Drug repositioning: playing dirty to kill pain.

The number of approved new molecular entity drugs has been decreasing as the pharmaceutical company investment in research and development is increasing. As we face this painful crisis, called an innovation gap, there is increasing awareness that development of new uses of existing drugs may be a powerful tool to help overcome this obstacle because it takes too long, costs too much and can be risky to release drugs developed de novo. Consequently, drug repositioning is emerging in different therapeutic areas, including the pain research area.

Role of prostaglandins in neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases.

Increasing data demonstrates that inflammation participates in the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases. Among the different inflammatory mediators involved, prostaglandins play an important role. The effects induced by prostaglandins might be mediated by activation of their known receptors or by nonclassical mechanisms.

Simultaneous quantitation of nicorandil and its denitrated metabolite in plasma by LC-MS/MS: application for a pharmacokinetic study.

A liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry method was developed and validated for the simultaneous quantitation of nicorandil and its denitrated metabolite, N-(2-hydroxyethyl)-nicotinamide, in rat plasma. After a liquid-liquid extraction step, chromatographic separation was performed on a ShinPack C(18) column with an isocratic mobile phase composed of methanol and 2 mM aqueous ammonium acetate containing 0.03% (v/v) formic acid (33:67 v/v).

Minocycline reduces prostaglandin E synthase expression and 8-isoprostane formation in LPS-activated primary rat microglia.

Minocycline is a tetracyclic antibiotic whose non-antibacterial activities, including anti-inflammatory, antinociceptive, and neuroprotective effects, have been widely studied. Thus, a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying its pleiotropic activities is important. Primary microglial cell cultures were established from cerebral cortices of 1-day neonatal Wistar rats.

Antiedematogenic activity and phytochemical composition of preparations from Echinodorus grandiflorus leaves.

The leaves of Echinodorus grandiflorus (Alismataceae) are traditionally used in Brazil to treat inflammatory conditions. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the antidematogenic activity of crude aqueous, dichloromethane and hydroethanolic extracts from E. grandiflorus leaves using the carrageenan-induced paw edema model in mice, along with of fractions enriched in diterpenes, flavonoids and hydroxycinnamoyltartaric acids (HCTA).