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Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series: Natural Products as Sources of New Approved Drugs

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A special issue of Molecules (ISSN 1420-3049). This special issue belongs to the section "Natural Products Chemistry".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2024 | Viewed by 5218

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Maria Camilla Bergonzi

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Guest Editor

Department of Chemistry, University of Florence, 50019 Florence, Italy
Interests: natural products; drug delivery; liposomes; lipid nanocarriers; micro and nanoemulsions; nanoparticles; solubility; stability; bioefficacy; oral, brain and skin delivery; PAMPA test
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Souvik Kusari

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Guest Editor

Center for Mass Spectrometry (CMS), Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Technische Universität Dortmund, Otto-Hahn-Str. 6, 44221 Dortmund, Germany
Interests: metabolomics; imaging mass spectrometry; natural product chemistry; microbial drug discovery; antimicrobials; plant–microbe interactions; chemical ecology; molecular ecology; endophytes; phytopathogens; biocontrol organisms; biologics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce this Collection titled "Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series: Natural Products as Sources of New Approved Drugs”. This issue will be a collection of papers from researchers invited by the Editorial Board Members.

Natural products are fascinating molecules for drug discovery due to their exciting structural variability and their interactions with various biological targets, which represent the best approach to develop successful medications for many diseases. Due to an increasing demand for chemical diversity in pharmaceutical screening programs, the identification of novel therapeutic drugs from natural sources represents an interesting approach. Indeed, plants are extremely rich sources of bioactive molecules with a multitude of applications in biomedicine, cosmetics, and the food industry.

Contributions to this Special Issue may cover all research related to the extraction, identification, and characterization of bioactive molecules from plants, the evaluation of their biological activities that could potentially contribute to the development of new drugs, and their formulation using classical and innovative delivery systems to increase their bioavailability.

Original research papers and review articles are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Maria Camilla Bergonzi
Dr. Souvik Kusari
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. Molecules is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2700 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

natural compounds
bioactive molecules
pharmacological properties
in vitro and in vivo test
clinical investigations
formulations development

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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26 pages, 18661 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Antimicrobial, Antidiabetic, Antioxidant, and Anticoagulant Activities of Cupressus sempervirens In Vitro and In Silico

by Aisha M. H. Al-Rajhi, Marwah M. Bakri, Husam Qanash, Hassan Y. Alzahrani, Haneen Halawani, Meaad A. Algaydi and Tarek M. Abdelghany

Molecules 2023, 28(21), 7402; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28217402 - 02 Nov 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1026

Abstract

In the last decade, the urgent need to explore medicinal plants or drug development has increased enormously around the world to overcome numerous health problems. In the present investigation, HPLC indicated the existence of 18 phenolic and flavonoid compounds in the Cupressus sempervirens extract. Hesperetin represents the greatest concentration (25,579.57 µg/mL), while other compounds, such as pyro catechol, rutin, gallic acid, chlorogenic acid, naringenin, and quercetin, were recognized in concentrations of 2922.53 µg/mL, 1313.26 µg/mL, 1107.26 µg/mL, 389.09 µg/mL, 156.53 µg/mL, and 97.56 µg/mL, respectively. The well diffusion method documented the antibacterial/antifungal activity of C. sempervirens extract against E. faecalis, E. coli, C. albicans, S. typhi, S.aureus, and M. circinelloid with 35, 33, 32, 25, 23, and 21 mm inhibition zones, respectively, more than the standard antibiotic/antifungal agent. Low values ranging from 7.80 to 15.62 µg/mL of MIC and MBC were recorded for E. faecalis, E. coli, and C. albicans. From the 1- diphenyl-2-picryl hydrazyl (DPPH) assay, promising antioxidant activity was recorded for C. sempervirens extract with IC₅₀ of an 8.97 µg/mL. Moreover, ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and total antioxidant capacity assays (TAC) confirmed the antioxidant activity of the extract, which was expressed as the ascorbic acid equivalent (AAE) of 366.9 ± 0.2 µg/mg and 102 ± 0.2 µg/mg of extracts, respectively. α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibition % were determined to express the antidiabetic activity of the extract in vitro, with promising IC₅₀ value (27.01 µg/mL) for α-amylase compared to that of acarbose (50.93 µg/mL), while IC₅₀ value of the extract for α-glucosidase was 19.21µg/mL compared to that of acarbose 4.13 µg/mL. Prothrombin time (PT) and activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) revealed the role of C. sempervirens extract as an anticoagulant agent if compared with the activity of heparin. Binding interactions of hesperetin and gallic acid were examined via the Molecular Operating Environment (MOE) Dock software against E. faecalis (PDB ID: 3CLQ), C. albicans (PDB ID: 7RJC), α-amylase (PDB ID: 4W93), and α-glucosidase (PDB ID: 3TOP). The obtained results shed light on how molecular modeling methods might inhibit the tested compounds, which have the potential to be useful in the treatment of target proteins. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series: Natural Products as Sources of New Approved Drugs)

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Review

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17 pages, 738 KiB

Open AccessReview

Hirudin in the Treatment of Chronic Kidney Disease

by Sai-Ji Liu, Yi-Ling Cao and Chun Zhang

Molecules 2024, 29(5), 1029; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules29051029 - 27 Feb 2024

Viewed by 846

Abstract

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a common public health concern. The global burden of CKD is increasing due to the high morbidity and mortality associated with it, indicating the shortcomings of therapeutic drugs at present. Renal fibrosis is the common pathology of CKD, which is characterized by glomerulosclerosis, renal tubular atrophy, and renal interstitial fibrosis. Natural hirudin is an active ingredient extracted from Hirudo medicinalis, which has been found to be the strongest natural specific inhibitor of thrombin. Evidence based on pharmacological data has shown that hirudin has important protective effects in CKD against diabetic nephrology, nephrotic syndrome, and renal interstitial fibrosis. The mechanisms of hirudin in treating CKD are mainly related to inhibiting the inflammatory response, preventing apoptosis of intrinsic renal cells, and inhibiting the interactions between thrombin and protease-activated receptors. In this review, we summarize the function and beneficial properties of hirudin for the treatment of CKD, and its underlying mechanisms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series: Natural Products as Sources of New Approved Drugs)

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21 pages, 1427 KiB

Open AccessReview

Cannabis as a Source of Approved Drugs: A New Look at an Old Problem

by Adi Gabarin, Ludmila Yarmolinsky, Arie Budovsky, Boris Khalfin and Shimon Ben-Shabat

Molecules 2023, 28(23), 7686; https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules28237686 - 21 Nov 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2632

Abstract

Cannabis plants have been used in medicine since ancient times. They are well known for their anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, neuroprotective, anti-cancer, anti-oxidative, anti-microbial, anti-viral, and anti-fungal activities. A growing body of evidence indicates that targeting the endocannabinoid system and various other receptors with cannabinoid compounds holds great promise for addressing multiple medical conditions. There are two distinct avenues in the development of cannabinoid-based drugs. The first involves creating treatments directly based on the components of the cannabis plant. The second involves a singular molecule strategy, in which specific phytocannabinoids or newly discovered cannabinoids with therapeutic promise are pinpointed and synthesized for future pharmaceutical development and validation. Although the therapeutic potential of cannabis is enormous, few cannabis-related approved drugs exist, and this avenue warrants further investigation. With this in mind, we review here the medicinal properties of cannabis, its phytochemicals, approved drugs of natural and synthetic origin, pitfalls on the way to the widespread clinical use of cannabis, and additional applications of cannabis-related products. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Editorial Board Members’ Collection Series: Natural Products as Sources of New Approved Drugs)

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