Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is the major problem in the world. Nowadays, new anti-retroviral drugs are extracted from medicinal plants, make an important role to supersede synthetic drugs with different side effects. In this study, we studied the Salix aegyptiaca L extract, Iranian herb, as an anti-HIV drug with anti-retroviral effects. We used a single cycle replicable (SCR) HIV-1 system by co-transfection of HEK 293T with pmzNL4-3, psPAX2 and pM2G.2. Cytotoxicity and cytopathic protection assay were performed by XTT method. Inhibition of p24 Ag production level assay was done using quantitative enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Salix aegyptiaca L inhibited HIV-1 induced CPE in HELA cells with SI value of 22.2. Finally, we use informatics analysis such as Gaussian, Hyper Chem , HF and B3LYP methods and 6-31G, 6-31G** and 6-311G** basis sets. These results suggest that Salix aegyptiaca L has potent anti-HIV activity and may be a promising candidate for AIDS.

Human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) constitutes a source of great concern to health authorities worldwide. Herbal medicinal products are used as a significant treatment option for highly active antiretroviral therapies, the efficacies of which are negatively impacted by the emergence of multidrug-resistant strains to the recommended treatment guidelines. This review provides an updated synopsis of available documents on herbal medicinal products with anti-HIV activities. Concurrent consumption of herbal products with conventional drugs, which is often necessitated by co-morbidity of HIV with other diseases, can potentially alter the pharmacokinetics of the co-administered orthodox drugs. Phytochemical constituents of the herbal medicinal products with antiretroviral activities were identified, and their potential to mediate pharmacokinetic changes through modulation of drug-metabolizing enzymes and P-glycoprotein was reported. Herb-drug interactions (HDIs) that can result in significant adverse effects were also discussed with documenting the information for the therapeutic utility of these clinically effective antiretroviral herbal medicinal products with potential for development into newer anti-HIV drugs.

Haplophyllum tuberculatum, belonging to the Rutaceae family, is distributed in south-eastern regions of Iran, particularly in Baloochestan. This study was aimed to investigate and collect scientific reports such as morphological characteristics, phytochemical compounds, ecology, biotechnology and evaluation of the therapeutic properties of this valuable medicinal plant.
In order to gather the information the keywords Haplophyllum tuberculatum, botany, genetic, biotechnology, therapeutic, and pharmacology were searched until 2016 from journals accessible in databases such as Scopus, EBSCO, Science Direct, Medline, PubMed, Embase, SID and Iran Medex.
The results in this study revealed various pharmacological properties including anti-cancer, antioxidantant, uterus-relaxing, anti-bacterial and anti-HIV activities for this plant which are probably due to the presence of aromatic compounds such as two alkaloids named haplophytin-a and B, and essential oils.
Haplophyllum tuberculatum possesses various pharmacological properties and the bioactive molecules of this plant play an important role in human health, hence, it might be used for different drug productions.

The heterocyclic compounds have a great importance in medicinal chemistry. One of the most important heterocycles in medicinal chemistry are quinazolines possessing wide spectrum of biological properties like antibacterial, antifungal, anticonvulsant, anti-inflammatory, anti-HIV, anticancer and analgesic activities. This skeleton is an important pharmacophore considered as a privileged structure. This review highlights the recent advances in the synthesis of quinazolines and quinazolinone derivatives with potent antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities.

Because of the reported high ability of virulence and medicinal resistance of HIV-1 virus during the last decades، many investigations have been performed concerning discovery and the introduction of anti-HIV-1 drugs. The results of numerous researches have shown that drugs and protease inhibitory compounds mainly containing plant derivatives specially terpenoids may control HIV-1 infection very effectively. The aim of this research is the bioinformatical study of HIV-1 protease inhibition by standard drugs and triterpenoides from plant and mushroom. This is a descriptive-analytic study. In the present study، the structure of drugs، triterpene comounds، and HIV-1 protease enzyme was received from the databases such as Chem Spider، PubChem، Human Metabolome Database (HMDB)، and Protein Data Bank (PDB). After that، molecular docking was performed by iGRMDOCK 2. 1 software The results confirmed that the interactions of the triterpene compounds like the standard drugs were in three safeguarded and catalytic areas including central domain، flap and carboxylic terminal domain specially amino acids Asp25، Asp27، Ala28، Asp29 and Asp30 in active sites of HIV-1 protease. Also، The study of the interactions of these areas showed that there is a direct correlation between the strength of the interactions and IC50 values of these compounds. Finally، with due attention to the high effectiveness and the proprietary function of triterpenoids، we can conclude that these compounds may be considered as effectire HIV-1 antiprotease drugs.

Among the many natural ingredients and pharmacological drugs that contain heterocyclic compounds, benzothiazole (BTA), and its derivatives stand out as particularly significant. BTA analogs provide a great deal of structural diversity, which has been helpful in the quest for new therapeutic drugs, and BTA itself displays a variety of pharmacological features. Because each BTA derivative has its own unique set of pharmacological effects, it is clear that this class of chemicals is intriguing. Medicinal chemistry based on BTAs is a hot subject right now, with lots of new research and discoveries happening in the field. In particular, there are a plethora of BTA-based compounds that have found widespread clinical use as highly effective medications for a wide range of disorders. Current developments of BTA-based compounds in medicinal chemistry as anticancer, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, analgesic, anti-HIV, antioxidant, anticonvulsant, antitubercular, antidiabetic, antileishmanial, antihistaminic, antimalarial, and other medicinal agents are presented in this work systematically and thoroughly. More effective diagnostic agents, pathologic probes, and BTA-based medications that are both active and less toxic, can be rationally designed, according to the authors of this review study.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a debilitating challenge and concern worldwide. Accessibility to highly active antiretroviral drugs is little or none for developing countries. Production of cost-effective microbicides to prevent the infection with HIV is a requirement. Cyanovirin-N (CVN) is known as a promising cyanobacterial lectin, capable of inhibiting the HIV cell entry in a highly specific manner.
This review article presents an overview of attempts conducted on different expression systems for the recombinant production of CVN. We have also assessed the potential of the final recombinant product, as an effective anti-HIV microbicide, comparing prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression systems.
Artificial production of CVN is a challenging task because the desirable anti-HIV activity (CVN-gp120 interaction) depends on the correct formation of disulfide bonds during recombinant production. Thus, inexpensive and functional production of rCVN requires an effective expression system which must be found among the bacteria, yeast, and transgenic plants, for the subsequent satisfying medical application. Moreover, the strong anti-HIV potential of CVN in trace concentrations (micromolar to picomolar) was reported for the in vitro and in vivo tests.
To produce pharmaceutically effective CVN, we first need to identify the best expression system, with Escherichia coli, Pichia pastoris, Lactic acid bacteria and transgenic plants being possible candidates. For this reason, heterologous production of this valuable protein is a serious challenge. Since different obstacles influence clinical trials on microbicides in the field of HIV prevention, these items should be considered for evaluating the CVN activity in pre-clinical and clinical studies.

Worldwide, more than one million sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are acquired daily. The diversity and frequency of sexual infections caused by pathogenic microorganisms have increased thus becoming a major cause of illness and mortality amongst young adults. Medicinal plants have been good remedies for the treatment of STIs since ancient times. In this study, we evaluated antimicrobial, anti- Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and anti-inflammatory activities of five selected medicinal plants.

We determined the antimicrobial activities of plant extracts against the bacteria causing common STIs. Then, the anti-inflammatory activities were evaluated by measuring the inhibition of the pro-inflammatory enzyme, 15-lipoxygenase (15-LOX) and we further investigated the plants extracts of anti-HIV activities against the recombinant HIV-1 enzyme, reverse transcriptase.

Methanol extract of Terminalia sericea and dichloromethane (DCM) extract of Bidens pilosa exhibited good activities against Neisseria gonorrhoeae and Gardnerella vaginalis. Ethyl acetate, dichloromethane and methanol extracts of Bidens pilosa exhibited good activities against Candida albicans. Ethyl acetate extract of K. africana and methanol extract of B. pilosa showed good anti-inflammatory activities. Ethyl acetate, DCM and methanol extracts of T. sericea exhibited promising anti-HIV-1 activities by inhibiting the reverse transcriptase whilst methanol extracts of T. dregeana showed low anti-HIV-1 activity.

These plants showed promising activity against the propagation of inflammation, displayed good antimicrobial activities against the bacteria causing STIs and could be used as potential leads and/or source for new drug candidates.

Diabetes mellitus (DM) is considered as one of the most common metabolic disorders affecting huge number of people worldwide. Despite the availability of large numbers of drugs in the market to treat the disease, there is still a need for new sources to deal with the problem and avoid side effects. In the pursuit of discovering safer and more effective anti-diabetic drugs, herbal and folk medicine drugs from regions all over the world have captured researchers’ interest. Middle Eastern and North African medicinal plants contain a variety of pharmacologically active components that have shown to possess promising anti-diabetic potential. However, few data have been reported about medicinal plants from these regions in comparison to plants from other regions. Anti-diabetic medicinal plants from the MENA (the Middle East and North Africa) region, their role in controlling DM, and suggested mechanisms for the anti-diabetic activity of some medicinal plants are discussed in this review. Many of these plants have not been fully investigated and characterized, yet they have great potential for further development as anti-diabetic drugs.

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections are major public health problems worldwide. This study attempted to analyze the relationship between positive antibodies to HCV (anti-HCV) and antibodies to HIV (anti-HIV) in Thai selected groups. A retrospective analysis of subject profiles including: demographic parameters, the main risk behavior and results of anti-HCV and anti-HIV tests perfomed on 165 injecting drug users (IDUs), 400 sexually transmitted disease (STD) patients, and 2,529 of the general population (2,167 blood donors and 362 premarital check-up individuals) was carried out. History profile analysis showed high positive rate of anti-HCV in IDUs with and without anti-HIV (90.14% vs. 87.23%). In STD patients, the precentages were 13% and 5.67% respectively, and those in the general population were 22.22% and 2.55%, respectively. Results revealed significant relationships between positive anti-HCV and anti- HIV in STD patients (P=0.0283; relative risk=2.29) and the general population (P< 0.0001; relative risk=8.72), but no significance was observed in IDU patients (P=0.7392; relative risk=1.03). There were significant relationships between anti-HCV and anti-HIV among STD patients and the general population, however none was observed in the IDU group.