| 1. |
- Abd El-Wahed, Aida, et al.
(författare)
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Wasp Venom Biochemical Components and Their Potential in Biological Applications and Nanotechnological Interventions
- 2021
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Ingår i: Toxins. - : MDPI AG. - 2072-6651 .- 2072-6651. ; 13:3
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Wasps, members of the order Hymenoptera, are distributed in different parts of the world, including Brazil, Thailand, Japan, Korea, and Argentina. The lifestyles of the wasps are solitary and social. Social wasps use venom as a defensive measure to protect their colonies, whereas solitary wasps use their venom to capture prey. Chemically, wasp venom possesses a wide variety of enzymes, proteins, peptides, volatile compounds, and bioactive constituents, which include phospholipase A2, antigen 5, mastoparan, and decoralin. The bioactive constituents have anticancer, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory effects. However, the limited quantities of wasp venom and the scarcity of advanced strategies for the synthesis of wasp venom’s bioactive compounds remain a challenge facing the effective usage of wasp venom. Solid-phase peptide synthesis is currently used to prepare wasp venom peptides and their analogs such as mastoparan, anoplin, decoralin, polybia-CP, and polydim-I. The goal of the current review is to highlight the medicinal value of the wasp venom compounds, as well as limitations and possibilities. Wasp venom could be a potential and novel natural source to develop innovative pharmaceuticals and new agents for drug discovery.
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| 2. |
- Ademuyiwa, Adesoji O., et al.
(författare)
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Determinants of morbidity and mortality following emergency abdominal surgery in children in low-income and middle-income countries
- 2016
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Ingår i: BMJ Global Health. - : BMJ Publishing Group Ltd. - 2059-7908. ; 1:4
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Child health is a key priority on the global health agenda, yet the provision of essential and emergency surgery in children is patchy in resource-poor regions. This study was aimed to determine the mortality risk for emergency abdominal paediatric surgery in low-income countries globally.Methods: Multicentre, international, prospective, cohort study. Self-selected surgical units performing emergency abdominal surgery submitted prespecified data for consecutive children aged <16 years during a 2-week period between July and December 2014. The United Nation's Human Development Index (HDI) was used to stratify countries. The main outcome measure was 30-day postoperative mortality, analysed by multilevel logistic regression.Results: This study included 1409 patients from 253 centres in 43 countries; 282 children were under 2 years of age. Among them, 265 (18.8%) were from low-HDI, 450 (31.9%) from middle-HDI and 694 (49.3%) from high-HDI countries. The most common operations performed were appendectomy, small bowel resection, pyloromyotomy and correction of intussusception. After adjustment for patient and hospital risk factors, child mortality at 30 days was significantly higher in low-HDI (adjusted OR 7.14 (95% CI 2.52 to 20.23), p<0.001) and middle-HDI (4.42 (1.44 to 13.56), p=0.009) countries compared with high-HDI countries, translating to 40 excess deaths per 1000 procedures performed.Conclusions: Adjusted mortality in children following emergency abdominal surgery may be as high as 7 times greater in low-HDI and middle-HDI countries compared with high-HDI countries. Effective provision of emergency essential surgery should be a key priority for global child health agendas.
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| 3. |
- El-Seedi, Hesham, et al.
(författare)
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Antimicrobial Properties of Apis mellifera's Bee Venom
- 2020
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Ingår i: Toxins. - : MDPI AG. - 2072-6651 .- 2072-6651. ; 12:7
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Bee venom (BV) is a rich source of secondary metabolites from honeybees (Apis melliferaL.). It contains a variety of bioactive ingredients including peptides, proteins, enzymes, and volatile metabolites. The compounds contribute to the venom's observed biological functions as per its anti-inflammatory and anticancer effects. The antimicrobial action of BV has been shown in vitro and in vivo experiments against bacteria, viruses, and fungi. The synergistic therapeutic interactions of BV with antibiotics has been reported. The synergistic effect contributes to a decrease in the loading and maintenance dosage, a decrease in the side effects of chemotherapy, and a decrease in drug resistance. To our knowledge, there have been no reviews on the impact of BV and its antimicrobial constituents thus far. The purpose of this review is to address the antimicrobial properties of BV and its compounds.
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| 4. |
- El-Seedi, Hesham, et al.
(författare)
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Chemistry and the Potential Antiviral, Anticancer, and Anti-Inflammatory Activities of Cardiotonic Steroids Derived from Toads
- 2022
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Ingår i: Molecules. - : MDPI AG. - 1431-5157 .- 1420-3049. ; 27:19
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cardiotonic steroids (CTS) were first documented by ancient Egyptians more than 3000 years ago. Cardiotonic steroids are a group of steroid hormones that circulate in the blood of amphibians and toads and can also be extracted from natural products such as plants, herbs, and marines. It is well known that cardiotonic steroids reveal effects against congestive heart failure and atrial fibrillation; therefore, the term cardiotonic has been coined. Cardiotonic steroids are divided into two distinct groups: cardenolides (plant-derived) and bufadienolides (mainly of animal origin). Cardenolides have an unsaturated five-membered lactone ring attached to the steroid nucleus at position 17; bufadienolides have a doubly unsaturated six-membered lactone ring. Cancer is a leading cause of mortality in humans all over the world. In 2040, the global cancer load is expected to be 28.4 million cases, which would be a 47% increase from 2020. Moreover, viruses and inflammations also have a very nebative impact on human health and lead to mortality. In the current review, we focus on the chemistry, antiviral and anti-cancer activities of cardiotonic steroids from the naturally derived (toads) venom to combat these chronic devastating health problems. The databases of different research engines (Google Scholar, PubMed, Science Direct, and Sci-Finder) were screened using different combinations of the following terms: cardiotonic steroids, anti-inflammatory, antiviral, anticancer, toad venom, bufadienolides, and poison chemical composition. Various cardiotonic steroids were isolated from diverse toad species and exhibited superior anti-inflammatory, anticancer, and antiviral activities in in vivo and in vitro models such as marinobufagenin, gammabufotalin, resibufogenin, and bufalin. These steroids are especially difficult to identify. However, several compounds and their bioactivities were identified by using different molecular and biotechnological techniques. Biotechnology is a new tool to fully or partially generate upscaled quantities of natural products, which are otherwise only available at trace amounts in organisms.
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| 5. |
- El-Seedi, Hesham, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring natural products-based cancer therapeutics derived from egyptian flora
- 2021
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Ingår i: Journal of Ethnopharmacology. - : Elsevier BV. - 0378-8741 .- 1872-7573. ; 269
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ethnopharmacological relevance: Egyptian plants are a rich source of natural molecules, representing considerable biodiversity due to climate variations between the Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western regions of the country. Sinai is considered a precious nature reserves preserving flora, fauna, marine organisms, and historical habitats with ancient origins. Here, traditional medicinal approaches have been used for hundreds of years. Healthy lifestyles, low levels of stress and microbial infections, and a dependence on flora and herbal medicine might in combination explain why the burden of cancer is lower in some regions than in others.Aim of the study: The primary aim of this review is to document the plants and natural products that are used as foods and medicines in Egypt, in general, and in Sinai, in particular, with a focus on those with demonstrated anticancer activities. The documented traditional uses of these plants are described, together with their chemical and pharmacological activities and the reported outcomes of clinical trials against cancer.Materials and methods: A literature search was performed to identify texts describing the medicinal plants that are cultivated and grown in Egypt, including information found in textbooks, published articles, the plant list website (http://www.theplantlist.org/), the medicinal plant names services website (http://mpns.kew.org/mpns-portal/), and web databases (PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar).Results and discussion: We collected data for most of the plants cultivated or grown in Egypt that have been previously investigated for anticancer effects and reported their identified bioactive elements. Several plant species, belonging to different families and associated with 67 bioactive compounds, were investigated as potential anticancer agents (in vitro studies). The most potent cytotoxic activities were identified for the families Asteraceae, Lamiaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Apocynaceae, Asclepiadaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Gramineae, and Liliaceae. The anticancer activities of some species, such as Punica granatum L., Nerium oleander L., Olea europea L., Matricaria chamomilla L., Cassia acutifolia L., Nigella sativa L., Capsicum frutescens L., Withania somnifera L., and Zingiber officinale Roscoe, have been examined in clinical trials. Among the various Egyptian plant habitats, we found that most of these plants are grown in the North Sinai, New-Delta, and Giza Governorates.Conclusion: In this review, we highlight the role played by Egyptian flora in current medicinal therapies and the possibility that these plants may be examined in further studies for the development of anticancer drugs. These bioactive plant extracts form the basis for the isolation of phytochemicals with demonstrated anticancer activities. Some active components derived from these plants have been applied to preclinical and clinical settings, including resveratrol, quercetin, isoquercetin, and rutin.
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| 6. |
- El-Seedi, Hesham, et al.
(författare)
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Gelatin nanofibers : Recent insights in synthesis, bio-medical applications and limitations
- 2023
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Ingår i: Heliyon. - : Elsevier. - 2405-8440. ; 9:5
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- The use of gelatin and gelatin-blend polymers as environmentally safe polymers to synthesis electrospun nanofibers, has caused a revolution in the biomedical field. The development of efficient nanofibers has played a significant role in drug delivery, and for use in advanced scaffolds in regenerative medicine. Gelatin is an exceptional biopolymer, which is highly versatile, despite variations in the processing technology. The electrospinning process is an efficient technique for the manufacture of gelatin electrospun nanofibers (GNFs), as it is simple, efficient, and cost-effective. GNFs have higher porosity with large surface area and biocompatibility, despite that there are some drawbacks. These drawbacks include rapid degradation, poor mechanical strength, and complete dissolution, which limits the use of gelatin electrospun nanofibers in this form for biomedicine. Thus, these fibers need to be cross-linked, in order to control its solubility. This modification caused an improvement in the biological properties of GNFs, which made them suitable candidates for various biomedical applications, such as wound healing, drug delivery, bone regeneration, tubular scaffolding, skin, nerve, kidney, and cardiac tissue engineering. In this review an outline of electrospinning is shown with critical summary of literature evaluated with respect to the various applications of nanofibers-derived gelatin.
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| 7. |
- El-Seedi, Hesham R., et al.
(författare)
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CYTOTOXIC EFFECTS OF THE RED SEA SOFT CORAL SARCOPHYTON TROCHELIOPHORUM
- 2016
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Ingår i: Acta Poloniae Pharmaceutica. - : POLSKIE TOWARZYSTWO FARMACEUTYCZNE. - 0001-6837. ; 73:6, s. 1587-1592
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The present study describes the in vitro cytotoxic effects of soft coral (Sarcophyton trocheliophorum). Soft corals of genus Sarcophyton were reported to contain compounds that arc active against brine shrimp and promote paclitaxel cytotoxicity in the human colon cancer Caco-2 cell line. The a-hexane extract of the soft coral Sarcophyton trocheliophorum induced significant dose-dependent toxicity (LC50 96.7 ppm) compared with ethyl acetate (LC50 120 ppm). We reported the most active cytotoxic level to be correspondence to LC50 values of 20.2, 59.2 ppm and 18.9 and 26 ppm. Accordingly, bio-assay guided fractionation was conducted to identify the bioactive compounds. Arachidonic acid. eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid were characterized based on GC-MS analyses. Our results demonstrate the value of marine products as a natural source of medicinally interesting cytotoxic compounds.
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| 8. |
- El-Seedi, Hesham R., et al.
(författare)
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Naturally Occurring Xanthones; Biological Activities, Chemical Profiles and In Silico Drug Discovery
- 2024
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Ingår i: Current Medicinal Chemistry. - : Bentham Science Publishers Ltd.. - 0929-8673 .- 1875-533X. ; 31:1, s. 62-101
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Xanthones are widely distributed polyphenols, present commonly in higher plants; Garcinia, Calophyllum, Hypericum, Platonia, Mangifera, Gentiana and Swertia. Xanthone tricyclic scaffold is able to interact with different biological targets, showing antibacterial and cytotoxic effects, as well as potent effects against osteoarthritis, malaria, and cardiovascular diseases. Thus, in this article we focused on pharmacological effects, applications and preclinical studies with the recent updates of xanthon & PRIME;s isolated compounds from 2017-2020. We found that only a-mangostin, gambogic acid, and mangiferin, have been subjected to preclinical studies with particular emphasis on the development of anticancer, diabetes, antimicrobial and hepatoprotective therapeutics. Molecular docking calculations were performed to predict the binding affinities of xanthone-derived compounds against SARS-CoV-2 M-pro. According to the results, cratoxanthone E and morellic acid demonstrated promising binding affinities towards SARS-CoV-2 M-pro with docking scores of -11.2 and -11.0 kcal/mol, respectively. Binding features manifested the capability of cratoxanthone E and morellic acid to exhibit nine and five hydrogen bonds, respectively, with the key amino acids of the M-pro active site. In conclusion, cratoxanthone E and morellic acid are promising anti-COVID-19 drug candidates that warrant further detailed in vivo experimental estimation and clinical assessment.
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| 9. |
- El-Seedi, Hesham R., et al.
(författare)
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Plant extracts and compounds for combating schistosomiasis
- 2023
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Ingår i: Phytochemistry Reviews. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1568-7767 .- 1572-980X. ; 22:6, s. 1691-1806
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Schistosomiasis is a vector-borne water-based disease caused by Schistosoma blood flukes. It mostly affects people in low-income regions, 90% of reported cases being in developing countries. Schistosoma has a complex lifecycle, alternately infecting mammalian hosts and snails. The snails hosting the parasite are the most viable targets. Selective preparations for reducing the parasite pool in snails and infected water are required as current molluscicides are also nontoxic to other organisms, including fish, and thus affect food supplies in infected areas. Plants (e.g. Annona crassiflora Mart., A. muricata L., and A. montana Macfad.) are attractive potential sources as alternative molluscicides and novel entity to treat the disease owned to their diverse biologically potent compounds including; saponins, alkaloids, terpenoids, and tannins. Additionally, they can be locally cultivated, providing income for farmers and reducing treatment costs. Here, we review plants, plant extracts and isolated compounds that have shown activities against the host snails or Schistosoma in various parts of its life cycle. Plants have a lot of potential and will continue to contribute feasible, effective medicines and/or pesticides; more research is warranted to fully explore their future applications.
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| 10. |
- El-Seedi, Hesham R., et al.
(författare)
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Plants mentioned in the Islamic Scriptures (Holy Qur'an and Ahadith) : Traditional uses and medicinal importance in contemporary times
- 2019
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Ingår i: Journal of Ethnopharmacology. - : Elsevier. - 0378-8741 .- 1872-7573. ; 243
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Forskningsöversikt (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ethnopharmacological relevance: Over the past thousand years, Islamic physicians have collected cultural, philosophical, sociological and historical backgrounds for understanding diseases and medications. The Prophet Mohammed (Peace Be Upon Him (PBUH) said: "There is no disease that Allah has created, except that Allah also has created its cure." Therefore, Islamic scholars are encouraged to explore and use both traditional and modern forms of medicine. Aim of the study: (1) To identify some of the medicinal plants mentioned in the Holy Qur'an and Ahadith textbooks of the period 700-1500 AD; (2) to compare them with presently used traditional medicines; (3) to evaluate their value based on modern research; and (4) to investigate the contributions of Islamic scholars to the development of the scientific branches, particularly medicine. Materials and methods: A literature search was performed relating to 12 medicinal plants mentioned in the Holy Qur'an and Ahadith using textbooks, Al-Azhar scholars, published articles, the plant list website (http://www.theplantlist.org/), the medicinal plant names services website (http://mpns.kew.org/mpns-portal/) and web databases (PubMed, Science Direct, and Google Scholar). Results and discussion: The Islamic Golden Age was a step towards modern medicine, with unique insights and multi-disciplinary aspects. Traditional Islamic Medicine has had a significant impact on the development of various medical, scientific and educational activities. Innumerable Muslim and non-Muslim physicians have built on the strong foundation of Traditional Islamic Medicine by translating the described natural remedies and effects. The influences of different ancient cultures on the traditional uses of natural products were also documented in Islamic Scriptures in the last part of the second millennium. The divine teachings of Islam combine natural and practical healing and incorporate inherited science and technology. Conclusion: In this review, we discuss Traditional Islamic Medicine with reference to both medical recommendations mentioned in the Holy Qur'an and Prophetic Traditional Medicine (al-Tibb al-Nabawi). Although the molecular mechanisms and functions of some of the listed medicinal plants and their derivatives have been intensively studied, some traditional remedies have yet to be translated into clinical applications.
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