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Synergistic Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity of Natural and Synthetic Compounds

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A special issue of Antioxidants (ISSN 2076-3921). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural and Synthetic Antioxidants".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 26719

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Andrea Pinto

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Guest Editor

Departement of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences (DeFENS), Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy
Interests: natural and synthetic bioactives; polyphenols; metabolites; antimicrobials; sustainable synthetic approaches; biocatalysis; structure–activity relationship studies
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Domenico Nuzzo

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Co-Guest Editor

Istituto per la Ricerca e l’Innovazione Biomedica (IRIB), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Via U. La Malfa 153, 90146 Palermo, Italy
Interests: mechanisms of neurodegeneration; mitochondrial dysfunction; high-fat diet mice model; natural antioxidants; functional foods
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Microbial contaminations and infection-induced oxidative stress are critical issues in several health-related fields, and the availability of molecules endowed with both antioxidant and antimicrobial activity represents an important opportunity for food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic applications. In this context, natural products have always represented an important source of inspiration in drug design and development, and plant-derived phenolics, characterized by antioxidant and antimicrobial activities, have attracted great interest in recent years.

This Special Issue aims to collect original research articles, review papers, reports, or communications in the field of synergistic or dual-acting antioxidant and antimicrobial compounds with attention on natural sources, synthesis and semisynthesis of novel derivatives, mechanism of action, in vitro assays and in vivo biological evaluation. In the case of natural extracts or compound mixtures, characterization of the active molecules should be included.

We look forward to your contributions.

Prof. Andrea Pinto
Dr. Domenico Nuzzo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Antioxidants is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

Synergistic antioxidant and antimicrobial activities
Antibiofilm activity
Natural and synthetic compounds
Phenolics
Nutraceuticals
Mechanism of action
Structure–activity relationship studies
Biological evaluation

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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18 pages, 3366 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Understanding the Role of the Antioxidant Drug Erdosteine and Its Active Metabolite on Staphylococcus aureus Methicillin Resistant Biofilm Formation

by Cristina Cattò, Federica Villa and Francesca Cappitelli

Antioxidants 2021, 10(12), 1922; https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox10121922 - 29 Nov 2021

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2357

Abstract

Increasing numbers of researches have suggested that some drugs with reactive oxygen species (ROS)-mediated mechanisms of action modulate biofilm formation of some pathogenic strains. However, the full contribution of ROS to biofilm development is still an open question. In this paper, the correlations between the antioxidant drug Erdosteine (Er) and its active Metabolite I (Met I), ROS and biofilm development of two strains of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus are presented. Experiments revealed that Er and Met I at 2 and 5 mg/L increased up to three orders of magnitude the number of biofilm-dwelling cells, while the content of ROS within the biofilms was reduced above the 87%, with a major effect of Met I in comparison to Er. Comparative proteomics showed that, 5 mg/L Met I modified the expression of 30% and 65% of total proteins in the two strains respectively. Some proteins involved in cell replication were upregulated, and a nitric oxide-based mechanism is assumed to modulate the biofilm development by changing quorum sensitive pathways. Additionally, several proteins involved in virulence were downregulated in the presence of Met I, suggesting that treated cells, despite being greater in number, might have lost part of their virulence. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synergistic Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity of Natural and Synthetic Compounds)

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16 pages, 4475 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Antioxidant Activity of Citrus Limonoids and Investigation of Their Virucidal Potential against SARS-CoV-2 in Cellular Models

by Fabio Magurano, Marzia Sucameli, Pasquale Picone, Matteo Micucci, Melissa Baggieri, Antonella Marchi, Paola Bucci, Silvia Gioacchini, Giorgia Catinella, Gigliola Borgonovo, Sabrina Dallavalle, Domenico Nuzzo and Andrea Pinto

Antioxidants 2021, 10(11), 1794; https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox10111794 - 10 Nov 2021

Cited by 14 | Viewed by 5047

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic represents an unprecedented global emergency. Despite all efforts, COVID-19 remains a threat to public health, due to the complexity of mass vaccination programs, the lack of effective drugs, and the emergence of new variants. A link has recently been found between the risk of developing a severe COVID-19 infection and a high level of oxidative stress. In this context, we have focused our attention on natural compounds with the aim of finding molecules capable of acting through a dual virucidal–antioxidant mechanism. In particular, we studied the potential of grapefruit seed extracts (GSE) and their main components, belonging to the class of limonoids. Using chemical and biological approaches including isolation and purification of GSE, antioxidant and virucidal assays, we have shown that grapefruit seed constituents, belonging to the class of limonoids, are endowed with remarkable virucidal, antioxidant and mitoprotective activity. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synergistic Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity of Natural and Synthetic Compounds)

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31 pages, 8415 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Phenolic Thiazoles with Antioxidant and Antiradical Activity. Synthesis, In Vitro Evaluation, Toxicity, Electrochemical Behavior, Quantum Studies and Antimicrobial Screening

by Gabriel Marc, Anca Stana, Ana Horiana Franchini, Dan Cristian Vodnar, Gabriel Barta, Mihaela Tertiş, Iulia Şanta, Cecilia Cristea, Adrian Pîrnău, Alexandra Ciorîţă, Bogdan Dume, Vlad-Alexandru Toma, Laurian Vlase, Ilioara Oniga and Ovidiu Oniga

Antioxidants 2021, 10(11), 1707; https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox10111707 - 27 Oct 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2429

Abstract

Oxidative stress represents the underlying cause of many chronic diseases in human; therefore, the development of potent antioxidant compounds for preventing or treating such conditions is useful. Starting from the good antioxidant and antiradical properties identified for the previously reported Dihydroxy-Phenyl-Thiazol-Hydrazinium chloride (DPTH), we synthesized a congeneric series of phenolic thiazoles. The radical scavenging activity, and the antioxidant and chelation potential were assessed in vitro, a series of quantum descriptors were calculated, and the electrochemical behavior of the synthesized compounds was studied to evaluate the impact on the antioxidant and antiradical activities. In addition, their antibacterial and antifungal properties were evaluated against seven aerobic bacterial strains and a strain of C. albicans, and their cytotoxicity was assessed in vitro. Compounds 5a-b, 7a-b and 8a-b presented remarkable antioxidant and antiradical properties, and compounds 5a-b, 7a and 8a displayed good Cu⁺² chelating activity. Compounds 7a and 8a were very active against P. aeruginosa ATCC 27853 compared to norfloxacin, and proved less cytotoxic than ascorbic acid against the human keratinocyte cell line (HaCaT cells, CLS-300493). Several phenolic compounds from the synthesized series presented excellent antioxidant activity and notable anti-Pseudomonas potential. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synergistic Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity of Natural and Synthetic Compounds)

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20 pages, 2272 KiB

Open AccessArticle

New Unnatural Gallotannins: A Way toward Green Antioxidants, Antimicrobials and Antibiofilm Agents

by Zuzana Hricovíniová, Šárka Mascaretti, Jana Hricovíniová, Alois Čížek and Josef Jampílek

Antioxidants 2021, 10(8), 1288; https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox10081288 - 13 Aug 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2255

Abstract

Nature has been a source of inspiration for the development of new pharmaceutically active agents. A series of new unnatural gallotannins (GTs), derived from d-lyxose, d-ribose, l-rhamnose, d-mannose, and d-fructose have been designed and synthesized in order to study the protective and antimicrobial effects of synthetic polyphenols that are structurally related to plant-derived products. The structures of the new compounds were confirmed by various spectroscopic methods. Apart from spectral analysis, the antioxidant activity was evaluated by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical-scavenging and iron reducing power (FRAP) assays. Antibacterial activity of compounds was tested in vitro against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 29213, Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212 (reference and control strains), three methicillin-resistant isolates of S. aureus, and three isolates of vancomycin-resistant E. faecalis. For screening of antimycobacterial effect, a virulent isolate of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and two non-tuberculous mycobacteria were used. Furthermore, antibiofilm activity of structurally different GTs against S. aureus, and their ability to inhibit sortase A, were inspected. Experimental data revealed that the studied GTs are excellent antioxidants and radical-scavenging agents. The compounds exhibited only a moderate antibacterial effect against Gram-positive pathogens S. aureus and E. faecalis and were practically inactive against mycobacteria. However, they were efficient inhibitors and disruptors of S. aureus biofilms in sub-MIC concentrations, and interacted with the quorum-sensing system in Chromobacteriumviolaceum. Overall, these findings suggest that synthetic GTs could be considered as promising candidates for pharmacological, biomedical, consumer products, and for food industry applications. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synergistic Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity of Natural and Synthetic Compounds)

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22 pages, 5958 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effects of the Quinone Oxidoreductase WrbA on Escherichia coli Biofilm Formation and Oxidative Stress

by Federico Rossi, Cristina Cattò, Gianmarco Mugnai, Federica Villa and Fabio Forlani

Antioxidants 2021, 10(6), 919; https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox10060919 - 06 Jun 2021

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 3022

Abstract

The effects of natural compounds on biofilm formation have been extensively studied, with the goal of identifying biofilm formation antagonists at sub-lethal concentrations. Salicylic and cinnamic acids are some examples of these compounds that interact with the quinone oxidoreductase WrbA, a potential biofilm modulator and an antibiofilm compound biomarker. However, WrbA’s role in biofilm development is still poorly understood. To investigate the key roles of WrbA in biofilm maturation and oxidative stress, Escherichia coli wild-type and ∆wrbA mutant strains were used. Furthermore, we reported the functional validation of WrbA as a molecular target of salicylic and cinnamic acids. The lack of WrbA did not impair planktonic growth, but rather affected the biofilm formation through a mechanism that depends on reactive oxygen species (ROS). The loss of WrbA function resulted in an ROS-sensitive phenotype that showed reductions in biofilm-dwelling cells, biofilm thickness, matrix polysaccharide content, and H₂O₂ tolerance. Endogenous oxidative events in the mutant strain generated a stressful condition to which the bacterium responded by increasing the catalase activity to compensate for the lack of WrbA. Cinnamic and salicylic acids inhibited the quinone oxidoreductase activity of purified recombinant WrbA. The effects of these antibiofilm molecules on WrbA function was proven for the first time. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synergistic Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity of Natural and Synthetic Compounds)

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16 pages, 1961 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Determination of Suitable Macroporous Resins and Desorbents for Carnosol and Carnosic Acid from Deep Eutectic Solvent Sage (Salvia officinalis) Extract with Assessment of Antiradical and Antibacterial Activity

by Martina Jakovljević Kovač, Valentina Pavić, Anastazija Huđ, Ines Cindrić and Maja Molnar

Antioxidants 2021, 10(4), 556; https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox10040556 - 02 Apr 2021

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2771

Abstract

In this study, for the first time, the adsorption/desorption characteristics of carnosic acid and carnosol from deep eutectic solvent extract of Salvia officinalis on five macroporous resins (HP20, XAD7HP, XAD16N, HP21, HP2MG) were evaluated. The high adsorption and medium desorption capacities of carnosic acid and carnosol as well as antibacterial and antiradical activity from the extract obtained with choline chloride:lactic acid (1:2) on XAD7HP resin indicated that resin was appropriate. To get the optimal separation process, the influence of factors such as adsorption/desorption time and volume of desorbent was further investigated. The results showed that the extract with high antiradical and antibacterial activity was obtained via adsorption and desorption on XAD7HP resin. The extraction efficiencies of the deep eutectic solvents (DESs) recycled once, twice, and thrice were 97.64% (±0.03%), 93.10% (±0.66%), and 88.94% (±1.15%), respectively, for carnosic acid, and 96.63% (±0.04%), 94.38% (±0.27%), and 91.19% (±0.36%), respectively, for carnosol, relative to the initial solvent efficiency. Based on that, this method is a promising basis for the large-scale preparation of extracts from Salvia officinalis with further application in the pharmaceutical or food industry, especially for maintaining the “green” character of the whole process to obtain the appropriate extract. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synergistic Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity of Natural and Synthetic Compounds)

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Review

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18 pages, 3585 KiB

Open AccessReview

Plant-Based Phenolic Molecules as Natural Preservatives in Comminuted Meats: A Review

by Michel M. Beya, Michael E. Netzel, Yasmina Sultanbawa, Heather Smyth and Louwrens C. Hoffman

Antioxidants 2021, 10(2), 263; https://doi.org/10.3390/antiox10020263 - 09 Feb 2021

Cited by 74 | Viewed by 7152

Abstract

Comminuted meat products are highly susceptible to safety and quality degradation partly because of their large interfacial area in the emulsion. The food industry extensively uses synthetic chemical preservatives to delay that degradation which is caused by microbial growth, enzyme activities and oxidation reactions. However, due to the potential health damage (e.g., cardiovascular diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, cancers among others) synthetic preservatives in meat may cause, consumers are becoming skeptical to buy meat products containing such additives. In the meat industry, the interest of finding natural food preservatives is intensifying. Polyphenolic-rich plants used as natural food preservatives offer the best alternative for a partial or a complete replacement of their synthetic counterparts. They can be extracted from natural sources such as olives, fruits, grapes, vegetables, spices, herbs, and algae, and among others. The common feature of these phenolic compounds is that they have one or more aromatic rings with one or more -OH group which are essential for their antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. This review article is intended to provide an overview of the plant-based phenolic molecules used as natural food preservative, their antimicrobial and antioxidant mechanism of action, and their potential application in comminuted meat. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Synergistic Antioxidant and Antimicrobial Activity of Natural and Synthetic Compounds)

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