W. Richard Chegwidden - The Carbonic Anhydrases: Current and Emerging Therapeutic Targets

Progress in Drug Research is a prestigious book series which provides extensive expert-written reviews on highly topical areas in current pharmaceutical and pharmacological research.

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Carbonic anhydrase (CA; EC 4.2.1.1) is seemingly ubiquitous in its expression in various forms throughout nature, since the reaction that it catalyzesthe reversible hydration of CO2 to bicarbonate and a protonlies at the heart of a wide range of vital physiological processes. Consequently, the existing and potential therapeutic applications of targeting CA cover a plethora of diseases and disorders, and have generated extensive and increasing interest in recent years.

The primary purpose of this book is to assemble and integrate the wealth of diverse information that is accumulating in this burgeoning field. Its inter-disciplinary approach embraces both the up-to-date application of CA-targeting, and the latest research data that provide a platform for the development of novel applications.

The interested audience comprises scientists and physicians alike. The scientists include not only researchers specifically studying the carbonic anhydrases, but also those in areas of science and medicine to which carbonic anhydrase is relevant. They also include pharmacologists, pharmacists and chemists involved in drug action, design, and production. The physician audience includes all those in the many clinical disciplines in which the targeting of carbonic anhydrase isozymes is, or may become, clinically relevant. Such areas include, among others, nephrology, neurology, oncology, ophthalmology, pulmonology, urology, and vascular medicine.

Chapter integrates text with a tabular format to provide an easily accessible reference guide to the properties and roles of the various human CA isozymes, and the disorders and diseases currently and potentially addressed by their therapeutic targeting. This sets the scene for a series of chapters on more specialist clinically-related topics, written by an expert team of distinguished scientists and physicians who have made signal contributions to the carbonic anhydrase field. Since much attention has been given in recent years to the association of carbonic anhydrase isozymes with cancer, several chapters are focused on various aspects of this topic. Other chapters feature the roles of carbonic anhydrase, and potential of modulating its activity, in an impressively broad range of pathological conditions.

We wish to thank all the authors and co-authors for their excellent contributions to this volume, and the patient staff at Springer Nature for their assistance. We also wish to thank the series editor, Prof. K. D. Rainsford, for his steadfast support.