Summary

Among many research topics, this book considers phytoestrogens, natural compounds found in plants that possess oestrogen-like activity. Despite the growing evidence of the health benefits of phytoestrogens, further investigation is needed to better understand their mechanism of actions, the biological outcomes and possible adverse effects. This book chapter summarises the most recent developments of lanthanide nanorods in the field of biomedical nanotechnology. The cellular uptake of nanoparticles as a function of several parameters, such as polymeric material and surfactant type are considered. Camptothecins (CPTs) are regarded as one of the most promising anticancer drugs of the twenty-first century. A further chapter describes SAR, QSAR, and the clinical chemistry of CPT derivatives to understand their chemical-biological interactions and side effects. This book addresses the biological and pharmacological significances of identification and analysis of effective components of natural medicines and describes methods and procedures for identification and analysis. Potential future prospects in the field are provided. The porphyrazines are an emerging class of compounds exhibiting tremendous potential for use as anti-tumour therapeutic agents and in imaging applications. This book reviews the initial structure-function studies that have been carried out to date on this little-studied class of compounds. A further study hypothesises that the differences in the biology of breast cancers observed in women of different races are partially related to differences in the secretory activity of adipocytes in the breast tissue. The possible role of adipokines in breast malignancies of women of various races is reviewed.