Terpenoids in Diabetic Nephropathy: Advances and Therapeutic Opportunities.

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is the foremost ailment resulting in end-stage renal damage. Chronic hyperglycaemia and hyperlipidaemia are the foremost reason for disease progression. The disease is characterized by the severity of albuminuria and cardiovascular disorders. Approximately 20 to 40% of the global prevalence of DN is mostly reported to occur in individuals with diabetes, and nearly 28% of DN occurs in individuals with other renal disorders. The pathological mechanism is very complex, involving innumerable targets and leading to multiple pharmacological effects. Thus, the scientific community is forced to work in search of safe and potent therapeutics that can tackle the complex pathology of DN effectively. The secondary plant metabolites categorized as terpenoids gained attention as potential therapeutics contrary to others for the management of diabetic nephropathy and other associated syndromes by their strong antioxidant activity and inhibition of advanced glycation and its associated products. This review focused on herbal therapeutics for the management of diabetic nephropathy. Moreover, different types of terpenoids, their biological sources, and proposed mechanisms of action are explored for the development of a novel pharmacophore for diabetic nephropathy.

Perspective of Secondary Metabolites in Respect of Multidrug Resistance (MDR): A Review.

Aberrant and haphazard use of antibiotics has created the development of antimicrobial resistance which is a bizarre challenge for human civilization. This emerging crisis of antibiotic resistance for microbial pathogens is alarming all the nations posing a global threat to human health. It is difficult to treat bacterial infections as they develop resistance to all antimicrobial resistance. Currently used antibacterial agents inhibit a variety of essential metabolic pathways in bacteria, including macro-molecular synthesis (MMS) pathways (e.g. protein, DNA, RNA, cell wall) most often by targeting a specific enzyme or subcellular component e.g. DNA gyrase, RNA polymerase, ribosomes, transpeptidase. Despite the availability of diverse synthetic molecules, there are still many complications in managing progressive and severe antimicrobial resistance. Currently not even a single antimicrobial agent is available for which the microbes do not show resistance. Thus, the lack of efficient drug molecules for combating microbial resistance requires continuous research efforts to overcome the problem of multidrug-resistant bacteria. The phytochemicals from various plants have the potential to combat the microbial resistance produced by bacteria, fungi, protozoa and viruses without producing any side effects. This review is a concerted effort to identify some of the major active phytoconstituents from various medicinal plants which might have the potential to be used as an alternative and effective strategy to fight against microbial resistance and can promote research for the treatment of MDR.