Publications by authors named "K Varani"

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative pathology covering about 70% of all cases of dementia. It is associated with neuroinflammation and neuronal cell death, which are involved in disease progression. There is a lack of effective therapies, and halting this process represents a therapeutic challenge.

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Because of synergism between tubulin and HDAC inhibitors, we used the pharmacophore fusion strategy to generate potential tubulin-HDAC dual inhibitors. Drug design was based on the introduction of a -hydroxyacrylamide or a -hydroxypropiolamide at the 5-position of the 2-aroylbenzo[]furan skeleton, to produce compounds - and -, respectively. Among the synthesized compounds, derivatives , , , , and showed excellent antiproliferative activity, with IC values at single- or double-digit nanomolar levels, against the A549, HT-29, and MCF-7 cells resistant towards the control compound combretastatin A-4 (CA-4).

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Article Synopsis
  • * Among the leukemias, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is highly aggressive with poor survival rates, especially in patients with specific gene mutations, while hairy cell leukemia (HCL) remains rare and untreated with approved drugs.
  • * New epigenetic therapies, particularly histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors, show promise in targeting blood cancers, with new hydroxamic acid derivatives demonstrating effectiveness in inducing cell death and improving outcomes in models of AML and other blood cancers.
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Inherited retinal diseases, which include retinitis pigmentosa, are a family of genetic disorders characterized by gradual rod-cone degeneration and vision loss, without effective pharmacological treatments. Experimental approaches aim to delay disease progression, supporting cones' survival, crucial for human vision. Histone deacetylases (HDACs) mediate the activation of epigenetic and nonepigenetic pathways that modulate cone degeneration in RP mouse models.

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The labeled ligand commonly employed in competition binding studies for melatonin receptor ligands, 2-[I]iodomelatonin, showed slow dissociation with different half-lives at the two receptor subtypes. This may affect the operational measures of affinity constants, which at short incubation times could not be obtained in equilibrium conditions, and structure-activity relationships, as the K values of tested ligands could depend on either interaction at the binding site or the dissociation path. To address these issues, the kinetic and saturation binding parameters of 2-[I]iodomelatonin as well as the competition constants for a series of representative ligands were measured at a short (2 h) and a long (20 h) incubation time.

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