Preface

Compound and Biological Sample Management in Drug Discovery

The present volume of Frontiers in Drug Design and Discovery and is an excellent compilation of eight well-written review on topics directly revelent to various aspects of drug development and delivery. Giuliari and Chang have contributed a detailed and Wellreferenced review on the use of pegaptanib sodium, a selectiveRNA aptamers antiangiogenic agent, for the treatment of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and proliferative diabetic-related retinopathy (PDR). Review highlights the promising results of various pre-clinical and clinical studies conducted on pegaptanib sodium. Second review by Tanaka and Isogai deals with the development of a stable synthetic hyprophilic resin which has the capacity of minimizing the non-specific protein absorption, and thus can be employed to characterize the drug-protein interaction. This particular resin can also be used as affinity matrix to isolate specific target proteins for drug research. The thirdarticle, Written by Lio et al., deals with the systematic strategy to select a linear dose range in various bioassay screenings. Thus address an important aspect of correctly analyzing, and interpreting the results of biological screening methods.

Kluska in his review focuses on the challenging task of chromatographic separation of benzyn derivatives, complexed with germanium metal. These compounds are Known to posses a range of biological activities and their separation is often a challenge due to their capacity to irreversibly bound with a variety stationary phases. The review contributed by Jappesen and Moos focuses on targeted drug delivery specifically to the tumor, such as the glioblastoma, multiform. The targeted drug delivery, in such cases is based on properties, such as molecular-signaling pathways or cell surface binding.

Designing of anti-FASN molecules as novel antitumor agents reviewed by Relat and Puig. Fatty acid synthase enzym (FASN) plays an important role in tumor cell survival and malignancy. FASN therefore has been identified as a novel target in anti tumor drug development. The article review the development of FASN-inhibitors and rational designing by anti-FASN agent based on the crystal structure of FASN protein. The last review of Maruta and Messerli also summarizes the extensive work, in last several decades, on the development of anti-PAK I drug, both of synthetic and natural arigin. These drug are specially effective against PAK I-dependent tumors.

In brief, this volume of FDDD bring a delight of interesting readings on various aspects of grug discovery, development and delivery. It is hopped that these well-written, and well-referenced reviews will be of special interest to scientists working in phatmaceutical R&D, as well as researchers of academic institutions, involve in drug discovery, and development.

We wish to extend our gratitide and felicitation to all the authors of this volume for their immensely useful contributions. We also extend our thanks to the editorial staff of the Bentham Science Publishers. The Netherlands, involved in various stages of timly publication of current volume of this important book series.