Natural products can save us of multidrug resistant bacteria

According to World Health Organization (WHO), bacterial infection is one of the main causes of death in the world. Causing 3.2 million deaths, lower respiratory infections remained the deadliest communicable disease and the third cause of death in worldwide in 2015. Diarrheal diseases and tuberculosis are also an important cause of deaths. In low-income countries this rate is bigger, being the lower respiratory infections and diarrheal diseases the main causes of deaths. Antibiotic resistant bacteria are bacteria that are not controlled or killed by antibiotics and this kinfd of bacteria are called Multidrug Resistant Bacteria (MDR bacteria).

MDR microorganisms are considered a health public problem due to its impact on the health, morbidity and mortalitu around the world.

WHO has been encouraging the scientific study of plants, aiming the knowledge of benefits from these therapeutic resources. Several factors have contributed to the development of health practices including medicinal plants, especially by its easy access, traditional use for generations and potential to contribute to the development of health supplies, pharmaceuticals, and medicines

The use of plant species empirically for the prevention, treatment, and cure of diseases is one of the oldest forms of medical practice of mankind. Although the chemical constituents of plants are unknown in many cases, popular observations on the use and effectiveness of medicinal plants contribute to the dissemination and validation of its therapeutic properties based on observed effects.

In the last decades have been registered an interest growing in products based on natural products, for example, agrochemical, nutraceuticals, cosmetics, medicines, among others. In addition to representing new therapeutic strategies, these products present added value over its possible industrial and economic uses.

As described by Dutra (2016), plant-derived compounds are currently employed in modern therapy and represent an important role in the synthesis of some more complex molecules. According to these authors, it was estimated that about 30% of the available medicines are derived from natural sources, mainly from plants and microorganisms. By the other hand, Newman and Cragg (2016) reported that among the drugs launched between 1981 and 2010; 4.72% are medicines with active ingredients isolated from natural products, while 28.56% are totally synthetic products. In addition, 41.86% are semisynthetic molecules derived from natural products or synthetic drugs with pharmacophore groups based on structures of natural products.

Besides of the plants are being used to obtain secondary metabolites which can be prototypes for drugs, it can also be a source of raw material for herbal medicines. This kind of medicines is obtained from plants, using exclusively vegetal drug derivatives having proven therapeutic effects, standardized composition and guarantee of safety, reaching the same quality than any other medicine.

Natural products are characterized by their structural diversity, being found a wide-ranging of functional groups which have a great biological activity potential. Raw natural products plant-derived can be classified in two big groups according to its obtaining: extracts and essential oils. There are significant differences among this kind of products, since its obtaining mode from the plant to its chemical compounds. Essential oils (OEs) consist of a complex mixture of substances belonging to the secondary metabolism of plants. Are volatile, lipophilic, odoriferous, liquid and often constituted by molecules of low molecular weight of terpene and aromatic nature.

The progress of the pharmaceutical industry in the development of drugs for chronic diseases is particularly evident but is not the same in the production of antimicrobials. The progressive occurrence and continuous spread of antimicrobial resistance have led to an increase in morbidity, mortality, and costs generated by medical care in patients with infections caused by multi-drug resistance (MDR) microorganisms. The emergence of MDR strains exerted due to selection pressure, in part caused by the misuse of antimicrobial therapy combined with the plasticity of microorganisms to adapt to different environmental stimuli, makes of this problem one of the big public health problems in the world.

By the above-mentioned there is an immediate need to develop new therapies to open the possibilities of gaining ground in the fight against resistance to multiple drugs, using derived plant products as a source of compounds with potential antimicrobial activity against MDR microorganisms.

Me and hundreds of researches around the world are working to discover plant-derived molecules with inhibitory activity against MDR bacteria. ***Help us and support upvote this post and share and comment in the Steemit community for questions about this topic. ***

Sources:

• World Health Organization. WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy: 2014-2023: World Health Organization; 2013.
• Dutra RC, Campos MM, Santos ARS, Calixto JB. Medicinal plants in Brazil: Pharmacological studies, drug discovery, challenges and perspectives. - -- Pharmacological Research. 2016;112:4-29.
• Khan RA. Natural Products Chemistry: The Emerging Trends and Prospective Goals. Saudi Pharmaceutical Journal. 2018.
• Newman DJ, Cragg GM. Natural Products as Sources of New Drugs from 1981 to 2014. Journal of Natural Products. 2016;79(3):629-61.