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TropicalMed
Special Issues
Drug Discovery in the Treatment of Microbial and Parasitic Diseases
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Drug Discovery in the Treatment of Microbial and Parasitic Diseases

A special issue of Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease (ISSN 2414-6366).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (10 August 2023) | Viewed by 3678

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Hossein Mahmoudvand

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Razi Herbal Medicines, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran
Interests: herbal medicines; natural products; nanoparticles, synthetic drugs; treatment; parasitic infection; bacterial infection; viral infection; fungal infection
Dr. Javad Ghasemian Yadegari

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Pharmacognosy, Lorestan University of Medical Sciences, Khorramabad, Iran
Interests: antimicrobial capacity; herbal medicines; extract; essential oil

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Since ancient times, medicinal plants and their derivatives have been broadly used in preventive and therapeutic or medical application. At present, a wide range of active chemical substances developed for drug synthesis originate from plants. Nanotechnology is an important field of modern research dealing with the synthesis, strategy, and manipulation of nanoparticles. Generally, nanoparticles are prepared through a variety of chemical and physical methods which are expensive and potentially hazardous to the environment, involving the use of toxic and perilous chemicals that are responsible for various biological risks. As such, recently, plant-mediated synthesis of nanoparticles, also called “green synthesis”, has developed into a new and important branch of nanotechnology, gaining importance because it is environmentally friendly and cost-effective, with less toxicity compared to chemical hazards. Today, despite the wide range of commonly used medicinal plants (alone or in green synthesis of nanoparticles) with antiviral, antibacterial, fungicidal, antiparasitic, and insecticide activity which have been used in traditional and modern medicine, some have not yet been described, and their antimicrobial activities remain to be discovered. Therefore, this Special Issue will gather relevant papers reporting recent advances in the antimicrobial effects of medicinal plants and plant-mediated nanoparticle research, from basic to clinical studies.

Dr. Hossein Mahmoudvand
Dr. Javad Ghasemian Yadegari
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. Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease 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 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 products
  • herbal medicines
  • nanoparticles
  • green synthesis
  • anti-parasitic
  • antibacterial
  • antiviral
  • antifungal
  • insecticide

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

14 pages, 2511 KiB  
Article
Potent In Vitro and In Vivo Effects of Stachys lavandulifolia Methanolic Extract against Toxoplasma gondii Infection
by Abdullah D. Alanazi, Qais A. H. Majeed, Sultan F. Alnomasy and Hamdan I. Almohammed
Trop. Med. Infect. Dis. 2023, 8(7), 355; https://doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed8070355 - 05 Jul 2023
Viewed by 1484
Abstract
The present study aimed to evaluate the in vitro, in vivo, and safety of Stachys lavandulifolia Vahl. methanolic extract (SLME) against acute toxoplasmosis caused by Toxoplasma gondii RH strain in mice. Methods: MTT (3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay was used to evaluate the in vitro effect [...] Read more.
The present study aimed to evaluate the in vitro, in vivo, and safety of Stachys lavandulifolia Vahl. methanolic extract (SLME) against acute toxoplasmosis caused by Toxoplasma gondii RH strain in mice. Methods: MTT (3-(4,5-Dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay was used to evaluate the in vitro effect of the SLME on T. gondii tachyzoites. Totally, 72 male BALB/c mice (40 mice for in vivo evaluation of SLME and 32 mice for its toxicity effects on liver and kidney serum enzymes) were used for the present investigation. At first, 40 mice were orally pre-treated with the SLME at doses of 25, 50, and 75 mg/kg/day for two weeks. Mice were checked daily, and the rate of survival and the mean number of tachyzoites were recorded. Liver lipid peroxidation (LPO) and nitric oxide (NO) levels, the effects on kidney and liver function, as well as the expression level of the proinflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and interferon-γ (IFN-γ), were studied by the quantitative real-time PCR. Flow cytometry analysis was performed on the effects of SLME on the detection of apoptotic and necrotic cells in T. gondii tachyzoites. Results: The SLME at the concentrations 75 and 150 µg/mL completely killed the tachyzoites after 2 hr of incubation. SLME at 25, 50, and 75 mg/kg/day increased the survival rate of infected mice by the sixth, seventh, and eighth days, respectively. SLME also significantly (p < 0.05) decreased the LPO and NO levels and upregulated the IL-1β and IFN-γ mRNA gene expression levels, whereas no considerable change was observed in the serum level of kidney and liver enzymes. Flow cytometry analysis revealed the prompted early and late apoptosis after exposure to T. gondii tachyzoites with various concentrations of SLME. Conclusion: We found the relevant in vitro anti-Toxoplasma effects of SLME against T. gondii. Moreover, the results confirmed the promising in vivo prophylactic effects of SLME. SLME provokes the innate immune system, induces apoptosis, modulates the proinflammatory cytokines, and inhibits hepatic injury in infected mice. With all these descriptions, further surveys are required to support these findings and elucidate this plant’s possible mechanisms of action. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drug Discovery in the Treatment of Microbial and Parasitic Diseases)
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12 pages, 1950 KiB  
Article
Green Synthesis, Characterization, and Antiparasitic Effects of Gold Nanoparticles against Echinococcus granulosus Protoscoleces
by Yosra Raziani, Pegah Shakib, Marzieh Rashidipour, Koroush Cheraghipour, Javad Ghasemian Yadegari and Hossein Mahmoudvand
Trop. Med. Infect. Dis. 2023, 8(6), 313; https://doi.org/10.3390/tropicalmed8060313 - 09 Jun 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1562
Abstract
Echinococcosis, or hydatidosis, is one of the most important zoonotic diseases, which is initiated by the larval stage in the clasts of Echinococcus granulosus. For the treatment of hydatidosis, surgery is still the preferred method and the first line of treatment for [...] Read more.
Echinococcosis, or hydatidosis, is one of the most important zoonotic diseases, which is initiated by the larval stage in the clasts of Echinococcus granulosus. For the treatment of hydatidosis, surgery is still the preferred method and the first line of treatment for symptomatic patients. Unfortunately, most of the scolicidal agents that are injected inside cysts during hydatid cyst surgery have side effects, including leaking out of the cyst and adverse effects on the living tissue of the host, such as necrosis of liver cells, which limits their use. This work was carried out to study the lethal effect of green synthesized gold nanoparticles (Au-NCs) against hydatid cyst protoscoleces. Au-NCs were green synthesized using the Saturja khuzestanica extract. Au-NCs were characterized by UV-visible absorbance assay, electron microscopy analysis, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Scolicidal properties of Au-NCs (1–5 mg/mL) were studied against protoscoleces for 10–60 min. The effect of Au-NCs on the expression level of the caspase-3 gene as well as the ultrastructural examination was studied by real-time PCR and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The cytotoxicity of Au-NCs on hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) and normal embryonic kidney (HEK293) cell lines was also studied by the cell viability assay. The obtained Au-NCs are cubes and have an average size of 20–30 nm. The highest scolicidal efficacy was observed at 5 mg/mL with 100% mortality after 20 min of treatment for hydatid cyst protoscoleces. In ex vivo, Au-NCs required more incubation time, indicating more protoscolicidal effects. Au-NCs markedly upregulated the gene level of caspase-3 in protoscoleces; whereas they changed the ultra-structure of protoscoleces by weakening and disintegrating the cell wall, wrinkles, and protrusions due to the formation of blebs. We showed the effective in vitro and ex vivo scolicidal effects of Au-NCs against hydatid cyst protoscoleces by provoking the apoptosis process of caspase-3 activation and changing the ultrastructure of protoscoleces with no significant cytotoxicity against human normal cells. However, additional studies should be conducted to determine the possible harmful side effects and accurate efficacy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drug Discovery in the Treatment of Microbial and Parasitic Diseases)
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