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Malaria, caused by Plasmodium parasites, remains life-threatening, with Plasmodium falciparum responsible for severe cases. The parasite’s invasion of Red Blood Cells (RBCs) is critical for infection. The interaction between Reticulocyte Binding Protein Homologue 5 (RH5), Basigin, monoclonal antibodies and Cysteine-Rich Protective Antigen (CyRPA) with glycan on RBCs is essential for this process. This study aims to identify small molecules inhibiting the RH5-CyRPA-RIPr invasion complex. A library of 2299 compounds from FDA-approved drugs and African natural products in the ZINC database was screened using molecular docking. Binding sites for Basigin, monoclonal antibodies and glycans on RH5 and CyRPA were targeted, with binding affinity cutoffs of −8.5 kcal/mol for monoclonal antibodies and −7.0 kcal/mol for CyRPA and Basigin. Compounds were assessed for pharmacokinetics, solubility, drug-likeness, lead-likeness and biological activity using the PASS online server. Molecular dynamics simulations and free energy calculations evaluated stability and binding efficiency. Nine hits for RH5 and three for CyRPA showed favorable stability and anti-protozoal activity (up to 0.65). African natural products exhibited similarities with drugs like Nequinate and Cyanidin, supporting further research. Promising small molecules were identified as potential inhibitors of P. falciparum invasion, laying a foundation for experimental validation and drug development.

Pancreatic fibrosis is the main pathologic characteristic in chronic pancreatitis (CP), a common disease that arises from surgery. Pancreatitis is caused by various etiologies, but the mechanism of fibrosis is not completely understood. Existing clinical approaches mainly focus on mitigating the symptoms and therefore do not cure the phenomena. In recent years, there has been a heightened interest in the use of Chinese herbal medicine (CHMs) in the prevention and cure of CP as expressed by increasing numbers of clinical and experimental research. Despite early cell culture and animal models, CHMs are able to interact with plenty of molecular targets involved in the pathogenesis of pancreatic fibrosis mostly via the TGF-$\beta$/Smads pathway; however, integrated and up-to-date communication in this domain is unavailable. This review focuses on the research progress of CHMs against pancreatic fibrosis due to CP in vitro and in vivo and summarizes the potential mechanisms. We also outlined the toxicology of some CHMs for fibrosis treatment in order to provide a fuller understanding of drug safety. This review may provide reference for further innovative drug research and the future development of treatments for CP with pancreatic fibrosis.

MicroRNAs, small non-coding RNA molecules, have gained a reputation of the most substantial regulators in gene network with the ability to down-regulate their targets. Accumulating evidence shifted insight toward microRNAs regulation as the key element of cancer initiation, development, and aggression. Recent studies have attached the importance of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) to the treatment of various cancers, and the functional natural compounds have been considered as novel anticancer agents to directly inhibit tumor progression. In more recent decades, a wide range of biologically active components of TCM has gained increasing attention to their applications in the modulation of microRNAs. This review is on the purpose of demonstrating the significance of TCM bioactive ingredients in microRNAs regulation for cancer treatment according to the reports mainly in the recent six years, providing the evidence of efficient Chinese herbal medicine-based therapy and effective pro-diagnosis focusing on microRNAs expression of cancer patients.

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a serious public problem threatening global health. At present, although “cocktail therapy” has achieved significant clinical effects, HIV still cannot be completely eradicated. Furthermore, long-term antiviral treatment has caused problems such as toxic side effects, the emergence of drug-resistant viruses, and poor patient compliance. Therefore, it is highly necessary to continue to search for high-efficient, low-toxic anti-HIV drugs with new mechanisms. Natural products have the merits of diverse scaffolds, biological activities, and low toxicity that are deemed the important sources of drug discovery. Thus, finding lead compounds from natural products followed by structure optimization has become one of the important ways of modern drug discovery. Nowadays, many natural products have been found, such as berberine, gnidimacrin, betulone, and kuwanon-L, which exert effective anti-HIV activity through immune regulation, inhibition of related functional enzymes in HIV replication, and anti-oxidation. This paper reviewed these natural products, their related chemical structure optimization, and their anti-HIV mechanisms.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a global health concern with a high prevalence and increasing economic burden, but official medicine remains unavailable. Farnesoid X receptor (FXR), a nuclear receptor member, is one of the most promising drug targets for NAFLD therapy that plays a crucial role in modulating bile acid, glucose, and lipid homeostasis, as well as inhibits hepatic inflammation and fibrosis. However, the rejection of the FXR agonist, obecholic acid, by the Food and Drug Administration for treating hepatic fibrosis raises a question about the functions of FXR in NAFLD progression and the therapeutic strategy to be used. Natural products, such as FXR modulators, have become the focus of attention for NAFLD therapy with fewer adverse reactions. The anti-NAFLD mechanisms seem to act as FXR agonists and antagonists or are involved in the FXR signaling pathway activation, indicating a promising target of FXR therapeutic prospects using natural products. This review discusses the effective mechanisms of FXR in NAFLD alleviation, and summarizes currently available natural products such as silymarin, glycyrrhizin, cycloastragenol, berberine, and gypenosides, for targeting FXR, which can facilitate development of naturally targeted drug by medicinal specialists for effective treatment of NAFLD.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) refers to long-term medical conditions that involve inflammation of the digestive tract, and the global incidence and prevalence of IBD are on the rise. Gut microbes play an important role in maintaining the intestinal health of the host, and the occurrence, development, and therapeutic effects of IBD are closely related to the structural and functional changes of gut microbes. Published studies have shown that the natural products from traditional Chinese medicine have direct or indirect regulatory impacts on the composition and metabolism of the gut microbes. In this review, we summarize the research progress of several groups of natural products, i.e., flavonoids, alkaloids, saponins, polysaccharides, polyphenols, and terpenoids, for the therapeutic activities in relieving IBD symptoms. The role of gut microbes and their intestinal metabolites in managing the IBD is presented, with focusing on the mechanism of action of those natural products. Traditional Chinese medicine alleviated IBD symptoms by regulating gut microbes, providing important theoretical and practical basis for the treatment of variable inflammatory intestinal diseases.

Oxidative stress represents a pivotal mechanism in the pathogenesis of numerous chronic diseases. The Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1–transcription factor NF-E2 p45-related factor 2 (KEAP1–NRF2) pathway plays a crucial role in maintaining redox homeostasis and regulating a multitude of biological processes such as inflammation, protein homeostasis, and metabolic homeostasis. In this paper, we present the findings of recent studies on the KEAP1–NRF2 pathway, which have revealed that it is aberrantly regulated and induces oxidative stress injury in a variety of diseases such as neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic diseases, respiratory diseases, digestive diseases, and cancer. Given this evidence, targeting KEAP1–NRF2 represents a highly promising avenue for developing therapeutic strategies for chronic diseases, and thus the development of appropriate therapeutic strategies based on the targeting of the NRF2 pathway has emerged as a significant area of research interest. This paper highlights an overview of current strategies to modulate KEAP1–NRF2, as well as recent advances in the use of natural compounds and traditional Chinese medicine, with a view to providing meaningful guidelines for drug discovery and development targeting KEAP1–NRF2. Additionally, it discusses the challenges associated with harnessing NRF2 as a therapeutic target.

Reinforced concrete is one of the widely used construction materials for bridges, buildings, platforms and tunnels. Though reinforced concrete is capable of withstanding a large range of severe environments including marine, industrial and alpine conditions, there are still a large number of failures in concrete structures for many reasons. Either carbonation or chloride attack is the main culprit which is due to depassivation of reinforced steel and subsequently leads to rapid steel corrosion. Among many corrosion prevention measures, application of corrosion inhibitors play a vital role in metal protection. Numerous range of corrosion inhibitors were reported for concrete protection that were also used commercially in industries. This review summarizes the application of natural products as corrosion inhibitors for concrete protection and also scrutinizes various factors influencing its applicability.

SINGAPORE – International Collaboration to Advance Research on Non-Animal Approaches to Chemical Safety Testing.

UNITED STATES – Coriell Institute Licenses PluriTest, a Novel Stem Cell Technology.

UNITED STATES – Tackling World's Problems with Human-Computer Intelligence.

UNITED STATES – Untapped Region in Brain Cell Offers Goldmine of Drug Targets for New Autism Treatments, UCLA Study Finds.

UNITED STATES – Activating Beige Fat in Humans Could Combat Obesity.

UNITED STATES – Cancer-Killing Proteins Destroy Tumor Cells in Bloodstream.

UNITED STATES – Measuring the Mechanical Forces of Disease.

UNITED STATES – Scientists Identify Molecule That Appears to Fuel Deadly Genetic Illness.

AUSTRALIA – Medlab Supports New Federal Legislation for Medical Cannabis.

UNITED KINGDOM – BioAscent Expands Compound Management Services Offering with Pierre Fabre Collaboration.

SWITZERLAND – Harmful Mutations Have Accumulated during Early Human Migrations Out of Africa.

JAPAN – BIOTRONIK's Itrevia 7 HF-T is First CRT-D Approved for Full-Body MRI Scanning in Japan.

Cheap and abundant natural products can be transformed into products of higher commercial value. One of the approaches for the functionalization of organic compounds is their oxidation in the presence of an oxygen atom donor, under the influence of a suitable catalyst. Metalloporphyrins, with structures based on the well known meso-tetraphenylporphyrin (TPPH₂), are amongst the catalysts commonly studied and have demonstrated to be efficient in the oxygenation of organic compounds. These transformations have been studied in the presence of different oxygen atom donors. However, our biomimetic oxidative approach is based on the use of clean and environmentally benign hydrogen peroxide in the presence of metalloporphyrins. This approach will be outlined in this review.

Willow, a common tree species, is mainly distributed in temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Catkins are the seeds of willow. In addition to propagating new willows, it is of great significance to study its application in other areas. Carbon quantum dots (CQDs) have attracted extensive attention owing to their excellent luminescence properties, low toxicity and water solubility. The use of CQDs for accurate measurement of pH is of great significance in environmental, medical and other fields. Based on this, blue-emission fluorescent CQDs with 4.93% quantum yield (Q.Y.) are prepared via natural product catkins as the only raw material by one-step hydrothermal method. The prepared CQDs exhibit excellent water solubility, narrow particle size distribution, excitation-dependent photoluminescence properties and sensitive pH response behavior. The fluorescence intensity of CQDs has a good linear relationship with pH in the range of 6–12, and the correlation coefficient is 0.994. In addition, the CQDs have good stability, and the response to pH displays excellent reversibility, which can be developed as a pH sensor to quantitatively monitor the pH values in real water samples. Thereby, the potential practical application is promising.

The large chemical space universe can be traversed by screening libraries of compounds that possess novel medicinally relevant chemistries, properties and complexity criteria. These libraries can be populated with the use of exhaustive, de novo approaches or inspired, combinatorial approaches. By assuming that natural products within screening libraries may be classified as a source of feedstock for populating virtual libraries, they can act as scaffolds upon which exhaustive approaches may be used in exploring chemical space. In order to achieve this, we have built DerivatizeME as a tool that enumerates derivatives of query compounds in order to evaluate their relevance for further assessment and development. This technique was applied to natural products present in the South African natural compound database (SANCDB). By expanding the chemical space of SANCDB compounds through the generation of SANCDB derivatives, we were able to graduate some natural products that were in undesirable regions of medicinally relevant chemical space, to acceptable regions of this chemical space. These modified scaffolds are available for further development, testing and evaluation in a manner similar to natural product driven focused libraries. The natural product parent is used, through its derivatives, instead of being discarded from screening protocols. This approach has the potential to enhance the efficiency of the natural product library in providing successful hits, amplifying the potential that they possess to access both novel bioactives and privileged scaffolds which may have otherwise been overlooked.

This work describes the published asymmetric syntheses of some natural products from readily available compounds that represent renewable sources of chirality.

Recent findings show that 27 herbs and natural products have potential to decrease cancer growth or to be used as adjuncts with cancer therapy. This discussion provides an update on evidence-based findings from preliminary in vitro and in vivo studies, and some initial clinical trials. Clearly, the testing for these herbs and products has not advanced to proven efficacy, yet these initial research findings show promising results. This discussion includes scientific and common names, a typical dose of the product where possible, and adverse or dangerous side-effects. Also included are potential interactions with prescriptions, other herbs, laboratory tests, and diseases or conditions. Sources include selections from Natural Medicines Comprehensive Database (2006) plus recent refereed research publications. A table and references are provided to help health care professionals peruse products and herbs that may be beneficial to patients undergoing cancer treatment. Through this information health professionals are encouraged to become better resource persons for their patients.

The process common to several diseases produced by Gram negative bacteria, now is known that are related to the cell density, mediated by the regulation of gene expression. This process is called autoinduction or 'quorum sensing' (QS). QS is regulate by a variety of different molecules used as signals for gene expression activation or inhibition.

Eighteen methanolic extracts from herbs and spices were tested to determinate their ability to inhibit QS in Chromobacterium violaceum, Salmonella Thyphimurium and Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO-1. Inhibition of violacein production in C. violaceum, Salmonella invasivity in HT-29 cells, and swarming motility and alginate production in P. aeruginosa were tested. Only Syzygium aromaticum (clove) extract reduced AHL and violacein production from C. violaceum, Salmonella invasivity, and alginate synthesis and swarming motility in P. aeruginosa.