There is a vital need to find new clinical treatment options to combat ESKAPE pathogen infections. Nature has thus far been the most fruitful at providing antimicrobial compounds, which have been derived from a plethora of sources. Ranging from plants to microbial communities, these organisms create chemical compounds that are used as defense mechanisms against invasive or encroaching organisms and confer the producers with competitive advantages. In this study, cinnamaldehyde was investigated as a botanical approach to finding active antimicrobial compounds that inhibit the ESKAPE pathogens. Here, we show that all the ESKAPE pathogens are inhibited by cinnamaldehyde concentrations between 105 μg/mL and 630 μg/mL. To test biofilm eradication capabilities of cinnamaldehyde, we show that at the MIC, there is
A vast majority of the world’s population lacks access to essential medicines and the provision of safe healthcare services. Medicinal plants and herbal medicines can be applied for pharmacognosy, or the discovery of new drugs, or as an aid for plant physiology studies. In recent years, there has been increased interest in the search for new chemical entities and the expression of resistance of many drugs available in the market has led to a shift in paradigm towards medicinal research. Herbal treatments, the most popular form of folk medicine, may become an important way of increasing access to healthcare services. Advanced Pharmacological Uses of Medicinal Plants and Natural Products provides emerging research exploring the theoretical and practical aspects of drug discovery from natural sources that allow for the effective treatment of human health problems without any side effects, toxicity, or drug resistance. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as ethnobotany, therapeutic applications, and bioactive compounds, this book is ideally designed for pharmacologists, scientists, ethnobotanists, botanists, health researchers, professors, industry professionals, and health students in fields that include pharmaceutical drug development and discovery.
This book reviews the current concepts in biofilm formation and its implications in human health and disease. The initial chapters introduce the mechanisms of biofilm formation and its composition. Subsequently, the chapters discuss the role of biofilm in acute and chronic infections. It also explores the pivotal role of both innate and adaptive immunity on the course of biofilm infection. In addition, the book elucidates the bacterial biofilm formation on implantable devices and the current approaches to its treatment and prevention. It analyzes the possible relationship between antimicrobial resistance and biofilm formation. Finally, the book also summarizes the current state-of-the-art therapeutic approaches for preventing and treating biofilms. This book is a useful resource for researchers in the field of microbiology, clinical microbiology, and also medical practitioners.
Documenting the latest research in the field of different pathogenic organisms, this book presents the current scenario about promising antimicrobials in the following areas: Part I. Plants as source of antibacterials, Part II. Naturally occurring antifungal natural products, Part III. Antiparasitic natural products, Part IV. Antiviral natural products. Renowned scientists from the globe have been selected as authors to contribute chapters. Use of plants for various ailments is as old as human civilization and continuous efforts are being made to improve medicinal plants or to product their bioactive secondary metabolites in high amounts through various technologies. About 200,000 natural products of plant origin are known and many more are being identified from higher plants and micro-organisms. Some plants based drugs are used since centuries and there is no alternative medicine for many such drugs as cardiac glycosides. Drug discovery from medicinal plants or marine micro-organisms continues to provide an important source of new drug leads. Research on new antibacterials represents a real and timely challenge of this century, particularly for the treatment of infections caused by clinical isolates that show multidrug resistance. The main microorganisms involved in the resistance process have been identified and given the acronym ESKAPE for Enterococcus faecium, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumanii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterobacteriaceae. Multidrug resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis including highly drug-resistant strains (XDR-TB) has also emerged as one of the most important clinical challenges of this century. Plants of diverse taxa and marine micro-organisms are rich source of these antimicrobials. An attempt has been made to compile the recent information about natural sources of antibacterials and their sustainable utilization. Increased panic of these pathogens warrants a growing demand for research to undertake the threat of multidrug resistance. The search for new antifungal, antiparasitic and antiviral natural products is far from devoid of interest. According to the WHO report in 2013, malaria still represents some 207 million cases worldwide and more than 3 billion of people are still exposed to this risk. Similarly, about 350 million people are considered at risk of contracting leishmaniasis. The fight against some viruses also requires that the research on natural products continue. For example, even if an antiretroviral with direct action was recently approved in Europe in 2013, its high cost does not allow to offer it to an exposed population in countries where the cost of drugs remains a problem for a large part of the population. These books are useful to researchers and students in microbiology, biotechnology, pharmacology, chemistry and biology as well as medical professionals.
This book examines specific techniques which can be used to explore new drug targets and the effectiveness of new antibiotics. By testing new antimicrobial agents and modified existing drugs, the most vulnerable cell processes, such as cell wall and membrane synthesis, DNA replication, RNA transcription and protein synthesis, can be better exploited. This in-depth volume, however, delves even deeper by identifying additional novel cellular targets for these new therapies. The book will provide laboratory investigators with the vital tools they need to test the antimicrobial potential of products and to curb the rise of so many infectious diseases.
This book provides a survey of recent advances in the development of antibiofilm agents for clinical and environmental applications. The fact that microbes exist in structured communities called biofilms has slowly become accepted within the medical community. We now know that over 80% of all infectious diseases are biofilm-related; however, significant challenges still lie in our ability to diagnose and treat these extremely recalcitrant infections. Written by experts from around the globe, this book offers a valuable resource for medical professionals seeking to treat biofilm-related disease, academic and industry researchers interested in drug discovery and instructors who teach courses on microbial pathogenesis and medical microbiology.
Microbiota are a promising and fascinating subject in biology because they integrate the microbial communities in humans, animals, plants, and the environment. In humans, microbiota are associated with the gut, skin, and genital, oral, and respiratory organs. The plant microbial community is referred to as "holobiont," and it is influential in the maintenance and health of plants, which themselves play a role in animal health and the environment. The contents of Microbiome-Host Interactions cover all areas as well as new research trends in the fields of plant, animal, human, and environmental microbiome interactions. The book covers microbiota in polar soil environments, in health and disease, in Caenorhabditis elegans, and in agroecosystems, as well as in rice root and actinorhizal root nodules, speleothems, and marine shallow-water hydrothermal vents. Moreover, this book provides comprehensive accounts of advanced next-generation DNA sequencing, metagenomic techniques, high-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing, and understanding nucleic acid sequence data from fungal, algal, viral, bacterial, cyanobacterial, actinobacterial, and archaeal communities using QIIME software (Quantitative Insights into Microbial Ecology). FEATURES Summarizes recent insight in microbiota and host interactions in distinct habitats, including Antarctic, hydrothermal vents, speleothems, oral, skin, gut, feces, reproductive tract, soil, root, root nodules, forests, and mangroves Illustrates the high-throughput amplicon sequencing, computational techniques involved in the microbiota analysis, downstream analysis and visualization, and multivariate analysis commonly used for microbiome analysis Describes probiotics and prebiotics in the composition of the gut microbiota, skin microbiome impact in dermatologic disease prevention, and microbial communities in the reproductive tract of humans and animals Presents information in a reachable way for students, teachers, researchers, microbiologists, computational biologists, and other professionals who are interested in strengthening or enlarging their knowledge about microbiome analysis with next-generation DNA sequencing in the different branches of the sciences
This book compiles the latest information in the field of antibacterial discovery, especially with regard to the looming threat of multi-drug resistance. The respective chapters highlight the discovery of new antibacterial and anti-infective compounds derived from microbes, plants, and other natural sources. The potential applications of nanotechnology to the fields of antibacterial discovery and drug delivery are also discussed, and one section of the book is dedicated to the use of computational tools and metagenomics in antibiotic drug discovery. Techniques for efficient drug delivery are also covered. The book provides a comprehensive overview of the progress made in both antibacterial discovery and delivery, making it a valuable resource for academic researchers, as well as those working in the pharmaceutical industry.
This Research Topic is dedicated to Prof. Elisabeth Kutter on the occasion of her 80th birthday. Dr. Kutter’s career as a phage scientist has extended nearly 60 years. She has been a pioneer as a woman in science. She started to work with phage at the University of Rochester, New York working with Dr. Wiberg on radioisotopes making excellent progress in the field – progress which was even cited in Luria’s 1969 Nobel Prize talk. Betty first encountered phage therapy during a visit to Georgia in 1990 which was part of a longer stay in the former Soviet Union under a US-USSR research exchange program. Dr. Kutter was one of the first Americans to advocate for phage therapy in the post antibiotic era. Betty started hosting the Evergreen International Phage meetings in Olympia, Washington, from 1975 onward, which helped to develop a strong phage community with participation increasing over the years to 350 at the 23 rd biannual last year. Betty continues to be an active member in the phage community, sharing her experience and working with all of us toward her ultimate goal of making phage therapy available worldwide thus reducing the burden caused by antibiotic resistant bacterial infections.
Food security and the medicinal needs of billions of people around the world are pressing global issues, and the biodiversity and sustainable utilization of plants is of great significance in this context. Further, ethnobotanical studies are vital in the discovery of new drugs from indigenous medicinal plants, and plants with industrially important metabolites need to be cultivated to meet the growing market demand. In addition, the production of plant metabolites under in vitro conditions also has tremendous possibilities. The totipotency of plant cells plays a valuable role in the sustainable utilization of plant resources through cell, tissue and organ culture. At the same time, production can be enhanced using productive cell lines, treatment with elicitors, changing nutritional parameters and metabolic engineering. This book provides state-of-the-art information on biodiversity, conservation, ethnobotany, various aspects of In vitro secondary metabolite production, bioprospecting from various plant groups and drug discovery. It also discusses methods of extracting and characterizing drug leads from plant sources.
