Arrigoni Roberto, Ballini Andrea, Jirillo Emilio, Santacroce Luigi
CNR Institute of Biomembranes, Bioenergetics and Molecular Biotechnologies (IBIOM), 70124 Bari, Italy.
Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, University of Foggia, 71122 Foggia, Italy.
Antibiotics (Basel). 2024 Jun 28;13(7):603. doi: 10.3390/antibiotics13070603.
Nowadays, infectious diseases of bacterial and viral origins represent a serious medical problem worldwide. In fact, the development of antibiotic resistance is responsible for the emergence of bacterial strains that are refractory even to new classes of antibiotics. Furthermore, the recent COVID-19 pandemic suggests that new viruses can emerge and spread all over the world. The increase in infectious diseases depends on multiple factors, including malnutrition, massive migration of population from developing to industrialized areas, and alteration of the human microbiota. Alternative treatments to conventional antibiotics and antiviral drugs have intensively been explored. In this regard, plants and marine organisms represent an immense source of products, such as polyphenols, alkaloids, lanthipeptides, and terpenoids, which possess antibacterial and antiviral activities. Their main mechanisms of action involve modifications of bacterial cell membranes, with the formation of pores, the release of cellular content, and the inhibition of bacterial adherence to host cells, as well as of the efflux pump. Natural antivirals can interfere with viral replication and spreading, protecting the host with the enhanced production of interferon. Of note, these antivirals are not free of side effects, and their administration to humans needs more research in terms of safety. Preclinical research with natural antibacterial and antiviral compounds confirms their effects against bacteria and viruses, but there are still only a few clinical trials. Therefore, their full exploitation and more intensive clinical studies represent the next steps to be pursued in this area of medicine.
如今，细菌和病毒引起的传染病是全球范围内严重的医学问题。事实上，抗生素耐药性的发展导致了即使对新型抗生素也具有耐药性的细菌菌株的出现。此外，最近的新冠疫情表明新病毒可能出现并在全球传播。传染病的增加取决于多种因素，包括营养不良、人口从发展中地区向工业化地区的大规模迁移以及人类微生物群的改变。人们一直在深入探索传统抗生素和抗病毒药物的替代疗法。在这方面，植物和海洋生物是诸如多酚、生物碱、羊毛硫肽和萜类化合物等具有抗菌和抗病毒活性的产品的巨大来源。它们的主要作用机制包括修饰细菌细胞膜、形成孔道、释放细胞内容物、抑制细菌对宿主细胞的黏附以及抑制外排泵。天然抗病毒药物可以干扰病毒复制和传播，通过增强干扰素的产生来保护宿主。值得注意的是，这些抗病毒药物并非没有副作用，在安全性方面，它们用于人类还需要更多研究。对天然抗菌和抗病毒化合物的临床前研究证实了它们对细菌和病毒的作用，但目前只有少数临床试验。因此，对它们的充分开发和更深入的临床研究是该医学领域接下来要采取的步骤。
