Honey ameliorate negative effects in neurodegenerative diseases: an evidence-based review

Neurodegenerative diseases are cluster of disorders arising from neuronal cell death in the central nervous system. Its prevalence increases with increasing age. Therapeutic options for neurodegenerative disease include protection against oxidative damage, attenuation of neuroinflammation, maintenance of essential neurotransmitters, and protection against environmental factors that induce neurotoxicity. Honey with its antioxidative, anti-inflammatory, and cytoprotective effects is a potential candidate for therapy in neurodegenerative diseases. The present evidence-based review summarizes the effects of honey on neurodegenerative diseases in non-human subjects. Three electronic databases, namely PubMed, Ovid Medline and Scopus were searched for records published from inception of database to May 2020 to identify reports on the association of honey and neurodegenerative diseases. Based on the preset eligibility criteria, 8 qualified articles were selected and discussed in this review. Honey from different geological origin around the globe was used by different researcher among the studies included. Honey confers protection against oxidative stress induced by hypoxia and metabolic syndrome, aluminium toxicity, and neuroinflammation. Honey also demonstrated potential ability to inhibit neurotransmitters degrading enzymes and restore memory impairment. This review showed a sparse body of evidence on the potential of honey as neurodegenerative disease therapy

Ficus carica and bone health: a systematic review

Ficus carica, a native plant to the Middle East and Western Asia, is of high value in folk medicine. The therapeutic potential of Ficus carica has led to the extensive studies in recent years, focusing on evaluating and validating its pharmacological effect. The present systematic review summarizes the effectiveness of Ficus carica on promoting bone health focusing on osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis via mineral contents and RANKL pathway. The search was done with Medline via Ebscohost, Scopus and Google Scholar databases to obtain relevant articles published between 1946 and December 2016. The main inclusion criteria were research articles published in English that reported effect of Ficus carica on bone health. The literature search returned 716 potentially relevant articles, whereby 5 met the inclusion criteria. This systematic review concludes Ficus carica plays an important role in the promotion of bone health and can be a potential pharmaceutical product in the future

Epithelial to mesenchymal transition and eepithelialisation in wound healing: a review of comparison

Skin wound healing is a complex physiological event, involving many cellular and molecular components. The event of wound healing is the coordinated overlap of a number of distinct phases, namely haemostasis, inflammatory, proliferative and remodelling. The molecular events surrounding wound healing, particularly the reepithelialisation, has been reported to be similar to the epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT). In this review, the mechanism between epithelialisation and EMT were compared. Both are characterised by the loss of epithelial integrity and increased motility. In terms of the signalling kinases, Smad and mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) has been reported to be involved in both reepithelialisation and EMT. At the transcriptional level, SLUG transcription factor has been reported to be important for both reepithelialisation and EMT. Extracellular matrix proteins that have been associated with both events are collagen and laminin. Lastly, both events required the interplay between matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and its inhibitor. As a conclusion, both reepithelialisation and EMT shares similar signaling cascade and transcriptional regulation to exhibit decreased epithelial traits and increased motility in keratinocytes

Effect of Kelulut Honey on the Cellular Dynamics of TGFβ-Induced Epithelial to Mesenchymal Transition in Primary Human Keratinocytes

Over-induction of epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) by tumor growth factor beta (TGFβ) in keratinocytes is a key feature in keloid scar. The present work seeks to investigate the effect of Kelulut honey (KH) on TGFβ-induced EMT in human primary keratinocytes. Image analysis of the real time observation of TGFβ-induced keratinocytes revealed a faster wound closure and individual migration velocity compared to the untreated control. TGFβ-induced keratinocytes also have reduced circularity and display a classic EMT protein expression. Treatment of 0.0015% (v/v) KH reverses these effects. In untreated keratinocytes, KH resulted in slower initial wound closure and individual migration velocity, which sped up later on, resulting in greater wound closure at the final time point. KH treatment also led to greater directional migration compared to the control. KH treatment caused reduced circularity in keratinocytes but displayed a partial EMT protein expression. Taken together, the findings suggest the therapeutic potential of KH in preventing keloid scar by attenuating TGFβ-induced EMT

Molecular Action of Hydroxytyrosol in Wound Healing: An In Vitro Evidence-Based Review

Hydroxytyrosol (HT) is an essential molecule isolated from the phenolic fraction of olive (Olea europaea). HT has been implicated for its health-stimulating effect mainly due to its antioxidative capacity. The current review summarises and discusses the available evidence, related to HT activities in wound healing enhancement. The literature search of related articles published within the year 2010 to 2020 was conducted using Medline via Ebscohost, Scopus, and Google Scholar databases. Studies were limited to in vitro research regarding the role of HT in wound closure, including anti-inflammation, antimicrobial, antioxidative, and its direct effect to the cells involved in wound healing. The literature search revealed 7136 potentially relevant records were obtained from the database search. Through the screening process, 13 relevant in vitro studies investigating the role of HT in wound repair were included. The included studies reported a proangiogenic, antioxidative, antiaging, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial effect of HT. The current in vitro evidence-based review highlights the cellular and molecular action of HT in influencing positive outcomes toward wound healing. Based on this evidence, HT is a highly recommended bioactive compound to be used as a pharmaceutical product for wound care applications

Remodeling Osteoarthritic Articular Cartilage under Hypoxic Conditions

Osteoarthritis (OA) is one of the leading joint diseases induced by abnormalities or inflammation in the synovial membrane and articular cartilage, causing severe pain and disability. Along with the cartilage malfunction, imbalanced oxygen uptake occurs, changing chondrocytes into type I collagen- and type X collagen-producing dedifferentiated cells, contributing to OA progression. However, mounting evidence suggests treating OA by inducing a hypoxic environment in the articular cartilage, targeting the inhibition of several OA-related pathways to bring chondrocytes into a normal state. This review discusses the implications of OA-diseased articular cartilage on chondrocyte phenotypes and turnover and debates the hypoxic mechanism of action. Furthermore, this review highlights the new understanding of OA, provided by tissue engineering and a regenerative medicine experimental design, modeling the disease into diverse 2D and 3D structures and investigating hypoxia and hypoxia-inducing biomolecules and potential cell therapies. This review also reports the mechanism of hypoxic regulation and highlights the importance of activating and stabilizing the hypoxia-inducible factor and related molecules to protect chondrocytes from mitochondrial dysfunction and apoptosis occurring under the influence of OA

Natural 3D-Printed Bioinks for Skin Regeneration and Wound Healing: A Systematic Review

Three-dimensional bioprinting has rapidly paralleled many biomedical applications and assisted in advancing the printing of complex human organs for a better therapeutic practice. The objective of this systematic review is to highlight evidence from the existing studies and evaluate the effectiveness of using natural-based bioinks in skin regeneration and wound healing. A comprehensive search of all relevant original articles was performed based on prespecified eligibility criteria. The search was carried out using PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Medline Ovid, and ScienceDirect. Eighteen articles fulfilled the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The animal studies included a total of 151 animals with wound defects. A variety of natural bioinks and skin living cells were implanted in vitro to give insight into the technique through different assessments and findings. Collagen and gelatin hydrogels were most commonly used as bioinks. The follow-up period ranged between one day and six weeks. The majority of animal studies reported that full wound closure was achieved after 2–4 weeks. The results of both in vitro cell culture and in vivo animal studies showed the positive impact of natural bioinks in promoting wound healing. Future research should be focused more on direct the bioprinting of skin wound treatments on animal models to open doors for human clinical trials

Antibacterial-Integrated Collagen Wound Dressing for Diabetes-Related Foot Ulcers: An Evidence-Based Review of Clinical Studies

Diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is a chronic wound frequently delayed from severe infection. Wound dressing provides an essential barrier between the ulcer and the external environment. This review aimed to analyse the effectiveness of antibacterial collagen-based dressing for DFU treatment in a clinical setting. An electronic search in four databases, namely, Scopus, PubMed, Ovid MEDLINE(R), and ISI Web of Science, was performed to obtain relevant articles published within the last ten years. The published studies were included if they reported evidence of (1) collagen-based antibacterial dressing or (2) wound healing for diabetic ulcers, and (3) were written in English. Both randomised and non-randomised clinical trials were included. The search for relevant clinical studies (n) identified eight related references discussing the effectiveness of collagen-based antibacterial wound dressings for DFU comprising collagen impregnated with polyhexamethylene biguanide (n = 2), gentamicin (n = 3), combined-cellulose and silver (n = 1), gentian violet/methylene blue mixed (n = 1), and silver (n = 1). The clinical data were limited by small sample sizes and multiple aetiologies of chronic wounds. The evidence was not robust enough for a conclusive statement, although most of the studies reported positive outcomes for the use of collagen dressings loaded with antibacterial properties for DFU wound healing. This study emphasises the importance of having standardised clinical trials, larger sample sizes, and accurate reporting for reliable statistical evidence confirming DFU treatment efficiency

Is There an Interconnection between Epithelial–Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) and Telomere Shortening in Aging?

Epithelial–Mesenchymal Transition (EMT) was first discovered during the transition of cells from the primitive streak during embryogenesis in chicks. It was later discovered that EMT holds greater potential in areas other than the early development of cells and tissues since it also plays a vital role in wound healing and cancer development. EMT can be classified into three types based on physiological functions. EMT type 3, which involves neoplastic development and metastasis, has been the most thoroughly explored. As EMT is often found in cancer stem cells, most research has focused on its association with other factors involving cancer progression, including telomeres. However, as telomeres are also mainly involved in aging, any possible interaction between the two would be worth noting, especially as telomere dysfunction also contributes to cancer and other age-related diseases. Ascertaining the balance between degeneration and cancer development is crucial in cell biology, in which telomeres function as a key regulator between the two extremes. The essential roles that EMT and telomere protection have in aging reveal a potential mutual interaction that has not yet been explored, and which could be used in disease therapy. In this review, the known functions of EMT and telomeres in aging are discussed and their potential interaction in age-related diseases is highlighted