Kornai on the affinity of systems: Is China today an illiberal capitalist system or a communist dictatorship?

More than 40 years ago, János Kornai introduced his famous supermarket metaphor. Socioeconomic systems cannot be constructed from purposely selected features, similar to customers in a supermarket, who can freely put into their shopping trolley whatever they like. Systems constitute an organic whole.

The gendered effects of foreign investment and prolonged state ownership on mortality in Hungary: an indirect demographic, retrospective cohort study.

Background: Research on the health outcomes of globalisation and economic transition has yielded conflicting results, partly due to methodological and data limitations. Specifically, the outcomes of changes in foreign investment and state ownership need to be examined using multilevel data, linking macro-effects and micro-effects. We exploited the natural experiment offered by the Hungarian economic transition by means of a multilevel study designed to address these gaps in the scientific literature.

The effect of rapid privatisation on mortality in mono-industrial towns in post-Soviet Russia: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: Population-level data suggest that economic disruptions in the early 1990s increased working-age male mortality in post-Soviet countries. This study uses individual-level data, using an indirect estimation method, to test the hypothesis that fast privatisation increased mortality in Russia.

Methods: In this retrospective cohort study, we surveyed surviving relatives of individuals who lived through the post-communist transition to retrieve demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of their parents, siblings, and male partners.

Allergic rhinitis: meaningful and less meaningful combination treatments including reminiscences.

Allergic rhinitis (AR) results from a complex allergen-driven mucosal inflammation in the nasal cavity. Current guideline-based therapy for allergic rhinitis include oral and nasal antihistamines, topical and systemic glucocorticoids, decongestants, antimuscarinic agents, mast cell stabilizing drugs, leukotriene-receptor antagonists, and others. In spite of guideline recommendations, most patients are using multiple therapies in an attempt to achieve symptom control.

Flupirtine, a re-discovered drug, revisited.

Flupirtine was developed long before K(V)7 (KCNQ) channels were known. However, it was clear from the beginning that flupirtine is neither an opioid nor a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory analgesic. Its unique muscle relaxing activity was discovered by serendipity.

Soft drugs for future treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

COPD is a major cause of chronic morbidity and mortality worldwide. Current treatment is aimed at symptomatic relief. In contrast to bronchial asthma, glucocorticoid treatment strategies have proved disappointing.

Nanomedicine: evolutionary and revolutionary developments in the treatment of certain inflammatory diseases.

Nanomedicine, although in a nascent stage of development at present, is already a reality. Several pharmaceutical products using this modern technology are already on the market. Nanotechnology offers many potential benefits to medical research.

Current animal models of bronchial asthma.

Human asthma is on the rise worldwide. The necessity to develop effective treatments against it requires an organized effort which covers every aspect of the disease from the pathological alterations via the genetic background to the use and development of active remedies. In these processes animal experiments have served an indispensable role.

Are there any realistic chances to develop new drugs for asthma?

Asthma bronchiale, an inflammatory airway disease, imposes a significant health care problem worldwide. It is characterized by three critical phenotypic traits: intermittent and reversible bronchoconstriction, bronchial hyperresponsiveness and airway inflammation. Conventional therapy basically consists of beta(2)-adrenoceptor agonists in combination with glucocorticoids.

Is asthma research in dead end?

Despite enormous therapeutic advances, bronchial asthma remains a highly prevalent and serious health problem. Although we have learnt much about the pathogenesis of asthma and developed some new drugs within the last few years, there is still an urgent need for new treatments. The so-called single mediator approach appears to be ineffective in the treatment of asthma.

Can corticosteroids be beaten in future asthma therapy?

Despite the enormous therapeutic advance, there is a general trend towards increasing morbidity and mortality due to asthma, which suggests that there is a need for new and improved treatments. The past decade was determined by the so-called "new biology" that identified and cloned almost all receptors and ion channels. This scientific revolution should lead to a more rapid identification of novel targets for major diseases and processes like high throughput screening and combinatorial chemistry should have improved and fastened the development of new drugs.

Cilomilast, an orally active phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor for the treatment of COPD.

Cilomilast is a highly selective, orally active phosphodiesterase (PDE)4 inhibitor currently under evaluation for the treatment of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). PDE4 is the predominant cyclic AMP-degrading enzyme in various inflammatory cells such as eosinophils, neutrophils, macrophages, T-cells and monocytes. As a second-generation PDE4 inhibitor, cilomilast demonstrates a markedly improved side-effect profile over the prototype rolipram.

The real gordian knot: racemic mixtures versus pure enantiomers.

Many drugs exist as asymmetric three-dimensional (chiral) molecules and will therefore have several stereoisomers. There are often pharmacodynamic, pharmacokinetic and/or toxicological differences between enantiomers. The choice between developing a racemate or single enantiomers depends on therapeutic advances and developmental costs involved.

Bioavailability of diclofenac potassium at low doses.

Aim: Diclofenac-K has been recently launched at low oral doses in different countries for over-the-counter use. However, given the considerable first-pass metabolism of diclofenac, the degree of absorption of diclofenac-K at low doses remained to be determined. The aim of this study was to determine the bioavailability of low-dose diclofenac-K.

Possibilities in improvement of glucocorticoid treatments in asthma with special reference to loteprednol etabonate.

Allergic conditions contribute significantly to the burden of chronic disease in the industrialized world. The increasing prevalence has lead research into the discovery and development of various new therapeutic strategies. Despite considerable efforts of the pharmaceutical industry, the leukotriene antagonists were the only new class of asthma treatments to be licensed in the past 30 years.

New evidence for the selective, long-lasting central effects of the brain-targeted estradiol, Estredox.

The present study examined the dose- and time-dependent central effects of an estradiol chemical delivery system cyclodextrin complex (E(2)-CDS-CD) on the reestablishment of copulatory behavior of castrated male and ovariectomized female rats with concomitant determination of the blood luteinizing hormone (LH) and E(2) levels. In orchidectomized males, Estredox, after single doses of 0.3 and 3.

Loteprednol etabonate: a soft steroid for the treatment of allergic diseases of the airways.

There are several approaches for developing new antiallergic/antiasthmatic agents. One of them is the improvement of an existing class of effective drug classes. Due to some undesired effects of intranasal or inhaled corticosteroids, there is a need for better tolerated corticosteroids.

Therapy of bronchial asthma with adenosine receptor agonists or antagonists.

Adenosine is an endogenous nucleoside that is released under pathological conditions and interacts with four G-protein-coupled receptor subtypes. These receptors are widely distributed throughout the body. They are involved in many central and peripheral processes, including immunological and inflammatory responses.

Unconventional therapies in asthma.

Complementary/alternative medicine (CAM) is more popular than ever before. Patients with allergic diseases often seek so-called alternative treatment as supplementation but seldom as a real alternative to classical medicine. Innumerable physicians and even more patients feel confident that CAM is effective and safe without seriously questioning this notion.

Herbal remedies for asthma treatment: between myth and reality.

Asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases worldwide. To treat this widespread disease there is a high prevalence of usage of herbal medicine. The use of plants is as old as humankind and it has been steadily increasing over the past 10 years.

Asthma therapy in the new millennium.

Bronchial asthma is one of the most common chronic diseases in modern society and yet, despite the availability of highly effective drugs, there is increasing evidence to suggest that its incidence is increasing. It is a general health problem in several industrialised countries and will remain one for the next decades. With regard to asthma pathogenesis, our understanding has increased tremendously over the last two decades.

Modulation of TNF and GM-CSF release from dispersed human nasal polyp cells and human whole blood by inhibitors of different PDE isoenzymes and glucocorticoids.

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the inhibitors of different PDE isoenzymes (PDE 1-5) on the production of two pro-inflammatory cytokines - tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF) and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF). Two in vitro models were used to compare the antiinflammatory properties of PDE inhibitors with that of glucocorticoids. The effect on TNF release from diluted human blood following lipopolysaccharide (LPS from Salmonella abortus equi) stimulation as well as the GM-CSF and TNF release from human nasal polyp cells following allergic stimulation were investigated.

Anti-inflammatory effects of a cyclosporine receptor-binding compound, D-43787.

By virtue of its binding to cyclophilin, the cellular receptor for cyclosporine (CsA), we could identify a new compound D-43787 [N-[(1-tert-butyloxycarbonyl)-indolin-2-(S)-carbonyl]-indolin-2-(S)-carbonacid-[N-epsilon-benzyloxycarbonyl)-2-(S)-lysin methylester]-amide] exhibiting immunomodulating properties. It inhibited cell proliferation induced by 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)/ionomycin and anti-CD3/CD28 with an IC(50) of 0.3 microM.