Probabilistic record matching, as implemented in vigiMatch, achieved good predictive value for confirmed or likely duplicates in each data source. Most of the false positives corresponded to otherwise related reports; less than 10 % were altogether unrelated. A substantial proportion of the correctly identified duplicates had not previously been detected by national centre activity. On one hand, vigiMatch highlighted duplicates that had been missed by rule-based methods, and on the other hand its lower total number of suspected duplicates to review improved the accuracy of manual review.

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During the last decade there has been a growing interest towards the modulation of the cannabinoid CB1 receptor. The identification of CB1 cannabinoid receptor antagonists has been one of the major advances in cannabinoid research. Thus, the development of these ligands has opened new therapeutic applications. Since the discovery of the first cannabinoid receptor antagonist, rimonabant, by Sanofi in 1994, a large number of structural variations within this chemical series of 1,5-diarylpyrazoles have been described. So far, all attempts to identify novel structures for CB1 antagonists have been based on one or more pharmacophoric elements of the rimonabant structure. The advanced clinical trials of rimonabant confirm the therapeutic potential value of CB1 antagonists for the treatment of obesity. In addition, the results of pharmacological and clinical studies reveal other effective pharmacotherapeutic applications. The current review will mainly focus on the structure-activity relationships that have been established for antagonists/inverse agonists that bind to the CB1 cannabinoid receptors and on their therapeutic applications.

A series of 44 4-aminopiperidine derivatives was screened in vitro against four protozoan parasites (Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense, Trypanosoma cruzi, Leishmania donovani, and Plasmodium falciparum). This screening identified 29 molecules selectively active against bloodstream-form T. b. rhodesiense trypomastigotes, with 50% inhibitory concentrations (IC 50 ) ranging from 0.12 to 10 M, and 33 compounds active against the chloroquine-and pyrimethamine-resistant K1 strain of P. falciparum (IC 50 range, 0.17 to 5 M). In addition, seven compounds displayed activity against intracellular T. cruzi amastigotes in the same range as the reference drug benznidazole (IC 50 , 1.97 M) but were also cytotoxic to L-6 cells, showing little selectivity for T. cruzi. None of the molecules tested showed interesting antileishmanial activity against axenic amastigotes of L. donovani. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the antitrypanosomal activity of molecules bearing the 4-aminopiperidine skeleton.Tropical diseases due to parasitic protozoa cause great mortality and disability in the less developed world. Malaria and kinetoplastid diseases such as human African trypanosomiasis (HAT, or sleeping sickness), Chagas' disease, and leishmaniases are among the main neglected parasitic diseases, affecting hundreds of millions of people worldwide (http://www.dndi.org /index.php/diseases.html?idsϭ2). However, the low income of the affected populations does not make it financially attractive for pharmaceutical companies to invest in the development of new drugs against these diseases. The number of antiprotozoal drugs available is limited, and they are old, toxic, and losing efficacy due to the emergence of resistant parasites. New drugs are thus urgently needed (37).The landscape of drug discovery and development for new antiparasitic drugs has changed in the past few years thanks to financial backing from not-for-profit organizations and the involvement of public-private partnerships. The collaboration of various pharmaceutical companies with the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), giving access to their compound libraries to help scientists search for new antiparasitic drugs, is a good example of the pragmatic approach required for the development of new medicaments for those neglected diseases (15,32,40). The screening of compound libraries to discover new hit and lead compounds against protozoan parasites has been used very efficiently by our group for the past few years. Very potent antiprotozoal compounds, active in vitro and in vivo against Trypanosoma brucei rhodesiense and Plasmodium falciparum, were identified by our group (16,17,38). These lead compounds were discovered by screening against T. brucei and P. falciparum a small library (Ͻ100 molecules) of dicationic compounds structurally related to known antiparasitic drugs (e.g., pentamidine, diminazene) but primarily synthesized by us for different medicinal targets.Following this successful approach, we have now selected from our i...

A series of bivalent cannabinoid ligands is proposed. The synthesis of double amides based on the rimonabant structure separated by an alkyl chain and the evaluation of their affinities for cannabinoid receptors are reported. The data of 4d confirmed that a bivalent structure is a suitable scaffold for CB1 cannabinoid receptor binding. The compound 4d was selected for in vitro and in vivo pharmacological evaluations. Moreover, intraperitoneal administration of 4d to food-deprived rats resulted in a dose-dependent inhibition of feeding that was maintained up to 240 min.