| Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary 3,908,177,699 visitors served. |
Dictionary/ thesaurus | Medical dictionary | Legal dictionary | Financial dictionary | Acronyms | Idioms | Encyclopedia | Wikipedia encyclopedia | ? |
methotrexate |
Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Acronyms, Wikipedia | 0.01 sec. |
|
|
methotrexate, drug used in halting the growth of actively proliferating tissues. Introduced in the 1950s, it is used in the treatment of leukemia leukemia , cancerous disorder of the blood-forming tissues (bone marrow, lymphatics, liver, spleen) characterized by excessive production of immature or mature leukocytes (white blood cells; see blood) and consequently a crowding-out of red blood cells and platelets.
..... Click the link for more information. , psoriasis psoriasis , occasionally acute but usually chronic and recurrent inflammation of the skin. The exact cause is unknown, but the disease appears to be an inherited, possibly autoimmune disorder that causes the overproduction of skin cells. ..... Click the link for more information. , and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma lymphoma, non-Hodgkin's, any cancer of the lymphoid tissue (see lymphatic system) in which the Reed-Sternberg cells characteristic of Hodgkin's disease (the other category of lymphoma) are not present. ..... Click the link for more information. . By binding to an enzyme enzyme, biological catalyst. The term enzyme comes from zymosis, the Greek word for fermentation, a process accomplished by yeast cells and long known to the brewing industry, which occupied the attention of many 19th-century chemists. ..... Click the link for more information. that controls the metabolism of folic acid, methotrexate interferes with synthesis of nucleic acids nucleic acid, any of a group of organic substances found in the chromosomes of living cells and viruses that play a central role in the storage and replication of hereditary information and in the expression of this information through protein synthesis. ..... Click the link for more information. and therefore with tissue cell reproduction. Because of its immunosuppressive qualities, it is also used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis arthritis, painful inflammation of a joint or joints of the body, usually producing heat and redness. There are many kinds of arthritis. In its various forms, arthritis disables more people than any other chronic disorder. ..... Click the link for more information. . methotrexate [‚meth·ə′trek‚sāt] (pharmacology) Want to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit the webmaster's page for free fun content. |
|
| Encyclopedia |
| Free Tools: |
For surfers:
Free toolbar & extensions |
Word of the Day |
Help
For webmasters: Free content | Linking | Lookup box | Double-click lookup |
|---|