In recent years, the emergence of newly identified acute and chronic infectious disorders caused by diverse combinations of pathogens, termed polymicrobial diseases, has had catastrophic consequences for humans. Antimicrobial agents have been clinically proven to be effective in the pharmacological treatment of polymicrobial diseases. Unfortunately, an increasing trend in the emergence of multi-drug-resistant pathogens and limited options for delivery of antimicrobial drugs might seriously impact humans’ efforts to combat polymicrobial diseases in the coming decades. New antimicrobial agents with novel mechanism(s) of action and new pharmaceutical formulations or delivery systems to target infected sites are urgently required. In this review, we discuss the prospective use of novel antimicrobial compounds isolated from natural products to treat polymicrobial infections, mainly via mechanisms related to inhibition of biofilm formation. Drug-delivery systems developed to deliver antimicrobial compounds to both intracellular and extracellular pathogens are discussed. We further discuss the effectiveness of several biofilm-targeted delivery strategies to eliminate polymicrobial biofilms. At the end, we review the applications and promising opportunities for various drug-delivery systems, when compared to conventional antimicrobial therapy, as a pharmacological means to treat polymicrobial diseases.

Kinetics of Intracellular, Extracellular and Production of Pro-Inflammatory Cytokines in Lipopolysaccharide- Stimulated Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells

Allopathic medicines play a key role in the prevention and treatment of diseases. However, long-term consumption of these medicines may cause serious undesirable effects that harm human health. Plant-based medicines have emerged as alternatives to allopathic medicines because of their rare side effects. They contain several compounds that have the potential to improve health and treat diseases in humans, including their function as immunomodulators to treat immune-related diseases. Thus, the discovery of potent and safe immunomodulators from plants is gaining considerable research interest. Recently, Drosophila has gained prominence as a model organism in evaluating the efficacy of plant and plant-derived substances. Drosophila melanogaster “fruit fly” is a well-known, high-throughput model organism that has been used to study different biological aspects of development and diseases for more than 110 years. Most developmental and cell signaling pathways and 75% of human disease-related genes are conserved between humans and Drosophila. Using Drosophila, one can easily examine the pharmacological effects of plants/plant-derived components by employing a variety of tests in flies, such as survival, anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and cell death tests. This review focused on D. melanogaster’s potential for identifying immunomodulatory features associated with plants/plant-derived components.

Modulatory Effect of Phytoestrogens and Curcumin on Induction of Annexin 1 in Human Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells and their Inhibitory Effect on Secretory Phospholipase A 2

Objectives: The objectives of the study were to examine the inhibitory effect of ethanol extract of Eriobotrya japonica leaves (EEEJL) pre-incubated with theophylline and aspirin on isolated guinea pig tracheal chains against acetylcholine (ACh)-induced contraction.Methods: The effect of EEEJL (1-8 mg/Ml) on the isolated tracheal strips was tested in vitro. Furthermore, the mechanism of relaxant effects of EEEJL was evaluated in the presence of theophylline and aspirin.Results: The contractile response evoked by Ach (1.25 × 10−3 M) was decreased by EEEJL (effective concentration50 = 1.36 mg/mL) and has no significant difference of relaxant effect to that of EEEJL pre-incubated with theophylline and aspirin (p>0.05).Conclusion: The EEEJL decreased the ACh-induced contraction through the inhibition of PDE and the protective effect on prostaglandin E2.