Advances in Natural Products for Antimicrobial and Antiviral Therapy

A special issue of Pharmaceutics (ISSN 1999-4923). This special issue belongs to the section "Biopharmaceutics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 October 2023) | Viewed by 2009

Special Issue Editors

Department of Microbiology, “George Emil Palade” University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Sciences and Technology, Targu Mures, Romania
Interests: bacteriology; molecular biology; mycology; virology; antimicrobial activity
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Department of Pharmaceutical Botany, Faculty of Pharmacy “George Emil Palade” University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Sciences and Technology of Târgu Mureș, 38 Gheorghe Marinescu Street, Târgu Mureș, 540139 Mureș, Romania
Interests: natural compounds; wood byproducts; nanomaterials; bioactivity; antimicrobial; antioxidant
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

One of the great problems and challenges of the medical world is the treatment of infections associated with multiresistant bacteria. Thus, classical therapeutic options are limited and alternative antimicrobial strategies are needed. There is consistent evidence that natural products (for example, global extracts or fractions, essential oils, or isolated secondary metabolites) have antimicrobial activity that involves the inhibition of microbial virulence and the potential for action against resistant strains. Therefore, many new antimicrobial drugs derived from plant compounds are widely recommended by experts. Their use in combination with conventional antibiotics can give a synergistic effect with superior properties. Therefore, the purpose of this Special Issue is to gather information to advance the understanding of phytocompounds with antimicrobial activity or with antivirulence activity, focusing on the identification and description of new molecules and their potential biological applications.

Dr. Adrian Man
Dr. Corneliu Tanase
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • medicinal plants
  • natural products
  • essential oils
  • secondary metabolites
  • antibacterial
  • antifungal
  • antiviral
  • antimicrobial resistance
  • drug discovery
  • preclinical research
  • virulence gene expression

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 7131 KiB  
Article
Biocompatibility Assessment of Polycaprolactone/Polylactic Acid/Zinc Oxide Nanoparticle Composites under In Vivo Conditions for Biomedical Applications
by Jorge Iván Castro, Daniela G. Araujo-Rodríguez, Carlos Humberto Valencia-Llano, Diego López Tenorio, Marcela Saavedra, Paula A. Zapata and Carlos David Grande-Tovar
Pharmaceutics 2023, 15(9), 2196; https://doi.org/10.3390/pharmaceutics15092196 - 25 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1246
Abstract
The increasing demand for non-invasive biocompatible materials in biomedical applications, driven by accidents and diseases like cancer, has led to the development of sustainable biomaterials. Here, we report the synthesis of four block formulations using polycaprolactone (PCL), polylactic acid (PLA), and zinc oxide [...] Read more.
The increasing demand for non-invasive biocompatible materials in biomedical applications, driven by accidents and diseases like cancer, has led to the development of sustainable biomaterials. Here, we report the synthesis of four block formulations using polycaprolactone (PCL), polylactic acid (PLA), and zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) for subdermal tissue regeneration. Characterization by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirmed the composition of the composites. Additionally, the interaction of ZnO-NPs mainly occurred with the C=O groups of PCL occurring at 1724 cm−1, which disappears for F4, as evidenced in the FT-IR analysis. Likewise, this interaction evidenced the decrease in the crystallinity of the composites as they act as crosslinking points between the polymer backbones, inducing gaps between them and weakening the strength of the intermolecular bonds. Thermogravimetric (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analyses confirmed that the ZnO-NPs bind to the carbonyl groups of the polymer, acting as weak points in the polymer backbone from where the different fragmentations occur. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed that the increase in ZnO-NPs facilitated a more compact surface due to the excellent dispersion and homogeneous accumulation between the polymeric chains, facilitating this morphology. The in vivo studies using the nanocomposites demonstrated the degradation/resorption of the blocks in a ZnO-NP-dependant mode. After degradation, collagen fibers (Type I), blood vessels, and inflammatory cells continue the resorption of the implanted material. The results reported here demonstrate the relevance and potential impact of the ZnO-NP-based scaffolds in soft tissue regeneration. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Natural Products for Antimicrobial and Antiviral Therapy)
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