Molecular Biology Research Center, Systems Biology and Poisonings Institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
Blood Transfusion Research Center, High Institute for Research and Education in Transfusion Medicine, Tehran, Iran.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2021;1291:75-101. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-56153-6_5.
Infectious diseases (IDs) are life-threatening illnesses, which result from the spread of pathogenic microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and parasites. IDs are a major challenge for the healthcare systems around the world, leading to a wide variety of clinical manifestations and complications. Despite the capability of frontline-approved medications to partially prevent or mitigate the invasion and subsequent damage of IDs to host tissues and cells, problems such as drug resistance, insufficient efficacy, unpleasant side effects, and high expenses stand in the way of their beneficial applications. One strategy is to evaluate currently explored and available bioactive compounds as possible anti-microbial agents. The natural polyphenol curcumin has been postulated to possess various properties including anti-microbial activities. Studies have shown that it possess pleiotropic effects against bacterial- and parasitic-associating IDs including drug-resistant strains. Curcumin can also potentiate the efficacy of available anti-bacterial and anti-parasitic drugs in a synergistic fashion. In this review, we summarize the findings of these studies along with reported controversies of native curcumin and its analogues, alone and in combination, toward its application in future studies as a natural anti-bacterial and anti-parasitic agent.
传染病（IDs）是危及生命的疾病，由细菌、病毒、真菌和寄生虫等致病微生物传播引起。IDs 是全球医疗保健系统面临的主要挑战，导致各种临床表现和并发症。尽管一线批准的药物能够部分预防或减轻 IDs 对宿主组织和细胞的侵袭和随后的损害，但耐药性、疗效不足、不良反应和高费用等问题阻碍了它们的有益应用。一种策略是评估目前探索和可用的生物活性化合物作为潜在的抗菌剂。天然多酚姜黄素被认为具有多种特性，包括抗菌活性。研究表明，它对包括耐药菌株在内的与细菌和寄生虫相关的 IDs 具有多种作用。姜黄素还可以协同增强现有抗菌和抗寄生虫药物的疗效。在这篇综述中，我们总结了这些研究的结果，并报告了天然姜黄素及其类似物的争议，以及单独和联合使用它们作为天然抗菌和抗寄生虫药物在未来研究中的应用。
