The Healing Power of Clean Rivers: In Silico Evaluation of the Antipsoriatic Potential of Apiin and Hyperoside Plant Metabolites Contained in River Waters.

Humanity may benefit greatly from intact riverine ecosystems not only because they supply water to be used in the most common human activities, but also for the effects that clean rivers can have on human health. Herein, we used a computational approach to show that some phytochemicals produced by riparian plants as secondary metabolites, which are naturally released into river waters, can have therapeutic properties. These include antipsoriatic activities which we demonstrated in silico by modelling the interaction of apiin, guanosine and hyperoside, a few main river plant metabolites, with NF-kB, IL-17 and IL-36, which are recognized targets involved in psoriasis disease. In particular, we found that apiin and hyperoside are endowed with docking energies and binding affinities which are more favorable than the known reference inhibitors of the three protein targets whilst, in silico, guanosine shows comparable activity with respect to the inhibitors of IL-36 and NF-kB. The low skin permeation (logKp < −8) we predicted for apiin and hyperoside led us to hypothesize their possible utilization as topic antipsoriatic therapeutics, and in particular after PAINS (pan-assay interference compounds) score evaluation, we reached the conclusion that apiin, with no predicted tendency to react nonspecifically with the numerous targets involved in the biological cellular pathways, is particularly interesting for the desired therapeutic application.

Nanocarriers Mediated Topical Drug Delivery for Psoriasis Treatment.

BACKGROUND: Psoriasis is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory skin disease affecting 2 to 3% of people worldwide. Topical therapy as first option in the management of psoriasis is an attractive strategy by delivering drugs efficiently into target sites of disease, minimizing systemic side effects of drugs and ensuring high patient compliance. However, the delivery of antipsoriatic agents via conventional topical formulations is limited due to their poor percutaneous penetration and targeting into deeper layers of the skin. METHOD: In this review, an overview of skin structure and psoriatic skin as well as different approaches used for the treatment are provided. We discussed the topical nanocarriers including solid lipid nanoparticles, nanostructured lipid carriers, liposomes, niosomes, ethosomes, transfersomes, dendrimers and micelles used to deliver antipsoriatic drugs. We also summarized the 2011 onward research studies dealing with the application of nanocarriers for psoriasis treatment. RESULT: In the last decades, numerous types of nanocarriers have been widely investigated as a novel delivery approach to reach effective antipsoriatic drug concentrations. These nanocarriers can enhance the therapeutic efficacy and minimize the toxicity of the drugs by lowering the dose. They also improve drug localization in the skin and achieve site-specific drug targeting. But, most of the available studies have lack of clinical outcome in psoriasis and required more focus on the clinical evaluation. CONCLUSION: Nanocarriers could enhance deposition of antipsoriatic drugs in targeted sites of the skin. Nevertheless, still there is a need to develop more effective simulated models that provide realistic model for psoriasis.