Drug Discovery

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: The Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia of India (API) is a unique book of standards describing the quality, purity and strength of selected drugs that are manufactured, distributed, and sold by the licensed manufacturers in pan India. It is developed in two parts; the part one comprises of mono-monographs of medicinal substances of natural origin and part two includes selected compound formulations sourced from the schedule - I books under the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 comprising of popular Ayurvedic classics of different period of times.

ETHNOPHARMACOLOGICAL RELEVANCE: Ayurveda has its unique perceptions and resultant methodologies for defining and treating human diseases. Fumigation therapy is one of the several treatment methods described in Ayurveda whereby fumes produced from defined drug formulations are inhaled by patients. This therapeutic procedure offers promising research opportunities from phytochemical and ethnopharmacological viewpoints, however, it remains under-noticed.

Drug discovery from complex mixture like Chinese herbs is a challenge and extensive false positives make the obtainment of specific bioactive compounds difficult. In the present study, a novel sample preparation method was proposed to rapidly reveal the specific bioactive compounds from complex mixtures using ?-glucosidase as a case. Firstly, aqueous and methanol extracts of 500 traditional Chinese medicines were carried out with the aim of finding new sources of ?-glucosidase inhibitors.

Understanding the causes of aging is a complex problem due to the multiple factors that influence aging, which include genetics, environment, metabolism and reproduction, among others. These multiple factors create logistical difficulties in the evaluation of anti-aging agents. There is a need for good model systems to evaluate potential anti-aging compounds.

Liposomes, phospholipid vesicles with a bilayered membrane structure, have been widely used as pharmaceutical carriers for drugs and genes, in particular for treatment of cancer.

INTRODUCTION: Mild stress-induced hormesis is becoming increasingly attractive as an ageing interventional strategy and is leading to the discovery of hormesis-inducing compounds called hormetins.

Traditional ex vivo culture setups fail to imitate the native tissue niche, leading to cellular senescence, phenotypic drift, growth arrest and loss of stem cell multipotency. Growing evidence suggests that surface topography, substrate stiffness, mechanical stimulation, oxygen tension and localised density influence cellular functions and longevity, enhance tissue-specific extracellular matrix deposition and direct stem cell differentiation.

INTRODUCTION: Epigenetics describes the phenomenon of heritable changes in gene regulation governed by non-Mendelian processes, primarily through biochemical modifications to chromatin that occur during cell differentiation and development. Abnormal levels of DNA and/or histone modifications are observed in patients with a wide variety of chronic diseases.

Epigenetic mechanisms integrate signals from diverse intracellular transduction cascades and in turn regulate genetic readout. Accumulating evidence has revealed that these mechanisms are critical components of ongoing physiology and function in the adult nervous system, and are essential for many cognitive processes, including learning and memory. Moreover, a number of psychiatric disorders and syndromes that involve cognitive impairments are associated with altered epigenetic function.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common and disabling disorder that carries both a substantial personal burden as well as a social one. A better understanding of the epigenetic mechanisms in depression might provide a new framework for individually tailored pharmacologic treatment options. In this review we highlight current knowledge about the role of epigenetic mechanisms in the pathogenesis of depression and treatment implications.