Medicinal Plants and Natural Compounds in the Treatment of Acne: A Review

Introduction: Acne is an infectious chronic inflammatory disorder occurring in skin's outer tissue and characterized by seborrhea, pimples, papules, comedowns and nodules based on severity. It can be caused by increased sebum production, abnormalities in epithelium, inflammation and microbiological reasons. Several natural active herbal compounds have been reported  with anti-acne effects.  Methods and Results: Various literatures containing the keywords including Anti-acne medicinal plants, Anti-acne herbal remedies, Anti-acne herbs have been extracted from different databases including PubMed, Science Direct and Scopus. Among medicinal plants, Pinaceae, Berberidaceae, Asteraceae, Zingiberacea and Piperaceae families had shown anti-acne effects. Among the aforementioned families for example, Abies koreana essential oil has shown anti-microbial and anti-inflammatory effects. Moreover, ethanol extract of Ammannia baccifera and Berberis aristata had anti-bacterial effects on acne-induced microrganisms. Berberis vulgaris was also evaluated and its anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory and anti-lipogenic effects were confirmed. Also, Curcuma longa showed anti-oxidant effects that can be applied in acne therapy. Various herbal compounds from these medicinal herbs have been reported as anti-acne agents, due to their anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-sebum and anti-androgen effects. Chemical identity of these agents was confirmed as phenol derivatives, flavonoid and tannin compounds, e.g. Rhodomyrtone, Pulsaquinone, Hydropulsaquinone, Honokiol, Magnolol, Xanthohumor and lupulones. In this study, we classified and summarized these reports to identify the best effective herbal medicines for acne therapy. Conclusions: Nowadays herbal medicine and natural compounds provide valuable, effective and safe agents for the treatment of acne. According to the studies, there are numerous herbs and herbal compounds with anti-acne effects and they can be used as an alternative treatment against this inflammatory disorder

Preparation and In Vitro Characterization of Crocin-loaded Casein Hydrogels: Crocin-loaded casein hydrogels

Crocin, the main active constituent of saffron, has many important biological activities. Due to its anti-inflammatory properties, crocin can be potentially effective in different pathological conditions including oral ulcers. Novel drug delivery systems such as hydrogels have been used to increase the stability of crocin and provide a controlled release of this compound. Casein is the main protein of milk that possesses suitable properties for the fabrication of hydrogels. In this paper, casein-based hydrogels with different casein to crocin weight ratios were synthesized using the acid-gelation method. The prepared crocin-loaded hydrogels were characterized regarding their rheological behavior, drug content, swelling ratio, surface morphology, thermal stability, and in vitro release profile. The structure of casein hydrogels was characterized using Fourier transform infrared and X-ray diffraction. All formulations exhibited a pseudoplastic rheological behavior and there was no statistically significant difference in viscosity among them. Hydrogel with casein to crocin weight ratio of 10:1 had larger pores and demonstrated a higher swelling percentage and suitable thermal stability. All casein-based hydrogels demonstrated a slow release of crocin over 24 hours and the hydrogel with lower casein to crocin weight ratio had an increased release rate. Taken together, casein-based hydrogels were found to be effective carriers to provide a controlled release system for crocin delivery. HIGHLIGHTS Casein-based hydrogels were developed for delivery of crocin. Casein-based hydrogels provided a controlled in vitro release profile for crocin. Hydrogel with a lower casein ratio exhibited a higher release rate of crocin

Milk-Derived Extracellular Vesicles: Biomedical Applications, Current Challenges, and Future Perspectives

Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nano to-micrometer-sized sacs that are released by almost all animal and plant cells and act as intercellular communicators by transferring their cargos between the source and target cells. As a safe and scalable alternative to conditioned medium-derived EVs, milk-derived EVs (miEVs) have recently gained a great deal of popularity. Numerous studies have shown that miEVs have intrinsic therapeutic actions that can treat diseases and enhance human health. Additionally, they can be used as natural drug carriers and novel classes of biomarkers. However, due to the complexity of the milk, the successful translation of miEVs from benchtop to bedside still faces several unfilled gaps, especially a lack of standardized protocols for the isolation of high-purity miEVs. In this work, by comprehensively reviewing the bovine miEVs studies, we provide an overview of current knowledge and research on miEVs while highlighting their challenges and enormous promise as a novel class of theranostics. It is hoped that this study will pave the way for clinical applications of miEVs by addressing their challenges and opportunities

Proteomic profiling of mesenchymal stem cell‐derived extracellular vesicles: Impact of isolation methods on protein cargo

Abstract Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are nanosized vesicles with a lipid bilayer that are secreted by cells and play a critical role in cell‐to‐cell communication. Despite the promising reports regarding their diagnostic and therapeutic potential, the utilization of EVs in the clinical setting is limited due to insufficient information about their cargo and a lack of standardization in isolation and analysis methods. Considering protein cargos in EVs as key contributors to their therapeutic potency, we conducted a tandem mass tag (TMT) quantitative proteomics analysis of three subpopulations of mesenchymal stem cell (MSC)‐derived EVs obtained through three different isolation techniques: ultracentrifugation (UC), high‐speed centrifugation (HS), and ultracentrifugation on sucrose cushion (SU). Subsequently, we checked EV marker expression, size distribution, and morphological characterization, followed by bioinformatic analysis. The bioinformatic analysis of the proteome results revealed that these subpopulations exhibit distinct molecular and functional characteristics. The choice of isolation method impacts the proteome of isolated EVs by isolating different subpopulations of EVs. Specifically, EVs isolated through the high‐speed centrifugation (HS) method exhibited a higher abundance of ribosomal and mitochondrial proteins. Functional apoptosis assays comparing isolated mitochondria with EVs isolated through different methods revealed that HS‐EVs, but not other EVs, induced early apoptosis in cancer cells. On the other hand, EVs isolated using the sucrose cushion (SU) and ultracentrifugation (UC) methods demonstrated a higher abundance of proteins primarily involved in the immune response, cell‐cell interactions and extracellular matrix interactions. Our analyses unveil notable disparities in proteins and associated biological functions among EV subpopulations, underscoring the importance of meticulously selecting isolation methods and resultant EV subpopulations based on the intended application