Reviewer: Ah-Ng Tony Kong, PhD (University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine)
Description: This book presents reviews of various topics on drug discovery and the drug research, as did previous volumes in the Progress in Drug Research series. Six diverse topics are covered. The first chapter is a review of the progress and the processes involved in drug discovery in general. Each of the remaining five chapters provides a summary of recent literature information on areas ranging from basic research on the biochemical aspects of various diseases to possible agents that may be developed for clinical intervention.
Purpose: The purpose is to present the necessary insights to those interested and involved in research related to drug discovery. Some of the recent advances in a broad spectrum of scientific fields are discussed, with special attention given to practical, often previously unpublished background information and material not readily found in standard textbooks and other reference works.
Audience: This book will be very useful to scientists in the area of drug development. Pharmacologists in general and teachers and students (both undergraduate and graduate) who are interested in the drug discovery process, in particular, will enjoy reading it. All individuals interested in any of the areas covered by the six review articles will find that the articles are written to provide both introductory and in-depth understanding of the current view and perspectives of the subject area.
Features: The volume consists of six distinct review chapters. The first chapter encompasses very broad review of steps that are important to drug discovery. The editor demonstrates an ability to summarize a vast amount of information from both the historical background in drug discovery to the current state-of-the-art approaches to drug design. He has been able to introduce both newcomers and older generation preclinical researchers to recent concepts such as combinatorial chemistry, high throughout screening, and computer-aide ligand-biomolecular docking in a simplified manner. Chapters Two, Four, and Five review new opinions on the role certain endogenous substances might be playing in the pathology of well-studied disease conditions. The possibility of the existence of an endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor that might be responsible for the extended effects on the sustained polarization of the vascular membrane and/or the underlining tissues that cannot be explained by nitric oxide or the products of cyclo-oxygenases is explored in the second chapter. The role of glutamate and its receptors on the psychomotor stimulation by agents such as cocaine and amphetamine is critically reviewed in Chapter Four. The fifth chapter reviews the involvement of endogenous polyamines and their interconverting enzymes in response to cerebral ischemia leading to cerebral injury. Chapters Three and Six are directed towards anti-infective agent development. Chapter Three focuses on novel pathways in the synthesis of isoprenoids and suggests the possible use for antibacterial and herbicidal targets. Chapter Six is a review of the latest efforts in the battle against the hepatitis B virus and the intensification of research efforts on the nucleoside analogs and gene therapy is proposed here.
Assessment: This 50th volume maintains the high standard of the series by providing excellent introductory and in depth reading, thus making it useful for both new and experienced professionals in the field of drug development.
Reviewer: Ah-Ng Tony Kong, PhD(University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine)
Description: This book presents reviews of various topics on drug discovery and the drug research, as did previous volumes in the Progress in Drug Research series. Six diverse topics are covered. The first chapter is a review of the progress and the processes involved in drug discovery in general. Each of the remaining five chapters provides a summary of recent literature information on areas ranging from basic research on the biochemical aspects of various diseases to possible agents that may be developed for clinical intervention.
Purpose: The purpose is to present the necessary insights to those interested and involved in research related to drug discovery. Some of the recent advances in a broad spectrum of scientific fields are discussed, with special attention given to practical, often previously unpublished background information and material not readily found in standard textbooks and other reference works.
Audience: This book will be very useful to scientists in the area of drug development. Pharmacologists in general and teachers and students (both undergraduate and graduate) who are interested in the drug discovery process, in particular, will enjoy reading it. All individuals interested in any of the areas covered by the six review articles will find that the articles are written to provide both introductory and in-depth understanding of the current view and perspectives of the subject area.
Features: The volume consists of six distinct review chapters. The first chapter encompasses very broad review of steps that are important to drug discovery. The editor demonstrates an ability to summarize a vast amount of information from both the historical background in drug discovery to the current state-of-the-art approaches to drug design. He has been able to introduce both newcomers and older generation preclinical researchers to recent concepts such as combinatorial chemistry, high throughout screening, and computer-aide ligand-biomolecular docking in a simplified manner. Chapters Two, Four, and Five review new opinions on the role certain endogenous substances might be playing in the pathology of well-studied disease conditions. The possibility of the existence of an endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor that might be responsible for the extended effects on the sustained polarization of the vascular membrane and/or the underlining tissues that cannot be explained by nitric oxide or the products of cyclo-oxygenases is explored in the second chapter. The role of glutamate and its receptors on the psychomotor stimulation by agents such as cocaine and amphetamine is critically reviewed in Chapter Four. The fifth chapter reviews the involvement of endogenous polyamines and their interconverting enzymes in response to cerebral ischemia leading to cerebral injury. Chapters Three and Six are directed towards anti-infective agent development. Chapter Three focuses on novel pathways in the synthesis of isoprenoids and suggests the possible use for antibacterial and herbicidal targets. Chapter Six is a review of the latest efforts in the battle against the hepatitis B virus and the intensification of research efforts on the nucleoside analogs and gene therapy is proposed here.
Assessment: This 50th volume maintains the high standard of the series by providing excellent introductory and in depth reading, thus making it useful for both new and experienced professionals in the field of drug development.
Volume 45 of Progress in Research (PDR 45) contains eight reviews and various indexes which facilitate its use and establish the connection with the previous PDR volumes. The chapters in this volume deal with neuropeptides, calmodulin, benzodiazepine receptor binding sites, and other topics. PDR has been in existence for 36 years. The series is published twice yearly, at which time the chemical, pharmacological, and clinical aspects of pharmaceutical research are discussed. With this new volume, the author's intention is to disseminate drug research information and to provide the reader with a valuable resource tool. Although the numerous volumes of PDR do meet many of the objectives of the author, textbooks become outdated quickly; journal articles are often preferred. The PDR series is an encyclopedic information source focused on a variety of research topics. The reviews are useful to nonspecialists and specialists (primarily pharmaceutical scientists and pharmacologists). Readers can conveniently obtain an overview of a particular field of drug research. In addition, active researchers will appreciate the reviews' comprehensive bibliographies as well as the new research ideas. The book is well illustrated. All figures, tables, and drawings are easily understood. The illustrations greatly add to the understanding of the research topics. The references after each chapter appear to be current and highly pertinent to the subject matter discussed. This book represents the various chemical, pharmacological, and clinical aspects of pharmaceutical research. The series will help the researcher to secure significant research data quickly and thoroughly aswell as to acquire fresh ideas. It is most valuable to the researcher as a library reference, although bookstores may also want to purchase this reference.
This volume contains seven review articles on various unrelated areas of research potentially leading to new therapeutic drugs. Also included are various indexes of the contents of the 54 volumes of the series. The purpose of the series is to disseminate information about actual trends and crucial points in drug research. The seven chapters include an eclectic collection of contributions dealing with gastrointestinal absorptions, appetite suppression, neuropeptides, regulation of NMDA receptors by ethanol, diabetic drugs, and developmental biology. Each of the chapters is well written by experts in the respective areas, and the contributions are directed towards other biomedical researchers in each of those areas. Because there is no theme to the volume, any given researcher is likely to be interested, at most, in a single contribution. Most of the areas are rather narrow, such as the effect of one drug (ethanol) on one receptor subfamily (the NMDA receptors of the glutamate receptor family). On the other hand, one chapter is very broad and contributors attempt to cover all of the neuropeptides in 20 pages. Thus, several important families of peptides, such as the opioid peptides are just superficially covered in a single page. A nice feature of the book is that pictures of most of the contributors are included at the start of the various chapters. This book will be of interest to a subset of researchers whose area of interest happens to correspond to one of the seven chapters. They will find their chapter of interest to be useful, although probably not as current as an article from a recent review journal.
The series presents, in volumes published twice yearly, larger survey articles on topical fields of pharmaceutical research in which the chemical as well as the pharmacological and clinical aspects are discussed. Volume 44 contains six reviews that deal with problems of drug discovery during "the golden age of drug research," with histamine H1-receptor agonists, with antifungal therapy, with antifolates in cancer therapy, with menses-regulating agents, and with developments in anticonvulsants. The reviews are extensively referenced and the volume concludes with a subject index to the volume and cumulative indexes of titles and of authors/papers. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
