Cathepsin S expression is up-regulated following balloon angioplasty in the hypercholesterolemic rabbit.

Objective: Neointimal development following balloon angioplasty involves many factors including smooth muscle cell (SMC) migration and proliferation and extracellular matrix (ECM) remodeling. Further, in hypercholesterolemic (HC) conditions, there is an influx of macrophage foam cells (FCs) into the restenotic lesion, which also involves degradation of the basement membrane and surrounding ECM. The ECM remodeling that occurs during restenosis has been shown to be mediated by various proteases.

The identification and characterization of the marine natural product scytonemin as a novel antiproliferative pharmacophore.

Marine natural products provide a rich source of chemical diversity that can be used to design and develop new, potentially useful therapeutic agents. We report here that scytonemin, a pigment isolated from cyanobacteria, is the first described small molecule inhibitor of human polo-like kinase, a serine/threonine kinase that plays an integral role in regulating the G(2)/M transition in the cell cycle. Scytonemin inhibited polo-like kinase 1 activity in a concentration-dependent manner with an IC(50) of 2 microM against the recombinant enzyme.