Research progress of antipsychotics / 药学学报

Epidemiology indicates that schizophrenia affects approximately 8‰ of the world's population. The atypical (second and third generation) antipsychotics generally endowed with D2/5-HTHT2 receptors antagonism properties are commonly used as first-line drugs for the treatment of schizophrenia presently. They have been proven effective in the treatment of positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia, but they are largely ineffective in the treatment of cognitive deficit. Moreover, the atypical antipsychotics are usually associated with cardiovascular and metabolic side effects such as QT prolongation and weight gain. To develop more potent antipsychotics with fewer side effects, more targets have been identified such as D3, glutamate, H3 receptors and PDE10A in recent years. Herein, the research progress of antipsychotics is reviewed.

Research progress of anti-influenza virus agents / 药学学报

Influenza is a major threat to millions of people worldwide. Vaccines and antiviral agents are two main options available to reduce the impact of the influenza virus, while anti-influenza agents are the most effective means to prevent the transmission of the highly contagious virus and to treat the epidemics of disease. At present, four anti-influenza agents have been approved by the FDA for the treatment of influenza, including two M2 protein ion channel inhibitors-amantadine and rimantadine and two neuraminidase inhibitors-zanamivir and oseltamivir. Arbidol hydrochloride, launched in Russia, is a potent inhibitor of influenza virus, too. Neuraminidase inhibitors could be classified generally by structure into six different kinds: sialic acid derivatives, benzoic acid derivatives, cyclohexene derivatives, cyclopentane derivatives, pyrrolidine derivatives and natural products. In this paper, recent progress in the research of the action mechanisms and structure-activity relationships of these anti-influenza virus agents were reviewed.

Signal transduction by protein tyrosine kinases and antitumor agents / 药学学报

Intracellular signal transduction plays an important role in the process of cellular metabolism, segmentation, differentiation, biological behaviour and cell death. Overactive signal transduction relates to tumor development and progression. Signaling pathways operated by protein tyrosine kinases (PTKs) will be illuminated here briefly. The Ras/Raf/MAPK and PI-3K/Akt pathways through receptor protein tyrosine kinases (RTKs), the Src, Bcr-Abl and JAK/STAT pathways by non-receptor protein tyrosine kinases (nrPTKs) are shown separately. Antitumor agents targeting the key proteins involved in the above five signalling routes are also summarized in this review.