure over the past decade has been the exploitation of genetically engineered mice as biological reagents to study in vivo the effects of alterations in the murine genome. The power of this approach, in principle, derives from the ability to precisely overexpress or ablate a gene of interest and examine the phenotypic consequences in a cardiac specific post-natal manner. In contrast to conventional animal models of human disease which employ some form of environmental stress, genetic engineering involves a signal known molecular perturbation which produces the phenotype. [source] A flexible approach to the design of new potent substance P receptor ligandsJOURNAL OF PHARMACY AND PHARMACOLOGY: AN INTERNATI ONAL JOURNAL OF PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCE, Issue 7 2001R. Millet The development of small-molecule antagonists of the substance-P-preferring tachykinin NK1 receptor offers an excellent opportunity to exploit these molecules as novel therapeutic agents in diverse pathologies such as depression, emesis or asthma. GR71251 has previously been identified as a potent and selective substance-P-receptor antagonist. We have therefore undertaken the synthesis of new pseudopeptidic analogues based on the C-terminal sequence of GR71251. The evaluation of binding affinities toward NK1 and NK2 receptors has enabled us to propose new selective NK1 ligands with high affinity. Structure-activity relationships showed that the Trp-OBzl(CF3)2 moiety is essential for NK1 affinity and that the introduction of building units such as spirolactam, lactam or proline, leading to a constrained peptide, increased selectivity for NK1 receptors. These compounds constitute a useful starting point for new substance P antagonists and represent an attractive lead series for further studies on the design of specific NK1 antagonists. [source] Where genetics and pathology meet: mulibrey nanism,THE JOURNAL OF PATHOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Frederik J Hes Abstract Mulibrey nanism is a rare autosomal recessive disorder with prenatal onset growth retardation (nanism) and dysmorphic features, including a wide range of abnormalities, such as cardiac disease (pericardial constriction, myocardial hypertrophy and fibrosis) and anomalies of muscle, liver, brain and eye, resulting in the acronym ,mulibrey'. This commentary summarizes recent analysis of the diverse pathologies seen in this syndrome and highlights the need for pathologists and geneticists to work together. Insights into the pathology of rare genetic syndromes may have important lessons for our understanding of much commoner conditions. Copyright © 2009 Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] A high-resolution structure of ligand-free human glutamate carboxypeptidase IIACTA CRYSTALLOGRAPHICA SECTION F (ELECTRONIC), Issue 3 2007Cyril Barinka Human glutamate carboxypeptidase II (GCPII; EC 3.4.17.21) is an established marker for prostate-cancer diagnosis as well as a candidate therapeutic target for the treatment of diverse pathologies that involve glutamatergic transmission. Structural data on GCPII are thus valuable for the design and optimization of GCPII-specific inhibitors and diagnostic probes. The currently available structure of ligand-free GCPII was refined to a resolution of 3.5,Å. This work reports the structure of the protein refined to 1.65,Å resolution, with crystallographic values of R = 0.207 and Rfree = 0.228. The new structure extends the resolution appreciably and the new model based on this data shows significant differences when compared with the previously published model. [source] | ||||||||||