In the past few years, natural products have already shown to be fundamental, when combined with other fields of knowledge, in anti-infectious drug research. Innovation in omics’ technologies, chemical biology and genetics have recently made possible the discovery of new drugs and their targets [1] . Natural products assume a privileged role in the drug discovery due to their, intrinsic cell permeability, structural diversity, rich functionality, and stereochemistry. They also provide unique scaffolds for further drug optimisation towards increased potency and selectivity. China has been using herbs in medicine for centuries and these are now attracting global interests. In response to the challenge of increased antimicrobial resistance, we developed a China-UK collaborative team to explore the potential of Chinese Medicines to reveal new drug leads.
Currently, our project focuses on 19 traditional Chinese herbs where bio-actives are screened using a well-established analysis pipeline. Thus, bioactivity screening of the extracts, isolation, purification using various chromatography techniques and identification using high-resolution Mass Spectrometry and NMR. We have performed an assay-based evaluation of isolated compounds from Artemisia annua against mycobacteria [2] and evaluated the antimicrobial properties of extracts from the other 18 herbs using high-throughput assays. These have revealed varying levels of anti-microbial activity, further purified. Each was tested for cytotoxicity, anti-parasite ( Schistosoma mansoni ) and anti-cancer properties. Our studies can help find different naturally available compound and help in the identification of targets to fight different diseases including the drug-resistant disease.
References:
[1] Baptista, R. et al. Future Med. Chem 2018; 0(0), p. null. doi: 10.4155/fmc-2017-0273.
[2] Bhowmick S. et al. Front Pharmacol 2018; (in press)