Publications by authors named "Panagiotis Theodosis-Nobelos"

Vitamins are micronutrients necessary for the normal function of the body. Although each vitamin has different physicochemical properties and a specific role in maintaining life, they may also possess a common characteristic, i.e.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Degenerative conditions, such as neurodegenerative disorders (Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD)) and cardiovascular diseases, are complex, multifactorial disorders whose pathophysiology has not been fully elucidated yet. As a result, the available treatment options cannot eliminate these diseases radically, but only alleviate the symptoms. Both inflammatory processes and oxidation are key factors in the development and evolution of neurodegeneration, while acetylcholinesterase inhibitors are the most used therapeutic options against AD.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Parkinson's Disease (PD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer's Disease and is clinically expressed by movement disorders, such as tremor, bradykinesia, and rigidity. It occurs mainly in the extrapyramidal system of the brain and is characterized by dopaminergic neuron degeneration. L-DOPA, dopaminergic agonists, anticholinergic drugs, and MAO-B inhibitors are currently used as therapeutic agents against PD, however, they have only symptomatic efficacy, mainly due to the complex pathophysiology of the disease.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Obesity reaches up to epidemic proportions globally and increases the risk for a wide spectrum of co‑morbidities, including type‑2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), hypertension, dyslipidemia, cardiovascular diseases, non‑alcoholic fatty liver disease, kidney diseases, respiratory disorders, sleep apnea, musculoskeletal disorders and osteoarthritis, subfertility, psychosocial problems and certain types of cancers. The underlying inflammatory mechanisms interconnecting obesity with metabolic dysfunction are not completely understood. Increased adiposity promotes pro‑inflammatory polarization of macrophages toward the M1 phenotype, in adipose tissue (AT), with subsequent increased production of pro‑inflammatory cytokines and adipokines, inducing therefore an overall, systemic, low‑grade inflammation, which contributes to metabolic syndrome (MetS), insulin resistance (IR) and T2DM.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Amides containing methyl esters of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), L-proline and L-tyrosine, and esters containing 3-(pyridin-3-yl)propan-1-ol were synthesized by conjugation with 3,5-di--butyl-4-hydroxybenzoic, an NSAID (tolfenamic acid), or 3-phenylacrylic (cinnamic, ()-3-(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)acrylic and caffeic) acids. The rationale for the conjugation of such moieties was based on the design of structures with two or more molecular characteristics. The novel compounds were tested for their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and hypolipidemic properties.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

In this paper, we attempted to develop a novel class of compounds against lipoxygenase, a key enzyme in the biosynthesis of leukotrienes implicated in a series of inflammatory diseases. Given the absence of appropriate human 5-lipoxygenase crystallographic data, solved soybean lipoxygenase-1 and -3 structures were used as a template to generate an accurate pharmacophore model which was further used for virtual screening purposes. Eight compounds (1-8) have been derived from the in-house library consisting of N-substituted pyrroles conjugated with 5- or 6-indazole moieties through a carboxamide linker.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Oxidative stress and hyperlipidemia are important factors for the initiation and progression of various cell degenerative pathological conditions, including cardiovascular and neurological diseases. A series of cinnamic acid-derived acids, such as ferulic acid, sinapic acid, 3,4-dimethoxycinnamic acid, -coumaric acid, and ()-3-(3,5-di--butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl)acrylic acid, were esterified or amidated with various moieties, bearing different biological activities, and evaluated. The antioxidant and radical scavenging abilities of the compounds via inhibition of rat hepatic microsomal membrane lipid peroxidation, as well as their interaction with the stable radical 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), were assessed.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A series of thiomorpholine and cinnamyl alcohol derivatives, conjugated with cinnamic acid-containing moieties, such as ferulic acid, sinapic acid and 3,4-dimethoxycinnamic acid, were synthesized and tested for their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and hypolipidemic properties. An indomethacin ester with 2,6-di--butyl-4-(hydroxymethyl)phenol was also prepared for reasons of comparison. The majority of the compounds demonstrated considerable antioxidant capacity and radical scavenging activity, reaching up to levels similar to the well-known antioxidant trolox.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The concept of pharmaceutical care (PC) has existed as a professional philosophy for more than 30 years. However, for a long period of time, little had been done for its integration into the regular practice of healthcare provision. The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting increase in patient influx in the community pharmacies (CP) encouraged the exploration and establishment of new healthcare services provided within the CP.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a complex neurodegenerative disease. Although its pathogenesis is rather vague in some aspects, it is well known to be an inflammatory process characterized by inflammatory cytokine release and oxidative burden, resulting in demyelination and reduced remyelination and axonal survival together with microglial activation. Antioxidant compounds are gaining interest towards the manipulation of MS, since they offer, in most of the cases, many benefits, due to their pleiotropical activity, that mainly derives from the oxidative stress decrease.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system (CNS) with complicated etiology that has not been clearly analyzed until nowadays. Apart from anti-inflammatory, immune modulatory and symptomatic treatments, which are the main tools towards MS control, antioxidant molecules may be of interest. Oxidative stress is a key condition implicated in the disease progression.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder characterized by memory loss and cognitive impairment. Its pathology has not been fully clarified and therefore highly effective treatments have not been obtained yet. Almost all the current treatment options aim to alleviate only the symptoms and not to eliminate the disease itself.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A variety of supplement-drug interactions has been identified, and therefore health scientists should be aware of the proper usage of nutritional supplements. The main aim of this study was to assess beliefs and knowledge related to nutritional supplements among pharmacy students. A cross-sectional study was conducted in order to assess beliefs and knowledge related to nutritional supplements among pharmacy students.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The synthesis of derivatives of three nonspecific COX-1 and COX-2 inhibitors, ibuprofen, ketoprofen, naproxen is presented. These acids were connected via an amide bond with an amino acid (L-proline, L-tyrosine, and beta-alanine) used as a linker. The amino acid carboxylic group was esterified with 3,4,5 trimethoxybenzyl alcohol.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

University students represent a highly active group in terms of their social activity in the community and in the propagation of information on social media. We aimed to map the knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions of University students in Cyprus about severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) and Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) to guide targeted future measures and information campaigns. We used a cross-sectional online survey targeting all students in conventional, not distance-learning, programs in five major universities in the Republic of Cyprus.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Lipoic acid (LA) is globally known and its supplements are widely used. Despite its importance for the organism it is not considered a vitamin any more. The multiple metabolic forms and the differences in kinetics (absorption, distribution and excretion), as well as the actions of its enantiomers are analysed in the present article together with its biosynthetic path.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Although the relationship of mental health with cardiovascular dysfunction is not a recent finding, scientific data has appeared approximately at the middle of the last century. Firstly, depression was studied as a risk factor for premature death in cases of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Much later, the mechanism of psychosis and schizophrenia in the development of CVD were studied, as it was observed that most premature deaths in schizophrenia were related to cardiovascular disease.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A series of L-serine amides of antioxidant acids, such as Trolox, ()-3-(3,5-di--butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl)acrylic acid (phenolic derivative of cinnamic acid) and 3,5-di--butyl-4-hydroxybenzoic acid (structurally similar to butylated hydroxytoluene), was synthesized. The hydroxy group of serine was esterified with two classical NSAIDs, ibuprofen and ketoprofen. The Trolox derivatives with ibuprofen (7) and ketoprofen (10) were the most potent inhibitors of lipid peroxidation (IC 3.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders, characterized by memory deficits and cognitive impairment. Acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, NMDA receptor antagonists and nootropic agents are used clinically, but they have only symptomatic efficacy, attributed to the multifactorial character of AD. The multi-target directed compound approach is gaining attention and has been under investigation lately.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory and degenerative disorder of the central nervous system with significant immune participation. It can cause a variety of symptoms that may impact quality of life. This study investigates sexual dysfunction (SD) in patients with MS in Cyprus and compares it with a sample of the general population.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Vitamin E, essential for human health, is widely used worldwide for therapeutic or dietary reasons. The differences in the metabolism and excretion of the multiple vitamin E forms are presented in this review. The important steps that influence the kinetics of each form and the distribution and processing of vitamin E forms by the liver are considered.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Polymer-drug conjugates are polymers with drug molecules chemically attached to polymer side chains through either a weak (degradable bond) or a dynamic covalent bond. These systems are known as pro-drugs in the inactive form when passing into the blood circulation system. When the prodrug reaches the target organ, tissue or cell, the drug is activated by cleavage of the bond between the drug and polymer, under certain conditions existing in the target organ.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Inflammation and oxidative stress are involved in cardiovascular diseases. Nitrogen monoxide participates in the regulation of endothelial processes. Thus, derivatives of classic nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), trolox or cinnamic acids esterified with 2-(nitrooxy)ethanol were designed and studied.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Novel derivatives of some non steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, as well as of the antioxidants α-lipoic acid, trolox and ()-3-(3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl)acrylic acid with lorazepam were synthesised by a straightforward method at satisfactory to high yields (40%-93%). All the tested derivatives strongly decreased lipidemic indices in rat plasma after Triton induced hyperlipidaemia. They also reduced acute inflammation and a number of them demonstrated lipoxygenase inhibitory activity.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Novel amide derivatives of trolox, 3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxybenzoic acid, (E)-3-(3,5-di-tert-butyl-4-hydroxyphenyl)acrylic acid and cinnamic acid with cysteamine and l-cysteine ethyl ester were synthesised. In four cases, the disulfide derivatives were also isolated and tested. All compounds were examined for antioxidant activity, expressed as their ability to inhibit lipid peroxidation and to scavenge free radicals.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF