Mini Reviews in Medicinal Chemistry - Volume 23, Issue 16, 2023

Nowadays, many people suffer from Neurological Diseases (NDs), particularly neurodegenerative diseases. Hence, there is an urgent need to discover new and more effective diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers as well as therapeutic strategies for the treatment of NDs. In this context, detecting biomarkers can provide helpful information on various levels of NDs. Up to now, there has been a lot of progress in recognizing these diseases, but they are not completely clear yet. NDs are associated with inflammatory conditions and there are several differences in NDs’ immune biomarkers compared to normal conditions. Among these biomarkers, soluble CD163 (sCD163) levels (as a new biomarker) increase in biofluids, relating to the activation of macrophage/microglia and inflammation levels in NDs. ADAM17/TACE and ADAM10 are the responsible enzymes for producing sCD163 from macrophages. Increased shedding of CD163 is caused by inflammatory stimuli, and a function has been hypothesized for sCD163 in immunological suppression. When the body confronts an inflammation or infection, the concentration of sCD163 drives up. sCD163 is stable and can be easily quantified in the serum. In addition to its role as a biomarker, sCD163 can be a good modulator of adaptive immune suppression after stroke. sCD163, with a long half-life, has been proposed to be a surrogate for some critical markers such as Tumor Necrosis Factor-α (TNF- α). Furthermore, sCD163 production can be regulated by some regents/approaches such as zidovudine, nanotechnology, combination antiretroviral treatment, and aprepitant. Considering the importance of the issue, the critical role of sCD163 in NDs was highlighted for novel diagnostic and prognostic purposes.

During space missions, the impact of the space conditions (both microgravity and radiation) on physiologic and metabolic aspects of the microbiota of astronauts' bodies should be considered. Changes depend on the mission's duration, types of organisms, and ecology. Reported alterations are related to changes in morphology, growth, gene expression, and physiology of cells, resulting in increased virulence, acid, antibiotic resistance, biofilm formation, secondary metabolism, and microbial mutations. Accordingly, recent research indicates the impacts of simulated microgravity on human physiology and bacterial characteristics. This paper has reviewed the aspects of microgravity on changes in microbiota, including virulence, antibiotic resistance, and gene expression. Microgravity can undermine humans and makes influence bacterial pathogenicity. The review of papers shows that some microorganisms showed higher pathogenicity under microgravity conditions. Moreover, sulfamethoxazole had the highest resistance among Gram-positive microorganisms, and gentamicin had the highest resistance in Gram-negative bacteria. All antibiotics reviewed under microgravity conditions were robust in both groups of microorganisms compared to the gravity condition. Furthermore, some gene expression was altered in bacteria under microgravity conditions compared to Earth conditions (standard bacterial growth conditions). Changes in microbial behavior under microgravity directly influence astronauts' health conditions, and a detailed analysis of known facts can provide essential information for the selection of appropriate probiotics for these specific cases during the missions and after the recovery processes. Moreover, the study of microorganisms changes in the absence of gravity will help to understand the mechanisms of causing diseases on Earth and may be applied in clinical practice.

Cancer is still one of the most serious diseases that threaten human life. In the past decades, nanomaterials have been found to possess excellent advantages, including controlled drug release, easy modification surface, good biocompatibility, typical optical property, useful chemical ability, and so on, due to which they have become the rising star in the application for multimodal combined cancer treatment (MCT). The emerging avenues of photodynamic therapy, photothermal therapy, magnetocaloric therapy, chemodynamic therapy, immunotherapy, and gene therapy are integrated systematically and intelligently with the traditional methods, realizing the therapeutic effect in cancer treatment. However, there are still several challenges in the development of nanomaterials for MCT, such as the construction of complex systems, deep penetration into solid tumors, effective immune activation at tumor sites, and so on. This review describes the application of multifunctional nanomaterials in the field of MCT for tumor, proposing some suggestions and ideas for future development.

Corilagin is a naturally occurring water-soluble retrogallic acid tannin, which can be extracted from many kinds of plants. Known at present, it is the main effective ingredient of Phyllanthus urinaria L., Geranium wilfordii Maxim., Phyllanthus matsumurae Hayata, and Trifolium repens L. It also exists in Phyllanthus emblica L., Dimocarpus longan Lour., Canarium album (Lour.) Raeusch., and Terminalia chebula Retz. It can participate in a variety of signaling pathways in vivo and has multiple biological activities, including antitumor, anti-microbial, anti-oxidation, anti-inflammation, hepatoprotective, anti-allergy, anti-proliferation and so on. Given the limited efficacy of first-line treatments for many diseases such as oncology, chronic liver disease, and rheumatic immune system diseases, and the potential for adverse effects to outweigh the therapeutic effects, attention is being focused on alternative treatments, and natural plant extracts are a natural target for alternative treatments, as natural substances tend to have low toxicity to normal tissues. Some proprietary Chinese medicines containing corilagin have been used in clinical applications, being clinically applied to treat chronic liver disease, viral hepatitis B, rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases. This paper reviews the extraction, determination, distribution and harvesting, pharmacokinetics, biological activity, safety assessment of corilagin and its application in clinical practice.

Treatment of a wound infection caused by a multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacterium is challenging since traditional medicine is incapable of curing such infections. As a result, there is a critical need to develop wound dressings resistant to MDR bacteria. Over half of diabetic and burn wounds showed clinical symptoms of infection. Diabetes is a metabolic disorder that may have various consequences, including chronic sores, vascular damage, and neuropathy. Microbial infection and oxidative stress to the fibroblast are common causes of slow and ineffective wound healing. Since wound healing and tissue repair are complex cascades of cellular activities, prompt and ordered healing is critical throughout this process. Despite advances in medication development and sophisticated formulations, treating persistent wound infections remains difficult. The drawbacks of administering antibiotics through the digestive system have motivated the development of enhanced therapeutic dressings with antibacterial activity and the application of antibiotics by localized administration. Antimicrobial wound dressings have great promise for reducing infection risk and improving the healing rate of chronic lesions. Most current research in skin tissue engineering focuses on developing threedimensional scaffolds that mimic natural skin's extracellular matrix (ECM). Electrospinning is a wellestablished method for producing nanoscale fibers. It is a simple, cost-effective, reproducible, and efficient process for encapsulating hydrophobic and hydrophilic antimicrobial compounds in synthetic and natural polymeric carriers. This review discusses various nanofibers as novel delivery systems for antimicrobial compounds in chronic wound healing. We will discuss the significant polymers used to make nanofibers, their manufacturing processes, and, most importantly, their antibacterial effectiveness against microorganisms that typically cause chronic wound infections.