Flavin nucleotides and flavoproteins

The promise of neuroprotective agents in Parkinson's disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is characterized by loss of dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra of the brain. Since there are limited treatment options for PD, neuroprotective agents are currently being tested as a means to slow disease progression. Agents targeting oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and inflammation are prime candidates for neuroprotection. This review identifies Rasagiline, Minocycline, and creatine, as the most promising neuroprotective agents for PD, and they are all currently in phase III trials. Other agents possessing protective characteristics in delaying PD include stimulants, vitamins, supplements, and other drugs. Additionally, combination therapies also show benefits in slowing PD progression. The identification of neuroprotective agents for PD provides us with therapeutic opportunities for modifying the course of disease progression and, perhaps, reducing the risk of onset when preclinical biomarkers become available.

Minireview: Aldosterone and mineralocorticoid receptors: past, present, and future

Although aldosterone was not isolated and chemically characterized until 1953, the mineralocorticoid action of certain steroids, notably deoxycorticosterone (DOC), had been recognized decades earlier. From 1953 until 1990 saw the establishment of the basic biology and clinical (patho)physiology of aldosterone as an epithelial sodium retaining hormone: its biosynthesis in the adrenal glomerulosa; control of its secretion by ACTH, angiotensin II, and plasma [K(+)]; its action via intracellular mineralocorticoid receptors to promote DNA-directed; RNA-mediated synthesis of proteins responsible for its epithelial effects; and the syndrome of primary aldosteronism, in which secretion of the hormone is relatively autonomous of its normal stimuli. The past 2 decades have been a major extension of our understanding of the pathophysiology of aldosterone and the complexities of mineralocorticoid receptor signaling in particular. This review concludes with a brief consideration of recent findings regarding hormone and receptor, agonists, and antagonists. In 1990 it might reasonably have been argued that we had the overarching framework for understanding the roles of aldosterone and mineralocorticoid receptors, with only the details to be filled in. Two decades later we still do not know the boundaries, and for every answer, two questions are springing up: truly the more we learn, the less we know.