Coupled quintessence with a possible transient accelerating phase

We discuss some cosmological consequences of a general model of coupled quintessence in which the phenomenological coupling between the cold dark matter and dark energy is a function of the cosmic scale factor $\epsilon(a)$. This class of models presents cosmological solutions in which the Universe is currently dominated by an exotic component, but will eventually be dominated by cold dark matter in the future. This dynamical behavior is considerably different from the standard $\Lambda$CDM evolution, and may alleviate some conflicts in reconciling the idea of the dark energy-dominated universe with observables in String/M-theory. Finally, we investigate some observational features of this model and discuss some constraints on its parameters from current SNe Ia, BAO and CMB data.