scholarly journals Modern Approaches in the Discovery and Development of Plant-Based Natural Products and Their Analogues as Potential Therapeutic Agents

Molecules ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 349
Author(s):  
Asim Najmi ◽  
Sadique A. Javed ◽  
Mohammed Al Bratty ◽  
Hassan A. Alhazmi

Natural products represents an important source of new lead compounds in drug discovery research. Several drugs currently used as therapeutic agents have been developed from natural sources; plant sources are specifically important. In the past few decades, pharmaceutical companies demonstrated insignificant attention towards natural product drug discovery, mainly due to its intrinsic complexity. Recently, technological advancements greatly helped to address the challenges and resulted in the revived scientific interest in drug discovery from natural sources. This review provides a comprehensive overview of various approaches used in the selection, authentication, extraction/isolation, biological screening, and analogue development through the application of modern drug-development principles of plant-based natural products. Main focus is given to the bioactivity-guided fractionation approach along with associated challenges and major advancements. A brief outline of historical development in natural product drug discovery and a snapshot of the prominent natural drugs developed in the last few decades are also presented. The researcher’s opinions indicated that an integrated interdisciplinary approach utilizing technological advances is necessary for the successful development of natural products. These involve the application of efficient selection method, well-designed extraction/isolation procedure, advanced structure elucidation techniques, and bioassays with a high-throughput capacity to establish druggability and patentability of phyto-compounds. A number of modern approaches including molecular modeling, virtual screening, natural product library, and database mining are being used for improving natural product drug discovery research. Renewed scientific interest and recent research trends in natural product drug discovery clearly indicated that natural products will play important role in the future development of new therapeutic drugs and it is also anticipated that efficient application of new approaches will further improve the drug discovery campaign.

2005 ◽  
Vol 77 (11) ◽  
pp. 1957-1964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelly Chibale

In order to fulfill research objectives around target-based drug discovery in the field of anti-infective agents that are prevalent mainly in poor Third World countries, selection of biological and chemical targets is guided by economic drug discovery and rational medicinal chemistry. Selection of biological targets of therapeutic relevance in multiple disease-causing organisms, as well as the use of natural products and existing drugs as chemical scaffolds for the discovery and design of novel therapeutics should be viable strategies underpinning drug discovery research in poor Third World countries. In this regard, biological targets of interest to our program include disulfide reductases and cysteine proteases (CPs), while chemical scaffolds include existing antimalarial agents and natural products.


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (6) ◽  
pp. 696-705 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanut Kunkanjanawan ◽  
Richard Carter ◽  
Kwan-Sung Ahn ◽  
Jinjing Yang ◽  
Rangsun Parnpai ◽  
...  

Huntington’s disease (HD) is a neurodegenerative disease caused by an expansion of CAG trinucleotide repeat (polyglutamine [polyQ]) in the huntingtin ( HTT) gene, which leads to the formation of mutant HTT (mHTT) protein aggregates. In the nervous system, an accumulation of mHTT protein results in glutamate-mediated excitotoxicity, proteosome instability, and apoptosis. Although HD pathogenesis has been extensively studied, effective treatment of HD has yet to be developed. Therapeutic discovery research in HD has been reported using yeast, cells derived from transgenic animal models and HD patients, and induced pluripotent stem cells from patients. A transgenic nonhuman primate model of HD (HD monkey) shows neuropathological, behavioral, and molecular changes similar to an HD patient. In addition, neural progenitor cells (NPCs) derived from HD monkeys can be maintained in culture and differentiated to neural cells with distinct HD cellular phenotypes including the formation of mHTT aggregates, intranuclear inclusions, and increased susceptibility to oxidative stress. Here, we evaluated the potential application of HD monkey NPCs and neural cells as an in vitro model for HD drug discovery research.


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