Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disorder. The primary pathological features of AD are the abnormal deposition of extracellular β-amyloid (Aβ) protein and hyperphosphorylated microtubule-associated protein tau. Excessive Aβ aggregation triggers neuroinflammation.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFFitoterapia
August 2025
Natural products, owing to their structural diversity and unique bioactivities, serve as valuable leads and promising candidates for tackling multidrug resistance (MDR) and developing novel antibiotics with enhanced antimicrobial potency. This review systematically evaluates the antibacterial potential of 90 representative compounds from 11 structural classes (including coumarins, lignans, quinones, flavonoids, chalcones, xanthones, terpenoids, alkaloids, marine-derived metabolites, essential oils, and others) reported between 2014 and 2025, with a focus on their mechanisms of action and structure-activity relationships. The findings aim to provide critical insights for combating MDR and facilitating the discovery of more effective natural antimicrobial agents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiochem Pharmacol
August 2025
Glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) is a serine/threonine kinase that plays a pivotal role in regulating diverse cellular processes. It has been implicated in neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, mood disorders, and cancer. Over the past few decades, significant progress has been made in developing various types of GSK-3 inhibitors and degradation agents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDiabetes mellitus necessitates strict control of postprandial hyperglycemia via α-glucosidase inhibitors. In this study, novel azole derivatives of Echinocystic acid (EA), a natural pentacyclic triterpenoid, were synthesized through molecular hybridization to enhance hypoglycemic potential. Compound A4 exhibited superior α-glucosidase inhibition (IC = 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMini Rev Med Chem
June 2025
Most natural products in nature have broad but not exceedingly good biological activities. The pyrazole structure has been introduced into natural products due to its suitability for various synthetic methods and its broad pharmacological activities. This article provides a detailed introduction to the anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, and anti-Alzheimer disease activities of pyrazole-modified natural product derivatives, particularly their anti-tumor activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChem Biodivers
April 2025
Natural products frequently display a range of biological activities, yet many exhibit only moderate efficacy during initial evaluations. Often, these natural substances necessitate structural alterations to yield promising lead compounds. Chalcones, characterized by their β-unsaturated carbonyl aromatic ketone structure, are prevalent in plant life and serve as fundamental scaffolds for the biosynthetic precursors of flavonoids and isoflavones.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTumor proliferation and metastasis are intricately linked to blood vessel formation, with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) playing a pivotal role in orchestrating angiogenesis throughout tumor progression. Pseudolaric acid B (PAB) has emerged as a potent inhibitor of tumor cell proliferation, migration, and angiogenesis. In efforts to enhance its efficacy, 37 derivatives of PAB were synthesized and assessed for their capacity to suppress VEGF secretion in SiHa cells under hypoxic conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPseudolaric Acid B (PAB), a natural product with remarkable anti-tumor activity, is a starting point for new anticancer therapeutics. We designed and synthesized 27 PAB derivatives and evaluated their anti-proliferative activities against four cancer cell lines: MCF-7, HCT-116, HepG2, and A549. Compared with unmodified PAB, the PAB derivatives showed stronger anti-proliferative activity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcute lung injury (ALI) is a clinically high mortality disease, which has not yet been effectively treated. The development of anti-ALI drugs is imminent. ALI can be effectively treated by inhibiting the inflammatory cascade and reducing the inflammatory response in the lung.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMini Rev Med Chem
July 2024
Usnic acid has a variety of biological activities, and has been widely studied in the fields of antibacterial, immune stimulation, antiviral, antifungal, anti-inflammatory and antiparasitic. Based on this, usnic acid is used as the lead compound for structural modification. In order to enhance the biological activity and solubility of usnic acid, scholars have carried out a large number of structural modifications, and found some usnic acid derivatives to be of more potential research value.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFChem Biodivers
February 2024
Maslinic acid has a variety of biological activities, such as anti-tumor, hypoglycemic, anti-inflammatory, and anti-parasitic. In order to enhance the biological activity of maslinic acid, scholars have carried out a lot of structural modifications, and found some more valuable maslinic acid derivatives. In this paper, the structural modification, biological activity, and structure-activity relationship of maslinic acid were reviewed, providing references for the development of maslinic acid.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndole is a heterocyclic compound formed by the fusion of a benzene ring and pyrrole ring, which has rich biological activity. Many indole-containing compounds have been sold on the market due to their excellent pharmacological activity. For example, vincristine and reserpine have been widely used in clinical practice.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt is reported that panaxadiol has neuroprotective effects. Previous studies have found that compound with carbamate structure introduced at the 3-OH position of 20 (R) -panaxadiol showed the most effective neuroprotective activity with an EC of 13.17 μM.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMolecules
November 2023
Hederagenin is a pentacyclic triterpenoid isolated from plants and widely distributed in a variety of medicinal plants. By integrating and analyzing external related literature reports, the latest research progress on the pharmacological effects and structural modification of hederagenin was reviewed. Hederagenin has a wide range of pharmacological activities, including antitumor, anti-inflammatory, antidepressant, anti-neurodegenerative, antihyperlipidemic, antidiabetic, anti-leishmaniasis, and antiviral activities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcute lung injury (ALI) are severe forms of diffuse lung disease that impose a substantial health burden all over the world. In the United States, approximately 190,000 cases per year of ALI each year, with an associated 74,500 deaths per year. Anti-inflammatory therapy has become a reasonable approach for the treatment of patients with ALI.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMolecules
September 2023
Natural compounds are rich in pharmacological properties that are a hot topic in pharmaceutical research. The quinoline ring plays important roles in many biological processes in heterocycles. Many pharmacological compounds, including saquinavir and chloroquine, have been marketed as quinoline molecules with good anti-viral and anti-parasitic properties.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCucurbitacin B (CuB) is a potent but toxic anticancer natural product. Herein, we designed and synthesized 2-OH- and 16-OH-modified CuB derivatives to improve their antitumor efficacy and reduce toxicity. Among them, derivative had the most potent antiproliferative activity against A549 lung cancer cells (IC = 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAcute lung injury (ALI) refers to a series of lung lesions resulting from multiple lung injuries, even leading to morbidity and death, abundant previous reports have showed that anti-inflammatory as a key to treatment of ALI. Fusidic acid (FA) as an antibiotic has significant anti-bacterial activity and anti-inflammatory effects. In this study, we designed and synthesized 34 FA derivatives to identify new anti-inflammatory drugs.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Enzyme Inhib Med Chem
December 2023
J Enzyme Inhib Med Chem
December 2023
Alzheimer's disease (AD), a persistent neurological dysfunction, has an increasing prevalence with the aging of the world and seriously threatens the health of the elderly. Although there is currently no effective treatment for AD, researchers have not given up, and are committed to exploring the pathogenesis of AD and possible therapeutic drugs. Natural products have attracted considerable attention owing to their unique advantages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhytochemistry
February 2023
Natural products can generally exhibit a variety of biological activities, but most show mediocre performance in preliminary activity evaluation. Natural products often require structural modification to obtain promising lead compounds. Cinnamic acid (CA) is readily available and has diverse biological activities and low cytotoxicity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Ginseng possesses antitumor effects, and ginsenosides are considered to be one of its main active chemical components. Ginsenosides can further be hydrolyzed to generate secondary saponins, and 20()-panaxotriol is an important sapogenin of ginsenosides. We aimed to synthesize a new ginsengenin derivative from 20()-panaxotriol and investigate its antitumor activity and .
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAn extensive study was performed to discover a series of novel 20(R)-panaxadiol derivatives with various substituents at the 3-OH position as nontoxic, brain-permeable, multi-target leads for treating Alzheimer's disease. In vitro analysis revealed that a compound bearing benzyl-substituted carbamate, which we denoted compound 14a, exhibited the most potent neuroprotective activity, with an EC of 13.17 μM.
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