Dis-organizing centrosomal clusters: specific cancer therapy for a generic spread?
Cancer is a leading cause of mortality and the annual incidence of new cancer cases is rising worldwide. Due to the frequent development of resistance and the side effects of established anti-cancer drugs, the quest for new drugs with improved therapeutic features goes on. In contrast to cytotoxic chemotherapy of the past, the concept of targeted chemotherapy attempts to increase specificity of therapy by attacking tumor-related mechanisms. A novel emerging treatment concept represents the inhibition of centrosomal clustering. The centrosome regulates mitotic spindle formation assuring uniform separation of chromosomes to daughter cells. Many tumors contain supernumerary centrosomes, which …
Herbal Medicines: Boon or Bane for the Human Liver?
Since ages, medicine is the most consistent companion of man. While in primeval time, disease was cured through natural preparations, onset of technology has made today’s formulations synthetic or nature derived. Across the ages, the plausibility of the “savior-turned-slayer” functionality of these drugs remained constant. With the increment in documentation, it becomes evident that many of the commonly used drugs are associated with toxicities. Thus, any drug, irrespective of its origin, needs to be thoroughly assessed. Rampant use of herbal drugs has often been a threat to human health owing to the scarcity in quality assessment. What needs to be understood is that everything natural is n…
Biopiracy of natural products and good bioprospecting practice
Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-26T16:27:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2016-02-15 Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Background: Biopiracy mainly focuses on the use of biological resources and/or knowledge of indigenous tribes or communities without allowing them to share the revenues generated out of economic exploitation or other non-monetary incentives associated with the resource/knowledge. Methods: Based on collaborations of scientists from five continents, we have created a communication platform to discuss not only scientific topics, but also more general issues with social relevance. This platform was termed 'PhytCancer -Phytotherapy to Fight Cancer' (www.phy…
Biopiracy versus One-World Medicine-From colonial relicts to global collaborative concepts.
Abstract Background Practices of biopiracy to use genetic resources and indigenous knowledge by Western companies without benefit-sharing of those, who generated the traditional knowledge, can be understood as form of neocolonialism. Hypothesis The One-World Medicine concept attempts to merge the best of traditional medicine from developing countries and conventional Western medicine for the sake of patients around the globe. Study design Based on literature searches in several databases, a concept paper has been written. Legislative initiatives of the United Nations culminated in the Nagoya protocol aim to protect traditional knowledge and regulate benefit-sharing with indigenous communiti…
Hormesis: Decoding Two Sides of the Same Coin
In the paradigm of drug administration, determining the correct dosage of a therapeutic is often a challenge. Several drugs have been noted to demonstrate contradictory effects per se at high and low doses. This duality in function of a drug at different concentrations is known as hormesis. Therefore, it becomes necessary to study these biphasic functions in order to understand the mechanistic basis of their effects. In this article, we focus on different molecules and pathways associated with diseases that possess a duality in their function and thus prove to be the seat of hormesis. In particular, we have highlighted the pathways and factors involved in the progression of cancer and how t…