Currently, the human being faces a contagious virus called SARS-CoV-2 with a high transmission ability, infection, and a relatively high mortality rate, especially for the elderly. All research interest is directed to finding a drug or vaccine to save millions of people's lives; some have succeeded and applied now in some countries. Medicinal plants represent a green treasure that renders plentiful primary and secondary metabolites characterized by potent biological activities. Interestingly, the secondary metabolites, alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins, and terpenoids, own a broad antiviral history. The plant antiviral capabilities may be due to inhibition of viral attachment to/penetration of the host cell; inhibition of the virus replication; suppressing RNA replication; downregulation of viral proteins translation; interfering with virus non-structural/structural protein; downregulation of virus-induced pro-inflammatory/inflammatory signaling pathways in the host cell, and antioxidant activity thus abating the virus-induced oxidative stress effect. Presently, as we are trapped with a surly virus, there are attempts to exploit the power of nature. Therefore, this review's main objective is to refer to some medicinal plants or their derivatives that limit the virus's virulence or alleviate the symptoms associated with this virus.
Background: Thalidomide (THD) and its analogues were recently reported as a promising treatment for different types of solid tumors due to their antiangiogenic effect. Methods: In this work, we synthesized a novel THD analogue (TA), and its chemistry was confirmed with different techniques such as IR, mass spectroscopy, elemental analysis as well as 1 H and 13 C NMR. To increase solubility and anticancer efficacy, a new oil in water (O/W) nanoemulsion (NE) was used in the formulation of the analogue. The novel formula's surface charge, size, stability, FTIR, FE-TEM, in vitro drug release and physical characteristics were investigated. Furthermore, molecular docking studies were conducted to predict the possible binding modes and molecular interactions behind the inhibitory activities of the THD and TA. Results: TA showed a significant cytotoxic activity with IC 50 ranging from 0.326 to 43.26 µmol/mL when evaluated against cancerous cells such as MCF-7, HepG2, Caco-2, LNCaP and RKO cell lines. The loaded analogue showed more potential cytotoxicity against MDA-MB-231 and MCF-7-ADR cell lines with IC 50 values of 0.0293 and 0.0208 nmol/mL, respectively. Moreover, flow cytometry of cell cycle analysis and apoptosis were performed showing a suppression in the expression levels of TGF-β, MCL-1, VEGF, TNF-α, STAT3 and IL-6 in the MDA-MB-231 cell line.
Conclusion:The novel NE formula dramatically reduced the anticancer dosage of TA from micromolar efficiency to nanomolar efficiency. This indicates that the synthesized analogue exhibited high potency in the NE formulation and proved its efficacy against triple-negative breast cancer cell line.
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