RELAXIN: A MAGICAL THERAPY FOR HEALTHY HEART

Relaxin (a peptide hormone) has emerged as a cardioprotective agent and plays a vital role in normal cardiac function. By activation a complex network of signaling cascade, relaxin is responsible for creating a healthy environment for heart functioning. Under pathological conditions, such as cardiomyopathy and heart failure, expression level of relaxin is increased dramatically to protect heart. By promoting angiogenesis, vasodilatation, improving ischemia/reperfusion injury and remodeling, relaxin has emerged as a magical agent to address cardiac abnormalities. Over the past 3 decades, various cardioprotection strategies are in use to deal with cardiac diseases, however till date no effective therapy is in clinical practice. Relaxin has emerged as a novel therapeutic agent to have beneficial action during various pathological conditions. In this review, we have discussed different cardioprotective roles of relaxin that marks it, as an effective agent to tackle heart related diseases.Â

TARGETING HIF-1 PATHWAY: A THERAPEUTIC APPROACH TO KILL CANCER CELLS

Tumorous growth often faces hypoxic (low oxygen tension) conditions and the adaptations of these cells to hypoxic conditions determine their survival. The cancer cells respond to hypoxia by altering the expression of different genes and Hypoxia-Inducible Factor (HIF)-1 is one of it. HIF-1 is a transcriptional factor that response to hypoxia (low oxygen tension) conditions quickly. Expression of HIF-1 gene is essential for increase in vascularization of hypoxic region such as tumor and thus aid in proliferation and survival of cancerous cells. Moreover, HIF-1 signaling in cancer cells has a diverse influence on the metastatic cascade. Targeting HIF-1 is therefore one of the most promising approach to treat cancer. In this review, we have focused on the potential of targeting HIF-1 pathway as therapeutic intervention to treat cancer. Key words: HIF-1 Pathway, Cancer, Hypoxia-Inducibl