Effect of the natural flavonoids myricetin and dihydromyricetin on the wound healing process in vitro

Honey Phytochemicals: Bioactive Agents With Therapeutic Potential for Dermatological Disorders

Honey has been reported to have a range of biological activities including antimicrobial, immunomodulatory, and wound healing effects. Indeed, medical-grade honey is currently used in hospitals for the clinical management of wound infections. Honey is also of scientific interest for its therapeutic effects on other dermatological disorders such as atopic dermatitis, rosacea, and skin cancer. Recent studies have uncovered that honey contains a range of phytochemicals including flavonoids, dicarboxylic acids, coumarins, and phenolic acids. In this review, PubMed was used to search the scientific literature on the biological properties of honey phytochemicals in relation to dermatological disorders and to evaluate their potential as bioactive agents, drugs, or cosmeceuticals for the treatment of skin disease. The review revealed that phytochemicals found in honey have antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antiaging, antioxidant, anticancer, depigmenting, photoprotective, wound healing, and skin barrier enhancing properties. Although further high-quality studies are required to establish clinical efficacy, these findings suggest that honey phytochemicals may have the potential to be used as bioactive agents for the management of a range of dermatological disorders including wounds, psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, vitiligo, rosacea, and skin cancer.

Role of Hemigraphis alternata in wound healing: metabolomic profiling and molecular insights into mechanisms

Hemigraphis alternata (H. alternata), commonly known as Red Flame Ivy, is widely recognized for its wound healing capabilities. However, the pharmacologically active plant components and their mechanisms of action in wound healing are yet to be determined. This study presents the mass spectrometry-based global metabolite profiling of aqueous and ethanolic extract of H. alternata leaves. The analysis identified 2285 metabolites from 24,203 spectra obtained in both positive and negative polarities. The identified metabolites were classified under ketones, carboxylic acids, primary aliphatic amines, steroids and steroid derivatives. We performed network pharmacology analysis to explore metabolite-protein interactions and identified 124 human proteins as targets for H. alternata metabolites. Among these, several of them were implicated in wound healing including prothrombin (F2), alpha-2A adrenergic receptor (ADRA2A) and fibroblast growth factor receptor 1 (FGFR1). Gene ontology analysis of target proteins enriched cellular functions related to glucose metabolic process, platelet activation, membrane organization and response to wounding. Additionally, pathway enrichment analysis revealed potential molecular network involved in wound healing. Moreover, in-silico docking analysis showed strong binding energy between H. alternata metabolites with identified protein targets (F2 and PTPN11). Furthermore, the key metabolites involved in wound healing were further validated by multiple reaction monitoring-based targeted analysis.

Network Pharmacology Study on Herb Pair Bletilla striata-Galla chinensis in the Treatment of Chronic Skin Ulcers

BACKGROUND

Herb pair Bletilla striata-Galla chinensis (BS-GC) is a classic combination of topical traditional Chinese medicine formulae in the treatment of chronic skin ulcers (CSUs).

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study is to explore the effective active ingredients of BS-GC, as well as the core targets and signal transduction pathways of its action on CSUs.

METHODS

The ingredients of BS-GC were obtained from TCMSP and HERB databases. The targets of all active ingredients were retrieved from the SwissTargetPrediction database. The targets of CSUs were obtained from OMIM, GeneCards, Drugbank, and DisGeNET databases. A drug-disease target protein-protein interaction (PPI) network was constructed to select the most core targets, and an herb-ingredient-target network was built by utilizing Cytoscape 3.7.2. Furthermore, we performed Gene Ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database (KEGG) analysis and verified the results of network pharmacology through molecular docking.

RESULTS

A total of 40 active ingredients from the herb pair BS-GC were initially screened, and a total of 528 targets were retrieved. Meanwhile, the total number of CSU targets was 1032. Then, the number of common targets between BS-GC and CSUs was 107. The 13 core targets of herb pair BS-GC with CSUs were filtered out according to the PPI network, including AKT1, TNF, EGFR, BCL2, HIF1A, MMP-9, etc. The 5 main core active ingredients were 1-(4-Hydroxybenzyl)-2-methoxy-9,10-dihydrophenanthrene-4,7-diol, 1-(4- Hydroxybenzyl)-4-methoxy-9,10-dihydrophenanthrene-2,7-diol, physcion, dihydromyricetin, and myricetin. The main biological processes were inflammation, oxidative stress, and immune response, involving the AGE-RAGE signaling pathway in diabetic complications, HIF-1 signaling pathway, NF-κB signaling pathway, and calcium signaling pathway. Molecular docking results showed good binding activity between the 5 main core active ingredients and 13 core targets.

CONCLUSION

This study predicted the core targets and signal transduction pathways in the treatment of CSUs to provide a reference for further molecular mechanism research.

An outlook on the target-based molecular mechanism of phytoconstituents as immunomodulators

The immune system is one of the essential defense mechanisms. Immune system inadequacy increases the risk of infections and cancer diseases, whereas over-activation of the immune system causes allergies or autoimmune disorders. Immunomodulators have been used in the treatment of immune-related diseases. There is growing interest in using herbal medicines as multicomponent agents to modulate the complex immune system in immune-related diseases. Many therapeutic phytochemicals showed immunomodulatory effects by various mechanisms. This mechanism includes stimulation of lymphoid cell, phagocytosis, macrophage, and cellular immune function enhancement. In addition increased antigen-specific immunoglobulin production, total white cell count, and inhibition of TNF-α, IFN-γ, NF-kB, IL-2, IL-6, IL-1β, and other cytokines that influenced the immune system. This review aims to overview, widely investigated plant-derived phytoconstituents by targeting cells to modulate cellular and humoral immunity in in vivo and in vitro. However, further high-quality research is needed to confirm the clinical efficacy of plant-based immunomodulators.

Co-delivering of oleuropein and lentisk oil in phospholipid vesicles as an effective approach to modulate oxidative stress, cytokine secretion and promote skin regeneration

In this work oleuropein and lentisk oil have been co-loaded in different phospholipid vesicles (i.e., liposomes, transfersomes, hyalurosomes and hyalutransfersomes), to obtain a formulation capable of both inhibiting the production of different markers connected with inflammation and oxidative stress and promoting the skin repair. Liposomes were prepared using a mixture of phospholipids, oleuropein and lentisk oil. Tween 80, sodium hyaluronate or their combination have been added to the mixture to obtain transfersomes, hyalurosomes and hyalutransfersomes. Size, polydispersity index, surface charge and stability on storage was evaluated. The biocompatibility, anti-inflammatory activity and wound healing effect were tested using normal human dermal fibroblasts. Vesicles were small (mean diameter ∼ 130 nm) and homogeneously dispersed (polydispersity index ∼ 0.14), highly negatively charged (zeta potential 02053-64 mV) and capable of loading 20 mg/mL of oleuropein and 75 mg/mL of lentisk oil. The freeze-drying of dispersions with a cryoprotectant permitted to improve their stability on storage. The co-loading of oleuropein and lentisk oil in vesicles inhibited the overproduction of inflammatory markers, especially MMP-1 and IL-6, counteracted the oxidative stress induced in cells using hydrogen peroxide, and promoted the healing of a wounded area performed in vitro in a cell monolayer of fibroblasts. The proposed co-loading of oleuropein and lentisk oil in natural-based phospholipid vesicles may hold promising therapeutic value especially for the treatment of a wide variety of skin disorders.

Microbiological Properties and Cytotoxicity of PNVCL Hydrogels Containing Flavonoids as Intracanal Medication for Endodontic Therapy

This study aimed to evaluate the cytotoxicity and microbiological properties of poly (N-vinylcaprolactam)-PNVCL hydrogels containing flavonoids as intracanal medication for endodontic therapy. Antimicrobial activity of ampelopsin (AMP), isoquercitrin and rutin was determined against Enterococcus faecalis, Actinomyces israelii, Lactobacillus casei, Streptococcus mutans, and Fusobacterium nucleatum by the microdilution method. After synthesis and characterization by rheology, PNVCL hydrogels were loaded with AMP and controls calcium hydroxide (CH) and chlorhexidine (CHX), and determined the compounds release profile. PNVCL+AMP, PNVCL+CH, PNVCL+CHX were evaluated on multi-species biofilms and analyzed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Confocal Laser Scanning Microscopy (CLSM). Cytotoxicity was determined after fibroblasts exposure to serial dilutions of AMP and PNVCL hydrogel extracts. AMP was effective against all of the bacteria tested, especially against S. mutans, A. israelli and F. nucleatum. SEM and CLSM analysis showed that PNVCL + AMP caused a significant decrease and disorganization of multi-species biofilms and reduction of intracanal viable cells, superior to the other groups. AMP affected fibroblast viability at concentrations above 0.125 mg/mL, and extracts of PNVCL+AMP showed low cytotoxicity. In conclusion, PNVCL containing AMP demonstrated cytocompatibility and potent effect against multi-species biofilms and could be potential intracanal medication for endodontic purposes.

A Comprehensive Review of Natural Compounds for Wound Healing: Targeting Bioactivity Perspective

Wound healing is a recovering process of damaged tissues by replacing dysfunctional injured cellular structures. Natural compounds for wound treatment have been widely used for centuries. Numerous published works provided reviews of natural compounds for wound healing applications, which separated the approaches based on different categories such as characteristics, bioactivities, and modes of action. However, current studies provide reviews of natural compounds that originated from only plants or animals. In this work, we provide a comprehensive review of natural compounds sourced from both plants and animals that target the different bioactivities of healing to promote wound resolution. The compounds were classified into four main groups (i.e., anti-inflammation, anti-oxidant, anti-bacterial, and collagen promotion), mostly studied in current literature from 1992 to 2022. Those compounds are listed in tables for readers to search for their origin, bioactivity, and targeting phases in wound healing. We also reviewed the trend in using natural compounds for wound healing.

8-Methoxybutin inhibits α-MSH induced melanogenesis and proliferation of skin melanoma by suppression of the transactivation activity of microphthalmia-associated transcription factor

Microphthalmia-associated transcription factor (MITF) is highly expressed in melanocytes and is the main regulator of melanogenesis and melanocyte cell fate. Although MITF is important for the differentiation and development of melanocytes, it is also considered an oncogene of skin melanoma. Based on these findings, MITF could be an attractive therapeutic target for skin cancer intervention. This study identified 8-methoxybutin as an inhibitor of MITF and investigated the underlying mechanism. 8-Methoxybutin inhibited α-MSH-induced melanogenesis in murine melanoma cells (B16F10) and skin melanoma proliferation by reducing melanogenic gene expression via blockade of the transactivation activity of MITF. In silico docking analysis and pull-down analysis suggested that 8-methoxybutin binds to the DNA-binding domain of MITF and further inhibits its binding to the E-box in the promoter of target genes, including tyrosinase. In addition, 8-methoxybutin suppressed growth of skin melanoma in a xenograft mouse model. These results indicate that 8-methoxybutin has potential as a therapeutic agent for hyperpigmentation disorder and skin cancer. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: 8-Methoxybutin inhibits MITF transactivation activity resulting suppression of melanogenesis and skin melanoma growth.

Myricetin (3,3',4',5,5',7-Hexahydroxyflavone) Prevents 5-Fluorouracil-Induced Cardiotoxicity

5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is a strong anti-cancer drug used to manage numerous cancers. Cardiotoxicity, renal toxicity, and liver toxicity are some of the adverse effects which confine its clinical use to some extent. 5-FU-induced organ injuries are associated with redox imbalance, inflammation, and damage to heart functioning, particularly in the present study. Myricetin is an abundant flavonoid, commonly extracted from berries and herbs having anti-oxidative and anti-cancer activities. We planned the current work to explore the beneficial effects of myricetin against 5-FU-induced cardiac injury in Wistar rats through a biochemical and histological approach. Prophylactic myricetin treatment at two doses (25 and 50 mg/kg) was given to rats orally for 21 days against cardiac injury induced by a single injection of 5-FU (150 mg/kg b.wt.) given on the 20th day intraperitoneally. The 5-FU injection induced oxidative stress, inflammation, and extensive cardiac damage. Nevertheless, myricetin alleviated markers of inflammation, apoptosis, cardiac toxicity, oxidative stress, and upregulated anti-oxidative machinery. The histology of heart further supports our biochemical findings mitigated by the prophylactic treatment of myricetin. Henceforth, myricetin mitigates 5-FU-induced cardiac damage by modulating oxidative stress, inflammation, and cardiac-specific markers, as found in the present study.

Effect of Rhus coriaria L. methanolic fruit extract on wound healing in diabetic and non-diabetic rats

AIM

This study assessed the effects of topical application of R. coriaria extract on the rate of wound closure. The rate of wound contraction was used to assess the wound healing efficacy of the R. coriaria fruit methanolic extract.

METHODS

Using excision and burn model of wound repair in diabetic male Wistar rats. Also, hydroxyproline, collagen content, and proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines levels were determined in this study.

RESULTS

During the early wound healing phase, interleukin 6 (IL-6) levels were found to be decreased by R. coriaria treatment and increased the level of interleukin 10 (IL-10). Increased wound contraction augmented with hydroxyproline and collagen content, supporting the early wound healing exhibited by R. coriaria. The epithelialization, neovascularization and enhanced hydroxyproline and collagen expression were strongly associated with the healing pattern.

CONCLUSION

This study indicating that R. coriaria methanolic fruit extract has a potent wound healing capacity. And may be effective in the topical therapy of wound healing.