Recent patents on anti-infective drug discovery最新文献

Background: Carvacrol is the major constituent of essential oils derived from plants. It exhibits antimicrobial, antioxidant, anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and anticholinesterase activity. The analogues of carvacrol can be prepared via selected synthetic routes, resulting in potent compounds.

Objective: Modifying carvacrol by the introduction of selected functionalities has the potential to enhance the biological activity of carvacrol. The functionalities on carvacrol such as the hydroxyl group, benzene ring and alkyl groups can be modified or used for hybridization with important pharmaceutical scaffolds.

Results: In one of the patents cited, EP1053744B1, the modification of the hydroxyl group and the introduction of allyl groups into the benzene ring resulted in carvacrol analogues with antibacterial activity. Modifying the hydroxyl group influenced the hydrophobicity of the analogues and the size of the ring substituent. The hydrophobicity and the size of the ring substituent influence the analogues interactions with bacterial cells. The analogues of carvacrol with anticancer activity were influenced by the position of the substituted groups on the benzene ring. Substituent introduced at the ortho and para- positions resulted in better antitumor activity when compared to the ones with substituents on the meta-position.

Conclusion: Based on several reports on cavarcrol analogues, more research on the development of carvacrol analogues will result in potent compounds that can overcome drug resistance which is currently a challenge in the treatment of diseases, such as bacterial infections, cancer, fungal infections etc. However, more biological evaluation is required in order to fully understand the mode of action of these analogues on selected pathogens.

Background and aims: AIDS (acquired immune deficient syndrome), a deadly human infectious disease is caused by HIV (human immunodeficiency viruses) infection. Patient's mortality was eventually reduced to one-fourth by combined chemotherapy (usually 3 chemical drugs simultaneously) than earlier HIV/AIDS treatments (single drug or vaccine) in the clinic.

Results: Combined treatments against HIV/AIDS are still incurable for all patients despite a high rate of patient's survival. Basic viral pathological study and advancing drug development systems for curable medications are indispensable nowadays and in the future.

Conclusion: Up to date, therapeutic trinity (combined therapy) against HIV/AIDS is generally among chemical drugs. In this article, several forms of other therapeutic attempts for effectively curing efforts against HIV/AIDS are proposed-including the development of next generation therapeutic HIV vaccines and schedules, new categories of bio-therapy, different pathways of immune-modulation, herbal medicines in general (allopathic, Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicines), high quality of physical exercises, and especially therapeutic combinations guided by latest medical discovery and principles (new forms of therapeutic trinity against HIV-induced pathogenesis and human mortality).

Background: Topical infections, involving a number of diseases such as impetigo, eczema, pustular acne, psoriasis and infected seborrheic dermatitis are one among the many challenges to health which stand out for their profound impact on human species. The treatment of topical infections has always been a difficult proposition because of the lack of efficacy of existing anti-infectives, longer period of treatment and yet incomplete recovery. The increasing emergence of antibiotic resistant bacterial strains like Staphylococcus aureus, Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa undermines the need for the development of new delivery systems to enhance the therapeutic efficacy of existing topical anti-infectives.

Methods: The application of nanotechnology to medicine, or nanomedicine, is rapidly becoming a major driving force behind ongoing changes in the anti-infective field because of its interaction at the sub-atomic level with the skin tissue. The latter, in the current scenario, points towards vesicular carriers like liposomes, lipidic nanoparticles and silver nanoparticles. as the most promising drug delivery solutions for topical infection disorders. These have exhibited immense significance owing to their uniqueness to facilitate the interactions at interfaces with the barrier membranes.

Results: The present review summarizes the emerging efforts in combating topical infections particularly using nanomedicine based delivery systems as new tools to tackle the current challenges in treating infectious diseases. Besides, compiling various research reports, this article also includes formulation considerations, mechanisms of penetration and patents reported.

Conclusion: Despite the new emerging technologies and delivery systems, efforts are still needed in the right direction to combat this global challenge.

Background: Antibiotic resistance is one of the most serious health threats to modern medicine. The lack of potent antibiotics puts us at a disadvantage in the fight against infectious diseases, especially those caused by antibiotic-resistant microbial strains. To this end, an urgent need to search for alternative antimicrobial approaches has arisen. In the last decade, light-based anti-infective therapy has made significant strides in this fight to combat antibiotic resistance among various microbial strains. This method includes utilizing antimicrobial blue light, antimicrobial photodynamic therapy, and germicidal ultraviolet irradiation, among others. Light-based therapy is advantageous over traditional antibiotics in that it eradicates microbial cells rapidly and the likelihood of light-resistance development by microbes is low.

Methods: This review highlights the patents on light-based therapy that were filed approximately within the last decade and are dedicated to eradicating pathogenic microorganisms. The primary database that was used for the search was Google Patents. The searches were performed using the keywords including blue light, antimicrobial photodynamic therapy, ultraviolet irradiation, antibiotic resistance, disinfection, bacterium, fungus, and virus.

Results: Forty-five patents were obtained in our search: 9 patents for the antimicrobial blue light approach, 21 for antimicrobial photodynamic therapy, 11 for UV irradiation, and lastly 4 for other light-based anti-infective approaches. The treatments and devices discussed in this review are interestingly enough able to be used in various different functions and settings, such as dental applications, certain eye diseases, skin and hard surface cleansing, decontamination of internal organs (e.g., the stomach), decontamination of apparel and equipment, eradication of pathogenic microorganisms from buildings and rooms, etc. Most of the devices and inventions introduce methods of destroying pathogenic bacteria and fungi without harming human cells and tissues.

Conclusions: Light-based antimicrobial approaches hold great promise for the future in regards to treating antibiotic-resistant infections and related diseases.

Background: After the era of serendipitous discovery of penicillin and outburst in the discovery and development of highly efficient antibiotics, a surge in resistance against the target specific drugs was observed, primarily due to a combination of selective pressure of antibiotics use and spontaneous mutations. As per the World Health Organization, antibiotic resistance is one of the greatest threats to the mankind.

Objective: Short antimicrobial peptides (SAMPs) can be considered as a viable therapeutic alternative to conventional antibiotics in tackling resistant microbes. The ubiquitous nature of SAMPs combined with their ability to act via non-specific modes of action, high activity against a wide spectrum of drug-sensitive and drug-resistant microbes, and relative insusceptibility against the development of resistance adds to their desirability as new generation antibiotics.

Results: Due to the natural tendency of peptides to get metabolized by proteolytic enzymes, modification of naturally occurring SAMPs is desirable. The modifications can be done either by incorporating unnatural or modified amino acids into the peptide chain or by protecting C and N termini. The characteristic feature of SAMPs is their hydrophobicity and cationicity, which aid in the effective killing of microbes by selectively binding target and lysing the microbial cells with less deleterious effects on the host cells as compared to AMPs and other conventional antibiotics.

Conclusion: Herein, we discussed the arsenal of short peptides and peptidomimetics starting from the smallest unit possible - a dipeptide to a decapeptide along with their activity profiles as antimicrobials. Recently, various SAMPs have paved their ways from in vitro studies to clinical trials, as evident from the most recent patent (EP1951194) on oral hygiene. This step by step growth of SAMPs has restored the hope in peptide-based therapeutics, which may prove an essential tool in eradicating antimicrobial resistance and tackling various microbial infections.

Background and objective: Today, resistance to multiple classes of antibiotics, and notably to the β-lactam and aminoglycosides in A. baumannii is becoming a great problem and it necessitates to make a new approach to combat with multidrug-resistant (MDR), extensive drug-resistance (XDR) or Pandrug-resistant (PDR) isolates. In this case, a new strategy and ways should be designed and introduced against such infections. Therefore the aim of the present study was the evaluation of antibacterial activity of nanoconjugate gentamicin and amikacin with gold against clinical isolates of A. baumannii that were collected from burn wound infection. There are some patents of gold nanoparticles that are conjugated with antibiotics (WO2017161296A1, US20090181101A1).

Methods: Eighteen A. baumannii were collected from burn wound infections. For confirmation and detection of aminoglycoside-resistant genes, PCR was carried out. Gold nanoparticles and nanoconjugates were prepared according to the protocol. For the evaluation of the nanoconjugate, Dynamic light cattering, Transmission electron microscopy and FTIR Analysis were carried out. Then, the antibacterial activity of nanoconjugates was conducted by using micro broth dilution method.

Result: Prevalence of aminoglycoside-resistant genes was aacC1, aphA6, aadA1, aadB genes 55.5%, 22.2%, 38.8% and 22.2% respectively. Synthesis of bare nanoconjugates resulted in nanoparticle in a size of 10 nm. Amikacin bound to Gnps showed excellent antibacterial activity (94.5%) and just one isolate showed intermediate resistance. Also, gentamicin bound to Gnps had a good antimicrobial effect (50%) in contrast to gentamicin alone.

Conclusion: Our study showed that a combination of amikacin and gentamicin with Gnps has a significant antibacterial efficiency against clinical isolates of A. baumannii. Gnps can be used as extraordinary molecular carriers for targeting, and delivery of the antibiotic molecules to the specific infection.