Cimicifugae Rhizoma, mainly originated from C. acerina, C. dahurica, C. foetida, C. heracleifolia, C. racemosa and C. simplex, has long been used in traditional medicine system. During the past 45 years, a lot of efforts have been dedicated to the studies on their bioactive constituents, pharmacological effects and clinical uses, and a variety of biological activities including relief of hot flash, anti-osteoporosis, anti-human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), antiinflammatory, antidiabetes, antimalaria and vasoactive property have been discovered. Although C. racemosa is widely applied to relieve menopause symptoms in clinic for its hormonal-like action, meaningfully, no estrogenic effect was confirmed up to date. The purpose of this paper is to systematically highlight these achievements and the further therapeutic potential. The origins and distributions of the rhizome are simply listed and phytochemical aspects including over 200 compounds mainly belonging to cycloartane-type triterpenoids have been summarized. The pharmacological characterizations, especially, as a clinically effective phytomedicine, the effects of the rhizoma on menopause symptoms and the clinical applications including possible mechanism have been reviewed in detail. Various in vivo, in vitro studies on the anti-bone resorption effects of the triterpenoids, together with structure-activity relationships are also incorporated to explore the therapeutic potential on osteoporosis, a major public health threat for postmenopausal women.

Virtual Ligand Screening (VLS) has become an integral part of the drug design process for many pharmaceutical companies. In protein structure based VLS the aim is to find a ligand that has a high binding affinity to the target receptor whose 3D structure is known. This review will describe the docking tool eHiTS. eHiTS is an exhaustive and systematic docking tool which contains many automated features that simplify the drug design workflow. A description of the unique docking algorithm and novel approach to scoring used within eHiTS is presented. In addition a validation study is presented that demonstrates the accuracy and wide applicability of eHiTS in re-docking bound ligands into their receptors.

Insulin resistance in skeletal muscle is a major hallmark of type 2 diabetes and an early detectable abnormality in the development of this disease. The cellular mechanisms of insulin resistance include impaired insulin-mediated muscle glycogen synthesis and increased intramyocellular lipid content, whereas impaired insulin activation of muscle glycogen synthase represents a consistent, molecular defect found in both type 2 diabetic and high-risk individuals. Despite several studies of the insulin signaling pathway believed to mediate dephosphorylation and hence activation of glycogen synthase, the molecular mechanisms responsible for this defect remain unknown. Recently, the use of phospho-specific antibodies in human diabetic muscle has revealed hyperphosphorylation of glycogen synthase at sites not regulated by the classical insulin signaling pathway. In addition, novel approaches such as gene expression analysis and proteomics have pointed to abnormalities in mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation and cellular stress in muscle of type 2 diabetic subjects, and recent work suggests that impaired mitochondrial activity is another early defect in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes. This review will discuss the latest advances in the understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying insulin resistance in human skeletal muscle in type 2 diabetes with focus on possible links between impaired glycogen synthase activity and mitochondrial dysfunction.

Current standard cancer therapies (chemotherapy and radiation) often cause serious adverse off-target effects. Drug design strategies are therefore being developed that will more precisely target cancer cells for destruction while leaving surrounding normal cells relatively unaffected. Telomerase, widely expressed in most human cancers but almost undetectable in normal somatic cells, provides an exciting drug target. This review focuses on recent pharmacogenomic approaches to telomerase inhibition. Antisense oligonucleotides, RNA interference, ribozymes, mutant expression, and the exploitation of differential telomerase expression as a strategy for targeted oncolysis are discussed here in the context of cancer therapeutics. Reports of synergism between telomerase inhibitors and traditional cancer therapeutic agents are also analyzed.

Recent empirical studies and analyses have heightened interest in the use of expanded antiretroviral therapy (ART) for prevention of HIV transmission. However, ART is expensive, approximately $600 per person per year, raising issues of the cost and cost-effectiveness of ambitious ART expansion. The goal of this review is to equip the reader with the conceptual tools and substantive background needed to understand and evaluate the policy and programmatic implications of cost-effectiveness assessments of ART for prevention. We provide this review in six sections. We start by introducing and explaining basic concepts of health economics as they relate to this issue, including resources, costs, health metrics (such as Disability-Adjusted Life Years), and different types of economic analysis. We then review research on the cost and cost-effectiveness of ART as treatment, and on the cost-effectiveness of traditional HIV prevention. We describe critical issues in the epidemic impact of ART, such as suppression of transmission and the role of the acute phase of infection. We then present a conceptual model for conducting and interpreting cost-effectiveness analyses of ART as prevention, and review the existing preliminary estimates in this area. We end with a discussion of future directions for programmatic demonstrations and evaluation.