Tolvaptan is a selective and competitive arginine vasopressin receptor 2 antagonist. Vasopressin acts on the V2 receptors found in the walls of the vasculature and luminal membranes of renal collecting ducts. By blocking V2 receptors in the renal collecting ducts, aquaporins do not insert themselves into the walls thus preventing water absorption. This action ultimately results in an increase in urine volume, decrease urine osmolality, and increase electrolyte-free water clearance to reduce intravascular volume and an increase serum sodium levels. Tolvaptan is especially useful for heart failure patients as they have higher serum levels of vasopressin. Tolvaptan is used to treat low blood sodium levels (hyponatremia) associated with various conditions like congestive heart failure, cirrhosis, and syndrome of inappropriate antidiuretic hormones (SIADH). FDA approved on May 19, 2009. Tolvaptan is sold under the trade names Samsca and Jinarc.

Tapentadol is the first US FDA-approved centrally acting analgesic having both μ-opioid receptor agonist and noradrenaline (norepinephrine) reuptake inhibition activity with minimal serotonin reuptake inhibition. Tapentadol is indicated for the management of pain severe enough to require daily, around-the-clock, long-term opioid treatment and for which alternative treatment options are inadequate, neuropathic pain associated with diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) severe enough to require daily, around-the-clock, long-term opioid treatment and for which alternative treatment options are inadequate.

Sitagliptin (MK-0431), chemically (2R)-4-Oxo-4-[3- (trifluoromethyl)-5,6-dihydro[1,2,4]triazolo[4,3-a]pyrazin- 7(8H)-yl]-1-(2,4,5-trifl uorophenyl)butan-2-amine has a very high selectivity towards DPP-4, with an IC(50) of 18 nM. There is no affinity towards other DDP enzymes (DPP- 8 and DPP-9). It has been approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in the USA and Europe and is registered by the name Januvia (Merck Pharmaceuticals, Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA). In healthy volunteers and in patients with type 2 diabetes of different ethnic background, the tolerability of different doses given once or twice daily is good. The drug works to competitively inhibit a protein/enzyme, dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-4), that results in an increased amount of active incretins (GLP-1 and GIP), reduced amount of release of glucagon (diminishes its release) and increased release of insulin. Sitagliptin is an incretin enhancer and the first marketed medication belonging to the gliptin class. In fact, no published literature exists regarding incidence or severity of hypoglycemia when sitagliptin is used off-label in combined with insulin therapy. However, is recommended to use methods to avoid hypoglycemia when using this off-label combination. Approximately 79% of sitagliptin is excreted unchanged in the urine with metabolism being a minor pathway of elimination. Elimination of sitagliptin occurs primarily via renal excretion and involves active tubular secretion. Sitagliptin is a substrate for human organic anion transporter-3 (hOAT-3), which may be involved in the renal elimination of sitagliptin

Rasagiline (N-propargyl-1-(R)-aminoindan) is a selective, irreversible monoamine oxidase B (MAO B) inhibitor, which has been developed as an anti-Parkinson drug and was sold as a mesylate salt under brand name AZILECT. AZILECT is indicated for the treatment of the signs and symptoms of idiopathic Parkinson’s disease (PD) as initial monotherapy and as adjunct therapy to levodopa. The effectiveness of AZILECT was demonstrated in patients with early Parkinson’s disease who were receiving AZILECT as monotherapy and who were not receiving any concomitant dopaminergic therapy. The effectiveness of AZILECT as adjunct therapy was demonstrated in patients with Parkinson’s disease who were treated with levodopa. PD is a progressive neurodegenerative, dopamine deficiency disorder. The main therapeutic strategies for PD treatment relies on dopamine precursors (levodopa), inhibition of dopamine metabolism (monoamine oxidase [MAO] B and catechol-O-methyl transferase inhibitors), and dopamine receptor agonists. In contrast to selegiline, rasagiline is not metabolized to potentially toxic amphetamine metabolites. The precise mechanisms of action of rasagiline is unknown. One mechanism is believed to be related to its MAO-B inhibitory activity, which causes an increase in extracellular levels of dopamine in the striatum.

Lanthanum hydroxide (La(OH)3) is a rare novel earth compound which has so far been fabricated with various morphologies such as nanopowders, nanotubes, nanowires, nanorods and nanobelts from different methods like solvothermal, hydrothermal, sol-gel and template assisted routes. This compound has many attractive applications in gas-exhaust convectors, optical coatings, catalysts, superconductors, hydrogen storage materials and next generation of high dielectric constant gate dielectrics. It is a useful carrier precipitate for a number of ions. It was applied to the collection of traces of aluminum, bismuth, gold, iridium, iron, lead, thallium and titanium in silver metal. It is a predecessor Lanthanum oxide, which has a great interest as catalyst material.

Treprostinil (marketed under the trade names Remodulin for infusion) is a vasodilator that is used for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension. Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a disease in which blood pressure is abnormally high in the arteries between the heart and lungs. PAH is characterized by symptoms of shortness of breath during physical exertion. The condition can ultimately lead to heart failure. Treprostinil is a potent oral antiplatelet agent. The major pharmacologic actions of treprostinil are direct vasodilation of pulmonary and systemic arterial vascular beds and inhibition of platelet aggregation. In animals, the vasodilatory effects reduce right and left ventricular afterload and increase cardiac output and stroke volume. Other studies have shown that treprostinil causes a dose-related negative inotropic and lusitropic effect. No major effects on cardiac conduction have been observed. Treprostinil had high affinity for the Prostaglandin D2 receptor (DP1), Prostaglandin E2 receptor EP2 subtype (EP2) and Prostaglandin D2 receptor (IP) receptors (Ki 4.4, 3.6 and 32 nM, respectively), low affinity for EP1 and EP4 receptors and even lower affinity for EP3, Prostaglandin F (FP) and thromboxane (TP) receptors. Treprostinil has demonstrated a unique effect on PPAR gamma, a transcription factor important in vascular pathogenesis as a mediator of proliferation, inflammation and apoptosis. Through a complementary, yet cyclic AMP-independent pathway, treprostinil activates PPARs, another mechanism that contributes to the anti-growth benefits of the prostacyclin class.

Oseltamivir phosphate is an ethyl ester prodrug requiring ester hydrolysis for conversion to the active form, oseltamivir carboxylate. Oseltamivir carboxylate is an inhibitor of influenza virus neuraminidase affecting release of viral particles. Oseltamivir is a well tolerated orally active neuraminidase inhibitor which significantly reduces the duration of symptomatic illness and hastens the return to normal levels of activity when initiated promptly in patients with naturally acquired influenza.

Amifostine is an organic thiophosphate cytoprotective agent known chemically as 2-[(3¬ aminopropyl)amino]ethanethiol dihydrogen phosphate (ester), it’s adjuvant used in cancer chemotherapy and radiotherapy involving DNA-binding chemotherapeutic agents. It is marketed under the trade name Ethyol. Amifostine is a prodrug and is dephosphorylated by alkaline phosphatase in tissues to a pharmacologically active free thiol metabolite. This metabolite is believed to be responsible for the reduction of the cumulative renal toxicity of cisplatin and for the reduction of the toxic effects of radiation on normal oral tissues. The ability of Ethyol to differentially protect normal tissues is attributed to the higher capillary alkaline phosphatase activity, higher pH and better vascularity of normal tissues relative to tumor tissue, which results in a more rapid generation of the active thiol metabolite as well as a higher rate constant for uptake into cells. The higher concentration of the thiol metabolite in normal tissues is available to bind to, and thereby detoxify, reactive metabolites of cisplatin. This thiol metabolite can also scavenge reactive oxygen species generated by exposure to either cisplatin or radiation. Healthy cells are preferentially protected because amifostine and metabolites are present in healthy cells at 100-fold greater concentrations than in tumor cells.

Aminolevulinic Acid is the first compound in the porphyrin synthesis pathway. The metabolism of aminolevulinic acid (ALA) is the first step in the biochemical pathway resulting in heme synthesis. Aminolevulinic acid is not a photosensitizer, but rather a metabolic precursor of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX), which is a photosensitizer. The synthesis of ALA is normally tightly controlled by feedback inhibition of the enzyme, ALA synthetase, presumably by intracellular heme levels. ALA, when provided to the cell, bypasses this control point and results in the accumulation of PpIX, which is converted into heme by ferrochelatase through the addition of iron to the PpIX nucleus. Marketed under the brand name LEVULAN KERASTICK for Topical Solution plus blue light illumination using the BLU-U Blue Light Photodynamic Therapy Illuminator, it is indicated for the treatment of minimally to moderately thick actinic keratoses (Grade 1 or 2, see table 2 for definition) of the face or scalp. Aminolevulinic acid is also being studied in the treatment of other conditions and types of cancer. An orally-administered in vivo diagnostic agent, Aminolevulinic acid, is used in photodynamic diagnosis (PDD) whose aim is to help doctors visualize the tumor tissue during surgical resection of malignant glioma, it is already sold in over 20 European countries including Germany and the U.K. According to the presumed mechanism of action, photosensitization following application of aminolevulinic acid (ALA) topical solution occurs through the metabolic conversion of ALA to protoporphyrin IX (PpIX), which accumulates in the skin to which aminolevulinic acid has been applied. When exposed to light of appropriate wavelength and energy, the accumulated PpIX produces a photodynamic reaction, a cytotoxic process dependent upon the simultaneous presence of light and oxygen. The absorption of light results in an excited state of the porphyrin molecule, and subsequent spin transfer from PpIX to molecular oxygen generates singlet oxygen, which can further react to form superoxide and hydroxyl radicals. Photosensitization of actinic (solar) keratosis lesions using aminolevulinic acid, plus illumination with the BLU-UTM Blue Light Photodynamic Therapy Illuminator (BLU-U), is the basis for aminolevulinic acid photodynamic therapy (PDT).

Carvedilol competitively blocks β1, β2 and α1 receptors. The drug lacks sympathomimetic activity and has vasodilating properties that are exerted primarily through α1-blockade. Animal models indicate that carvedilol confers protection against myocardial necrosis, arrhythmia and cell damage caused by oxidising free radicals, and the drug has no adverse effects on plasma lipid profiles. COREG® (carvedilol) is a racemic mixture in which nonselective β-adrenoreceptor blocking activity is present in the S(-) enantiomer and α1-adrenergic blocking activity is present in both R(+) and S(-) enantiomers at equal potency. Carvedilol is the first drug of its kind to be approved for the treatment of congestive heart failure, and is now the standard of care for this devastating disease. Carvedilol is also confirmed as effective in the management of mild to moderate hypertension and ischaemic heart disease.