Current Organic Chemistry - Volume 21, Issue 18, 2017

Background: Avian influenza, commonly known as bird flu, is caused by viruses adapted to birds; however, some of the avian viruses are highly pathogenic to the human population. Though vaccines have been developed for the prevention of avian influenza, the emerging resistant strains greatly limit the effectiveness of these mainstay prophylactic drugs. Thus, novel anti-avian influenza agents are sought for the dissemina Read More

Background: The human body has natural defenses against viruses. During the virus infection, as a self-protective mechanism, immune cells and other cells will secrete amount of antiviral cytokines to promote the host to clear virus and microorganism, with multiple mechanisms such as alteration of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules, activation of cellular antiviral responses involving natural killer cells (NK Read More

Background: Despite the successes achieved recently in the treatment of various infectious diseases, the morbidity and mortality associated with malaria remain major burdens. Objective: The main limitations of conventional malaria therapy are the development of multi-drug resistance resulting in high dosage of different drugs and subsequent pill burden and toxicity. Thus, new effective antimalarial agents are urgently n Read More

Background: Phenolic compounds are a class of the most widely distributed secondary metabolites in plants. They may function as pollination, pigment constituents and protection against UV radiation and predation for plants. Plant phenols have been studied for hundreds of years, and have acted as the major class of compounds that show great activity against various viruses such as herpes simplex, Epstein-Barr virus, Read More

Objective & Background: In this review, we summarize the principle and applicability of hyphenations of planar chromatography in natural product research. Direct bioautography, the combination of planar chromatography with antimicrobial assay, is suitable for rapid, high-throughput screening of plant extracts, and can be used as a bio-monitoring system in effect-directed processes. It permits testing of separated, ind Read More

Objective & Background: Emergence and spreading of antimicrobial resistance is one of the serious challenges of modern medicine. Many microorganisms acquired various resistance mechanisms, including mutations of the antimicrobial targets, adoption of resistance genes coding for enzymes degrading or modifying the antimicrobial molecules, protecting or modifying the antimicrobial targets, or coding for efflux syst Read More

Background & Objective: Fungi are responsible for producing infections in humans. While all humans are susceptible to these disorders, immunocompromised people are the most at risk. Although it appears that we have many antifungal drugs in clinical use, unfortunately, most antifungal drugs currently in use have serious limitations or some drawbacks in pharmacokinetic aspects such as they do not possess an Read More

Background: The quinoline moiety has been reported to be a privileged structure due to its presence in many drugs. It appears in alkaloids and natural products such as quinine, camptothecin or cinchonidine. The spectrum of the activity of quinoline-related compounds includes not only antimicrobial but also anticancer effects. Objective: Those active quinoline alkaloids have become the basis for a large number of synth Read More

Background: Athletes' food disease is a general name for the tinea pedis. This kind of disease bothers foot of billions of people with intense itching, burning and stinging. Athletes' foot disease is mainly caused by the ringworm fungi known as dermatophytes. Those dermatophytes commonly show resistance to antibiotics. Therefore dermatophytes infection recurs easily. Objective: Natural compounds from plants and microorg Read More

Background & Objective: The emergence of multidrug-resistant virus, bacteria and fungi has created an urgent need for the development of novel antibiotic drugs from natural products with different mechanism of action. Therefore, in this review, seventeen types of isoquinoline alkaloids, including benzyltetrahydroisoquinoline, benzylisoquinoline, bisbenzylisoquinoline, aporphine, tetrahydroprotoberberine, N-methyltetrahy Read More