Reasoning in terms of molecular recognition may be traced back to Emil Fischer, who practiced the art of chemistry at Humboldt University in Prussian Berlin a century ago. Today, it is clearly recognized that molecular recognition impacts and determines all life processes. It has become a key research field in both chemistry and biology and the emerging interface of what now is being called "chemical biology". The technological advances derived from this knowledge are particularly important, diverse, and directly evident in the pharmaceutical industry. Under the auspices of the Ernst Schering Research Foundation, a workshop held in Berlin in February 1998 addressed novel basic developments of potential relevance to drug research efforts. A balance of timely research topics in molecular recognition is presented in the lectures delivered by a multidisciplinary international panel of renowned scholars and documented in this volume.

In the past few years, antisense methodology has moved from in vitro studies to in vivo studies and first human trials. While the basic concept of antisense technology is simple, the methodological problems associated with its use are numerous and complex. Antisense- based methods have proven to be a field of research where careful attention to experimental protocols and appropriate controls is necessary. The Manual of Antisense Methodology emphasizes the application of antisense oligonucleotides, and is a guide for the identification of antisense and non-antisense effects in different experimental settings. The work is organized into three sections: antisense application in vitro, antisense application in vivo (animal models) and finally, clinical antisense studies. Where at all possible, the methods are described in sufficient detail to allow reproduction of a given experiment. The Manual of Antisense Methodology will be of interest to researchers in immunology, cancer research, pharmacology and internal medicine; and physicians conducting clinical studies in these fields.

This collection takes the perspective that the historiography of science, technology, and medicine needs a broader approach toward regulation. The authors explore the distinct social worlds involved in regulation, the forms of evidence and expertise mobilized, and means of intervention chosen to tame drugs in factories, consulting rooms and courts.

If the antibody industry is to achieve its full potential in the next decade, the individual technical potentials must be exploited, the limitations must be addressed, and lessons learned must be applied both to current purification methods and to the new technologies that continue to emerge. This book presents an overview of the current advances applied in the manufacture of monoclonal antibody including: -concepts in development of manufacturing strategies, -importance of antibody fragments, -application of chromatography method development, -quality control, -effect of expression on antibody properties, -virus removal and safety, -pharmacokinetics, -regulatory aspects.

Advances in molecular biology and recombinant DNA technology have accelerated progress in many fields of life science research, including gene therapy. A large number of genetic engineering approaches and methods are readily available for gene cloning and therapeutic vector construction. Significant progress is being made in genomic, DNA sequencing, gene expression, gene delivery and cloning. Thus gene therapy has already shown that it holds great promise for the treatment of many diseases and disorders. In general it involves the delivery of recombinant genes or transgenes into somatic cells to replace proteins with a genetic defect or to transfer with the pathological process of an illness. The viral and non-viral delivery systems may hold the potential for future non-invasive, cost-effective oral therapy of genetically-based disorders. Recent years have seen considerable progress in the discovery and early clinical development of a variety of gene therapeutic products. The availability, validation, and implementation of gene therapeutic products has also enabled success in testing and evaluation. New challenges will need to be overcome to ensure that products will also be successful in later clinical development and ultimately for marketing authorisation. These new challenges will include improvements in delivery systems, better control of in-vivo targeting, increased level transduction and duration of expression of the gene, and manufacturing process efficiencies that enable reduction in production costs. Perhaps profound understanding of regulated gene design may result in innovative bioproducts exhibiting safety and efficacy profiles that are significantly superior to those achieved by the use of naturally occurring genes. This procedure may contribute considerably to fulfilling standards set by regulatory authorities. This book provides an overview of the current advances in the field of gene therapy and the methods that are being successfully applied in the manufacture of gene therapeutic products, and hopefully will stimulate further progress and advancement in this field to meet the ever-increasing demands.

Seven review articles and original papers provide a representative overview of the research work done in hydrogen bond research at Austrian universities. The topics covered by the contributions are: state-of-the-art of understanding hydrogen bonding in biopolymers; recent NMR techniques for studying hydrogen bonding in aqueous solutions; intramolecular hydrogen bonding and proton transfer in a class of Mannich bases derived from substituted phenols and naphthols; competition between intramolecular hydrogen bonds in ortho-disubstituted phenols; molecular dynamic simulations on proton transfer in 5,8-dihydroxynaphthoquinone and in the formic acid dimer; accurate calculations of the intermolecular interactions in cyanoacetylen dimers; correlation between OH...O bond distances and OH stretching frequencies as derived from structural and spectroscopic data of minerals.

Protein Glycosylation provides clear, up-to-date, and integrated coverage of key topics in this field. Particular emphasis is placed on the biosynthetic pathways that result in a wide variety of identified protein-bound oligosaccharides. Protein Glycosylation begins with an overview of the chemical structures of mono- and oligosaccharides, to provide a scientific basis for the later chapters. The book includes discussions on the purification, function, and enzyme kinetics of selected glycosidases and glycotransferases, as well as a review of the roles of oligosaccharides in glycoprotein function and the in vivo role of glycoproteins themselves. Finally, the in vitro synthesis of glycoproteins is presented, together with future directions in glycobiology. Protein Glycosylation serves as an excellent text for upper-level undergraduate and graduate students as well as a reference for those scientists whose training is not in glycobiology but who are moving into this field.

This useful work presents a current overview of key genes involved in the control of apoptosis research together with thoughts on future prospects and clinical applications. While there are several books written on apoptosis, this one deals specifically with its regulation.

Much of chemistry, molecular biology, and drug design, are centered around the relationships between chemical structure and measured properties of compounds and polymers, such as viscosity, acidity, solubility, toxicity, enzyme binding, and membrane penetration. For any set of compounds, these relationships are by necessity complicated, particularly when the properties are of biological nature. To investigate and utilize such complicated relationships, henceforth abbreviated SAR for structure-activity relationships, and QSAR for quantitative SAR, we need a description of the variation in chemical structure of relevant compounds and biological targets, good measures of the biological properties, and, of course, an ability to synthesize compounds of interest. In addition, we need reasonable ways to construct and express the relationships, i. e. , mathematical or other models, as well as ways to select the compounds to be investigated so that the resulting QSAR indeed is informative and useful for the stated purposes. In the present context, these purposes typically are the conceptual understanding of the SAR, and the ability to propose new compounds with improved property profiles. Here we discuss the two latter parts of the SARlQSAR problem, i. e. , reasonable ways to model the relationships, and how to select compounds to make the models as "good" as possible. The second is often called the problem of statistical experimental design, which in the present context we call statistical molecular design, SMD. 1.

The lung and its contiguous structures are commonly involved in several of the rheumatic diseases (Table 1), either by direct manifestation of disease or as a secondary effect from infection or complications of therapy. In this chapter, we detail the various pulmonary manifestations of the major rheu- matological conditions. The common symptoms of pulmonary diseases and how frequently they are implicated in rheumatic disorders are review- ed. In addition, radiology and physiology of the lung, diagnostic proce- dures and therapeutic options are discussed. Table l. Respiratory associations of the rheumatic disorders Disease Airways Parenchyma Vessels WalVmuscles Lung Pleura Pulmonary Chest pleurisy hypertension Rheumatoid bronchiectasis, pneumonia, arthritis obliterative fibrosing effusion bronchiolitis alveolitis, empyema nodules Systemic pneumonia pleurisy hypertension lupus fibrosing effusion shrinking lungs erythematosus alveolitis, with high atelectasis diaphragm Systemic bronchiectasis fibrosing hypertension "encased chest" sclerosis alveolitis, aspiration pneumonia Sjogren's bronchitis fibrosing alveolitis syndrome lymphoma Dermatomyositis aspiration myopathy polymyositis pneumonia, fibrosing alveolitis Ankylosing upper lobe cos- spondylitis fibrosis vertebral fixation joint Behget's haemorrhage aneurysm syndrome Relapsing upper airway polychondritis narrowing Pulmonary vasculitides nodules The Respiratory System in Rheumatic Diseases 25 1. 2. Respiratory Symptoms The most common respiratory symptoms in patients with rheumatic disease and pulmonary involvement are non-specific and include cough, breathlessness and chest pain and can be the result of involvement of air- ways, lung parenchyma, pleura, chest wall or pulmonary vessels. 1. 3. Tissue Involvement 1. 3. 1.

The search for new producers of biologically active substances (BAS) against human and animal diseases continues to be an important task in biology and medicine. Experimental work must be carried out well in advance of need because it takes an average of ten years to develop a new medication, as well as additional time to put it on the market. Study of the Protozoa forms a special branch of biology - protozoology. The traditional fields of protozoology are taxonomy, phylogeny, morphology, cytology, evolution, ecology and host parasite-interactions. The Protozoa is the only taxon among the microscopic organisms, which has not been persistently studied as a source of BAS. This book then is the result of the research on the project: "Biologically active substances of the Mastigophora (Flagellates)." The research was carried out at the Laboratory of Antibiotics, Department of Microbiology, Biological Faculty of Moscow State University. Articles of other authors on the matter have been considered as the important part of this reference book. The goal of the reference book is to elucidate scientific approaches, which lead to obtaining biologically active substances from cultures of protozoa; the book reviews the historical background in connection with contemporary development of the field. N.N. Sukhareva ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research was performed in fruitful cooperation with my research associates (V. Urinyuk, T. Titiova, L. Udalova, R. Zeleneva, V. Brusovanik, M. Zaretskaya), postgraduate students (N. Kalenik, M. Chuenkova, V. Vasilevskaya, V. Khorokhorina), my colleagues at Moscow State University (Yu. Kozlov and I.

The development of new technology means that compromised patients previously confined to hospital may now be treated at home. Those patients receiving intravenous feeding, cytotoxic drugs and new insulin therapy, are fully trained by the health-care professionals (doctors, pharmacists and nurses) to encourage self-reliance and understanding which are vital to success. There are hazards in treating these patients in the home environment, e.g. microbiological risks which are currently being evaluated, failure of equipment, and social problems as patients adjust to a new life in the community. Neverthless, the balance of benefits favour restoration of the patient to a self-reliant positive life at home. The delivery of this important new dimension in therapy was described at a symposium held in the University of York by innovators in the field. Discussion enabled the core of knowledge and experience developed by multi-disciplinary teams to be shared. The problems of supplying parenteral nutrition and medication for the compromised patient in the home and the family situation were aired and solutions presented. The special care for hospital out-patients receiving cytotoxic drug therapy and safe procedures for staff handling these agents was presented and together with responses to questions indicated the direction for UK hospital pharmacists to follow. More information is needed and it is hoped that this account of these proceedings will stimulate interest in these aspects of health care.

Inspite of considerable progress in prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, pulmonary embolism has remained a threat to the patient and a challenge for the physician both in conservative, as well as in operative disciplines. Pulmonary embolism is according to pathology observations still the most frequently overlooked clinical diagnosis. In 1-5 per 100 autopsies, clinically unexpected pulmonary emboli are found. In addition, the sequelae of recurrent pulmonary emboli, the syndrome of pulmonary hypertension with or without right heart failure, continues to present a therapeutic dilemma - and no progress is in sight. In intensive care medicine pulmonary embolism, either acute, massive, and/or recur- rent, continues to be both a therapeutic as well as a preventive challenge mobilizing pharmacotherapeutic, catheter-interventional, and operative resources. Diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventive strategies are currently in use. Their basis, however, seems surprisingly thin, as far as our knowledge on the natural course of this chameleon-like illness with and without fibrinolytic, anticoagulative, catheter or opera- tive treatment is concerned. A large European multicenter register has been initiated by Professors Kasper and Geibel with the help of Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceutics, in order to better describe the natural course of pulmonary embolism under current treat- ment modalities. Furthermore, recently the clinical significance of the valve patent foramen ovale as a source of paradoxical emboli is beginning to be better understood. Many concepts therefore require revision.

Over the past five years, the immense financial pressure on the development and manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals has resulted in the increasing use and acce- ance of disposables, which are discarded after harvest and therefore intended only for single use. In fact, such disposables are implemented in all the main bioprocess production stages today and an even higher growth than those in the biopharmac- tical market is predicted (reaching double figures). Alongside disposable filter capsules, membrane chromatography units, tubing, connectors, flexible containers processing or containing fluids, freezer systems, mixers and pumps, and fully c- trolled disposable bioreactors of up to 2,000 L culture volume are already available on the market. Numerous studies highlight the advantages of disposable bioreactors and reveal their potential for simple, safe and fast seed inoculum production, process devel- ment and small as well as middle volume production (e.g. bioactive substances, viruses for vaccines and gene therapies etc.). They suggest that such disposable bioreactors (typically characterized by the cultivation chamber or bag from plastic materials) may be advantageous for plant, animal and microbial cells. Running industrial activities such as CFD-modelling, development of single-use process monitoring and control technology, and standardized film formulations are attempting to resolve the limitations of the current disposable bioreactors. These achievements, along with substantial improvements in product yield, will reduce the use of stainless steel in the biomanufacturing facilities of the future.

Volume 3 of the Encyclopedia of the Alkaloids covers the literature to the end of October 1976 and includes a large number of these compounds which have been discovered since the first two volumes were published in 1975. There are some entries where recent work has resulted in new structures being put forward or where additional details regarding compounds have been provided. Additional references to compounds given in the first two volumes are marked with an asterisk. The opportunity has also been taken to provide a formula index covering all three volumes. It is a great pleasure to thank Academician Professor S. Yu. Yunusov of the Institute of Chemistry at the University of Tashkent, Uzbekistan, for pointing out a number of errors in the two previous volumes and for kindly providing me with invaluable detailed information of the alkaloids which have been isolated and studied by Soviet chemists over many years.

Bioactive Spin Labels focusses on nitroxyl radicals, their chemistry, biological activity and their application as paramagnetic contrast agents in biomedical research. New EPR techniques for in-vivo studies utilizing nitroxyl radical reagents are described. Recent results on stable nitroxyl radicals as anticancer, antishock, antiaggregant and antischemic drugs are summarized.

An unprecedented glimpse into the multidimensional learning processes that take place when novice professionals develop the necessary communication skills for effective task accomplishment. This analysis of authentic patient consultations by pharmacy interns is a significant contribution to research on health communication training.

All practitioners and pharmacists interested in treatment with herbal remedies should have this book at their disposal. It is the definitive practice-oriented introduction - now in its fifth edition - to phytotherapy. Methodically classified by organic systems and fields of application, the text provides a quick insight into dosage, form of application and effects of the most important herbal remedies. Only those herbal remedies that are of pharmacological and clinical efficiency have been considered. The authors are highly experienced in the field of postgraduate medical education, and, with this work, present an indispensable reference book for the medical practice.

This book explains the pharmacological relationships between the various systems in the human body. It offers a comprehensive overview of the pharmacology concerning the autonomic, central, and peripheral nervous systems. Presenting up-to-date information on chemical mediators and their significance, it highlights the therapeutic aspects of several diseases affecting the cardiovascular, renal, respiratory, gastrointestinal, endocrinal, and hematopoietic systems. The book also includes drug therapy for microbial and neoplastic diseases. It also comprises sections on immunopharmacology, dermatological, and ocular pharmacology providing valuable insights into these emerging and recent topics. Covering the diverse groups of drugs acting on different systems, the book reviews their actions, clinical uses, adverse effects, interactions, and subcellular mechanisms of action. It is divided into 11 parts, subdivided into several chapters that evaluate the basic pharmacological principles that govern the different types of body systems. This book is intended for academicians, researchers, and clinicians in industry and academic institutions in pharmaceutical, pharmacological sciences, pharmacy, medical sciences, physiology, neurosciences, biochemistry, molecular biology and other allied health sciences.