E-mail:  A.Parvizpur@excite.com

 
Staff


Overview of Pharmacology:
In this laboratory, the pharmacodynamics of drugs (effect of drugs in body) and pharmacokinetics of them (effect of body on drugs) are investigated.  The current major research interests of the laboratory include:

 Pharmacology of cardiovascular drugs:

Researches in this area include the study of coronary artery ligation in laboratory animals and isolated heart for the study of schema-induced arrhythmia, and the assessment of the extent of myocardial injury.  The mechanisms of heart preconditioning by hypoventilation and the possible involvement of endothelia in preconditioning are currently under investigation in this laboratory.

 Research on estrogen-induced cardiovascular protection:
 

Cardiovascular diseases is the major cause of death in virtually all industrialized countries.  Post-menopausal women are particularly at risk compared with pre-menopausal women and age-matched men.  Current evidence indicates that this is due to the loss of the protective effects of endogenous estrogens on the cardiovascular system.
Most epidemiological studies have demonstrated a beneficial effect of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) on morbidity and mortality of cardiovascular diseases.  Using in vitro techniques, we aimed to investigate the effects of various natural and synthetic estrogens and related compounds on mammalian vascular smooth muscle tissues, to study the underlying mechanism(s) of estrogen-induced vasorelaxant effect and also to explore any possible structure-activity relationships of oestrogens on vascular tissues.

 Anti-inflammatory studies:
 

Anti-inflammatory effect of natural products (in collaboration with the pharmacognosy laboratory) and the effects of new polymeric prodrugs of 5-amino salicylic acid (synthesized by the synthesis laboratory) in the treatment of colitis are our interest in this issue. Carrageein-induced paw edema, formalin-induced paw licking and colitis are well characterizes inflammatory models in the rat that are applied for this purpose.
Meloperoxidase activity, as index of polymorphonuclear leukocyte (PMN) accumulation, is also used for evaluation of anti-inflammatory effects of the compounds.

 Drug metabolism and enzyme assay:
 

Aldehyde oxidase and xantine oxidase are two molybdenum hydroxylases which involve in the metabolism of N-heterocyclic compounds and aldehydes including some important drugs.  The roles of these enzymes in the metabolism of drugs, production of free radicals, the effect of other drugs and natural compounds on the enzyme activity and the mechanism of the interaction of compounds with aldehyde oxidase are major topics in this research area of the laboratory.  At the present, the effect of steroids and flavonoids on aldehyde oxidase and xanthine oxidase are under investigation in the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics laboratory.