2012, Vol.2, No.3

CELLMED 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 0.03

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

Heart disease that ultimately leads to heart failure (HF) has been the number one cause of death in the United States as well as in many other countries for over a century. Inotropic therapy utilizing cardiotonics to increase cardiac contractility remains a significant component of the management of HF. However, adverse effects of currently available cardiotonics have been compromising their therapeutic value and often lead to further myocardial dysfunction. Thus, discovery of safe cardiotonics remains a main challenge to improvement of inotropic therapy for HF. This review briefly summarized cellular mechanisms underlying the inotropic action of currently available cardiotonics, newly-developed carditonics and the bark of Terminalia arjuna (TA), a tropical tree used in ayurvedic medicine. The potential of TA bark as a new cardiotonic in inotropic treatment for HF was also discussed.

The aim of this study is to collate all available data on experiments reporting the antiproliferative, cytotoxic effects of plants and natural products in Morocco in the last two decades. A bibliographic investigation was carried out by analyzing recognized books and peer-reviewed papers, consulting worldwide accepted scientific databases (Scirus, Embase, HighWire, MEDLINE/PubMed, LILACS, Ovid, ScienceDirect, SciELO, Google Scholar). We used medical subject heading terms and the words 'anticancer', 'antiproliferative', 'antineoplastic', 'antitumoral', 'cytotoxic', 'Morocco', to identify relevant articles. Moroccan plants with attributed anti-cancer properties studied as plant extracts that have been evaluated for cytotoxic effects, antitumoral effects, plants with active compounds tested on cancer cell lines, and plants with active compounds that have been assayed on animal models were chosen for this research. In the present study, interest is focused on experimental research conducted on medicinal plants, particularly those which show antiproliferative or cytotoxic activities alongside bioactive components. A total of 20 plant species belonging to 12 families have been identified as active or promising sources of phytochemicals with antiproliferative properties. The plant families, which cover all the species studied in this field, are Lamiaceae (7 species) and Asteraceae (4 species); the most studied species being Argania spinosa (Sapotaceae) and Arisarum vulgare (Araceae), Thymus Genus (Labiateae) and Peganum harmala (Zygophyllaceae). Based on the search results, it is recommended to increase the number of experimental studies and to begin conducting clinical trials with Moroccan plants and their active compounds selected by in vitro and in vivo activities.

The healing properties of medicinal maggots (larval stage of Lucilia sericata) are widely used in the chirurgical debridement of non-healing wounds including diabetic foot ulcers, venous and pressure ulcers, where classical approaches have failed. Several kinds of wounds are prone to complications coming out of a specific wound bed environment. There are multi-resistant bacterial species present, their pathogenic impact is multiplied by their ability to form a biofilm. Moreover, immunological events in chronic wounds differ from those in acute wounds. Non-healing wounds are cycled in the early inflammation phase with increased levels of inflammation attributes like inflammation cytokines and matrix metalloproteinases produced by inflammation phase cells. Application of larval therapy promotes progress in the healing process to the next stages involving tissue granulation and re-epithelisation. Larval debridement is an effective method of cleaning the wound of cell debris, necrotic tissue and bacterial load. This happens in a mechanical and biological manner, but the whole complex mechanism of the maggot healing activity is still not fully elucidated. Centuries of clinical practice brings noticeable proof of the maggots’ beneficial effect in wound healing management. This long history led to the investigation of the bioactive components of the larval body and its extracts in vitro. We introduce a review which describes the immunomodulation impact of maggot body components on the cellular and molecular levels of the wound healing process.