Several corona viral infections have created serious threats in the last couple of decades claiming the death of thousands of human beings. Recently, corona viral epidemic raised the issue of developing effective antiviral agents at the earliest to prevent further losses. Natural products have always played a crucial role in drug development process against various diseases, which resulted in screening of such agents to combat emergent mutants of corona virus. This review focuses on those natural compounds that showed promising results against corona viruses. Although inhibition of viral replication is often considered as a general mechanism for antiviral activity of most of the natural products, studies have shown that some natural products can interact with key viral proteins that are associated with virulence. In this context, some of the natural products have antiviral activity in the nanomolar concentration (e.g., lycorine, homoharringtonine, silvestrol, ouabain, tylophorine, and 7‐methoxycryptopleurine) and could be leads for further drug development on their own or as a template for drug design. In addition, a good number of natural products with anti‐corona virus activity are the major constituents of some common dietary supplements, which can be exploited to improve the immunity of the general population in certain epidemics.
Oromuco-adhesive films for buccal delivery of Propolis extract (PPE) entrapped in niosomes, were prepared to treat oral recurrent aphthous ulcer (RAU). PPE was investigated for antimicrobial compounds. Niosomes composed of span60 and cholesterol were evaluated for particles size, polydispersity index (PDI), zeta-potential, entrapment efficiency and in vitro release. The formed oromuco-adhesive films containing niosomal PPE were evaluated for swelling, mucoadhesion and elasticity. 24 patients suffering from RAU were divided equally into medicated and placebo groups and participated in this study to examine the onset of ulcer size reduction, complete healing and pain relief. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry revealed the presence of pinocembrin, pinobanksin, chrysin and galangin as antimicrobial flavonoids with total content of 158.7 ± 0.15 µg quercetin equivalents and phenolic content of 180.8 ± 0.11 µg gallic acid equivalents/mg. Multilamellar niosomes of 176–333 nm displayed entrapment efficiency of 91 ± 0.48%, PDI of 0.676 and zeta potential of −4.99. In vitro release after 8 h from niosomal dispersion and films were 64.05% and 29.09 ± 0.13% respectively. Clinical results revealed duration of film adherence from 2–4 h in the two groups. The onset of ulcer size reduction in medicated group was attained within second and third day, complete healing was achieved within first 10 days of treatment and pain relief lasted for more than 4–5 h, in contrast to the placebo group. This oromuco-adhesive films which offer controlled and targeting drug delivery can be proposed as a new therapeutic strategy in the treatment of oral recurrent aphthous ulcer.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most common cancer mortality worldwide. Although, 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU)-based chemotherapeutic regimens remain the mainstay for treatment of CRC, intrinsic and acquired resistance to 5-FU is the main reason for treatment failure and relapse. Adjunct or add-on therapy, therefore, should be thought of to enhance responsiveness to 5-FU. Verbascoside (VER) is a phenylethanoid glycoside ingredient present in many Plantago species and was widely used in traditional medicine. VER showed antiproliferative effects in many cancer types including CRC. In the present study, VER in Plantago seeds was identified using UPLC-MS/MS and quantified using newly developed and validated UPLC-DAD followed by investigating its potential sensitization of CRC cells to 5-FU in vitro. The potential impact on PI3K/AKT pathway was also investigated. A synergistic cytotoxic interaction between 5-FU and VER besides G1 cell cycle arrest were detected. Enhanced apoptosis mainly by affecting Bax and Bcl-2 and to a lesser extent Bcl-xL and p53 was also observed. Additionally, 5-FU combined to VER was capable of significantly reducing PI3K and p-AKT/total AKT ratio. Overall, these results suggest a potential role of VER as an adjuvant treatment to decrease the resistance of CRC cells to 5-FU possibly by targeting the PI3K/AKT pathway.
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