Polymicrobial wound infections are a major cause of infectious disease-related morbidity and mortality worldwide. In this study, we prepared a nitric oxide (NO)-releasing oxidized bacterial cellulose/chitosan (BC_TO/CHI) crosslinked hydrogel to effectively treat polymicrobial wound infections. Linear polyethyleneimine diazeniumdiolate (PEI/NO) was used as the NO donor. The aldehyde group of BC_TO and the amine of CHI were used as crosslinked hydrogel-based materials; their high NO loading capacity and antibacterial activity on the treatment of polymicrobial-infected wounds were investigated. The blank and NO-loaded crosslinked hydrogels, namely BC_TO-CHI and BC_TO-CHI-PEI/NO, were characterized according to their morphologies, chemical properties, and drug loading. BC_TO-CHI-PEI/NO exhibited sustained drug release over four days. The high NO loading of BC_TO-CHI-PEI/NO enhanced the bactericidal efficacy against multiple bacteria compared with BC_TO-CHI. Furthermore, compared with blank hydrogels, BC_TO-CHI-PEI/NO has a favorable rheological property due to the addition of a polymer-based NO donor. Moreover, BC_TO-CHI-PEI/NO significantly accelerated wound healing and re-epithelialization in a mouse model of polymicrobial-infected wounds. We also found that both crosslinked hydrogels were nontoxic to healthy mammalian fibroblast cells. Therefore, our data suggest that the BC_TO-CHI-PEI/NO developed in this study improves the efficacy of NO in the treatment of polymicrobial wound infections.

Cytochrome P450 enzymes play an important role in drug metabolism. Various studies have reported the potential inhibition of these enzymes by natural compounds, leading to possible drug-herb interaction. One study reported that the MeOH extract of Cinnamomum burmani inhibited CYP3A4 in a mechanism-based mode. Further phytochemical investigation on this plant led to the isolation of 17 compounds including 2 new compounds: cinnamic aldehyde cyclic syringylglycerol 1,3-acetal (1) and 5′-hydroxy-5-hydroxymethyl-4′′,5′′-methylenedioxy-1,2,3,4-dibenzo-1,3,5-cycloheptatriene (2). The isolated constituents were tested for their preincubation time-dependent inhibition of CYP3A4 at 0 and 20 min. Only the new compound 2 showed an increase in the inhibitory activity to >50 % after 20-min preincubation. Further investigations of the inactivation by 2 displayed characteristics of a mechanism-based inactivator, with K _I and k _inact values of 7.7 μM and 0.04 min⁻¹, respectively.

Mulberry (Morus alba L.) leaf has been used as a traditional medicine for treatment of some tropical diseases and also popular using for silkworm feed. On this research, anti-inflammatory and wound healing activities of the bark extract has been investigated in vivo. The bark was extracted with three organic solvent in a different polarity to carry out a group compounds in n-hexane extract (EH), Eto-Ac extract (EE), and EtOH extract (EO). Anti-inflammatory was investigated on inflammatory mice induced by 1% carrageenan. Among the extract (200mg/kg BW), EE showed strongly decrease inflammation by 42% than the other extract and stronger than the positive control, Na-diclofenac. Further investigation on healing effect of wound and burn injury which was tested at concentration of 1% topically to each extract. All the extract significantly showed healing activity, among them EE was observed as the stronger one while slightly less than the positive control. This result indicated that the most active compounds on anti-inflammatory and healing wounded was extracted with ethyl acetate that could be used for drug discovery.

Self-healing hydrogels have good mechanical strength, can endure greater external force, and have the ability to heal independently, resulting in a strong bond between the wound and the material. Bacterial biofilm infections are life-threatening. Clindamycin (Cly) can be produced in the form of a self-healing hydrogel preparation. It is noteworthy that the antibacterial self-healing hydrogels show great promise as a wound dressing for bacterial biofilm infection. In this study, we developed a polyvinyl alcohol/borax (PVA/B) self-healing hydrogel wound dressing that releases Cly. Four ratios of PVA, B, and Cly were used to make self-healing hydrogels: F1 (4%:0.8%:1%), F2 (4%:1.2%:1%), F3 (1.6%:1%), and F4 (4%:1.6%:0). The results showed that F4 had the best physicochemical properties, including a self-healing duration of 11.81 ± 0.34 min, swelling ratio of 85.99 ± 0.12%, pH value of 7.63 ± 0.32, and drug loading of 98.34 ± 11.47%. The B–O–C cross-linking between PVA and borax caused self-healing, according to FTIR spectra. The F4 formula had a more equal pore structure in the SEM image. The PVA/B-Cly self-healing hydrogel remained stable at 6 ± 2 °C for 28 days throughout the stability test. The Korsmeyer–Peppas model released Cly by Fickian diffusion. In biofilm-infected mouse wounds, PVA/B-Cly enhanced wound healing and re-epithelialization. Our results indicate that the PVA/B-Cly produced in this work has reliable physicochemical properties for biofilm-infected wound therapy.

Chronic inflammation is a significant concern due to its association with various pathological conditions. As a result, extensive research has been conducted to identify new natural products that can effectively treat acute inflammation, which has the potential to inhibit the chronic inflammation. In our study, we aimed to identify Indonesian medicinal plants with the ability to inhibit proinflammatory agents, specifically targeting NF-κB, a crucial regulator of gene transcription involved in the production of proinflammatory proteins/cytokines. Through a series of identification processes, we found that Piper retrofractum (Javanese chili) extract demonstrated promising inhibitory effects on NF-κB and proinflammatory molecules.

The most common type of skin cancer is melanoma. While significant advances in chemotherapy have occurred in a few instances, only marginal progress has been made in treating metastatic melanoma. Natural medicine has traditionally been used to treat various illnesses, including cancer. The purpose of this study was to identify the active compound in Kaempferia galanga, which could be used to treat melanoma as an anti-metastasis and chemosensitizer agent. The active compound in K. galanga was isolated and identified using chromatography and spectroscopy techniques, and given six compounds. Inhibitory activity on NFκB activation and cell viability was determined using reporter assay methods. Among the isolated compounds, ethyl p-methoxycinnamate (EPMC) demonstrated potent NFκB inhibitory activity against melanoma cell B16F10- NFκB Luc2 with an IC50 of 88.7 μM. Further investigation was conducted by evaluating the anti-metastasis effect of EPMC in vitro by using wound-healing assays, invasion tests, and molecular mechanism assays using Western blotting. NFκB has been implicated in tumorigenesis through the PI3K/Akt/NFκB pathway. The results of this study indicated that EPMCs act as inhibitors of p38 and thereby Akt phosphorylation inhibitors at serine 473, inhibiting NFκB-dependent transcription. Further analysis with paclitaxel demonstrated that the combinations could sensitize to apoptosis in response to well-known chemotherapy agents. Additional studies were conducted using the human melanoma cancer cell line SK-Mel 28. Along with the induction of apoptosis, we observed an increase in p-γH2AX expression (a molecular marker for double strand breaks in DNA damage) in response to treatment with paclitaxel and EPMC. The result showed EPMC to be a potential, viable adjuvant for improving the clinical efficacy of anti-metastatic and cancer chemotherapy.