The Importance of Traditional Chinese Medicine in the Intervention and Treatment of HIV while Considering its Safety and Efficacy

Abstract

Natural products have been considered a potential resource for the development of novel therapeutic agents, since time immemorial. It is an opportunity to discover cost-effective and safe drugs at the earliest, with the goal to hit specific targets in the HIV life cycle. Natural products with inhibitory activity against human immunodeficiency virus are terpenes, coumarins, flavonoids, curcumin, proteins, such as lectins, laccases, bromotyrosines, and ribosome-inactivating proteins. Terpenes inhibit virus fusion, lectins and flavonoids have an inhibitory impact on viral binding, curcumin and flavonoids inhibit viral DNA integration. The most important medicinal plants which have been used in traditional Chinese medicinal sciences with anti-HIV properties are Convallaria majalis, Digitalis lanata, Cassia fistula, Croton macrostachyus, Dodonaea angustifolia, Ganoderma lucidum, Trametes versicolor, Coriolus versicolor, Cordyceps sinensis, Gardenia jasminoides, Morus alba, Scutellaria baicalensis, Ophiopogon japonicus, Platycodon grandiflorus, Fritillaria thunbergii, Anemarrhena asphodeloides, Trichosanthes kirilowii, Citrus reticulata, Glycyrrhiza uralensis, Rheum officinale, Poria cocos, Rheum palmatum, Astragalus membranaceus, Morinda citrifolia, Potentilla kleiniana, Artemisia capillaris, Sargassum fusiforme, Piperis longi fructus, Stellera chamaejasme, Curcumae rhizoma, Dalbergia odorifera lignum, Arisaematis Rhizoma preparatum, and Phellodendron amurense. The information provided is gathered from randomized control experiments, review articles, and analytical studies and observations, which are obtained from different literature sources, such as Scopus, Google Scholar, PubMed, and Science Direct from July 2000 to August 2023. The aim of this review article is to survey and introduce important medicinal plants and herbs that have been used for the treatment of HIV, especially the medicinal plants that are common in traditional Chinese medicine, as research to date is limited, and more evidence is required to confirm TCM,s efficacy.

Marine Bromotyrosine Derivatives in Spotlight: Bringing Discoveries and Biological Significance

“…All the bromotyrosine derivatives isolated before 2004 were thoroughly reviewed in 2005 by J. Peng et al [ 4 ]. Moreover, bromotyrosines have been extensively researched, with a total of 24 reviews published covering various aspects related to bromotyrosines, including their biological effects [ 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ], their roles in biological processes [ 16 ], and synthetic methodologies [ 17 ]. Our review comprehensively covers newly identified bromotyrosines from 2004 to 2023, examining both their structural features and related activities.…”

“…They differ by the type of connections, the nature of the side chains, and the substitution patterns of the aromatic rings. In 1995, J. R. Carney and K. L. Rinehart investigated the biosynthesis of bromotyrosine derivatives by the marine sponge Aplysina fistularis using 14 C-labeled amino acids such as 14 C-L-Tyrosine, 14 C-L-3-bromotyrosine, and 14 C-L-3,5-dibromotyrosine. This study revealed that the bromotyrosine unit (3) of bromoisoxazoline alkaloids originated from phenylalanine, which was then converted to tyrosine (Figure 1) [5].…”