2016, Vol.6, No.4

CELLMED 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.02

pISSN : 3022-6805 / eISSN : 3022-6791
https://journal.kci.go.kr/cellmed

The biologically active compounds derived from different natural organisms such as animals, plants, and microorganisms like algae, fungi, bacteria and merine organisms. These natural compounds possess diverse biological activities like anthelmintic, antibacterial, antifungal, antimalarial, antiprotozoal, antituberculosis, and antiviral activities. These biological active compounds were acted by variety of molecular targets and thus may potentially contribute to several pharmacological classes. The synthesis of natural products and their analogues provides effect of structural modifications on the parent compounds which may be useful in the discovery of potential new drug molecules with different biological activities. Natural organisms have developed complex chemical defense systems by repelling or killing predators, such as insects, microorganisms, animals etc. These defense systems have the ability to produce large numbers of diverse compounds which can be used as new drugs. Thus, research on natural products for novel therapeutic agents with broad spectrum activities and will continue to provide important new drug molecules.

With the rapid developments in nanotechnology, an increasing number of nanomaterials have been applied in various aspects of our lives. Recently, pharmaceutical nanotechnology with numerous advantages has growingly attracted the attention of many researchers. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) are nanomaterials that are widely used in many fields including diagnostics, therapeutics, drug-delivery systems, electronics, cosmetics, sunscreens, coatings, ceramic products, paints, and food additives, due to their magnetic, catalytic, semiconducting, anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, ultraviolet-protective, and binding properties. The present review focused on the recent research works concerning role of ZnO-NP on inflammation. Several studies have reported that ZnO-NP induces inflammatory reaction through the generation of reactive oxygen species by oxidative stress and production of inflammatory cytokines by activation of nuclear factor-κB (NF-B). Meanwhile, other researchers reported that ZnO-NP exhibits an anti-inflammatory effect by inhibiting the up-regulation of inflammatory cytokines and the activation of NF-κB, caspase-1, IκB kinaseβ, receptor interacting protein2, and extracellular signal-regulated kinase. Previous studies reported that size and shape of nanoparticles, surfactants used for nanoparticles protection, medium, and experimental conditions can also affect cellular signal pathway. This review indicated that the anti-inflammatory effectiveness of ZnO-NP was determined by the nanoparticle size as well as various experimental conditions. Therefore, the author suggests that pharmaceutical therapy with the ZnO-NP is one of the possible strategies to overcome the inflammatory reactions. However, further studies should be performed to maximize the anti-inflammatory effect of ZnO-NP to apply as a potential agent in biomedical applications.

The emergence of influenza virus and antigenic drift are potential cause of world-wide pandemic. There are some commercially available drugs in the market to treat influenza. During past decade, however, critical resistances have been raised for biological targets. Because of structural complexity and flexibility of target proteins, applying a computational modeling tool is very beneficial for developing alternative anti-influenza drugs. In this review, we introduced molecular dynamics (MD) simulations approach to reflect full conformational flexibility of proteins during molecular modeling works. Case studies of MD works were summarized for the drug discovery and drug resistance mechanism of anti-influenza pharmaceuticals.