ReviewFrontiers in microbiology2026
Natural product-based therapeutic strategies against
Review in Frontiers in microbiology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Leishmaniasis remains a major neglected tropical disease, while available treatments are constrained by toxicity, cost, prolonged administration, relapse, variable geographical efficacy, and emerging drug resistance. Natural products provide structurally diverse antileishmanial candidates capable of acting through both parasite-directed and host-mediated mechanisms. This review critically evaluates natural compounds targeting parasite membrane integrity, mitochondrial function, redox homeostasis, arginase and polyamine metabolism, sterol biosynthesis, and replication-associated enzymes. It also examines their immunomodulatory effects, including macrophage activation, nitric oxide and reactive oxygen species production, promotion of T-helper-1-associated responses, and suppression of parasite-favorable immune pathways. Particular attention is given to emerging host-directed strategies involving microRNAs that regulate autophagy, inflammatory signaling, macrophage polarization, and host lipid metabolism. Functional evidence supports selected miRNA-target axes, including miR-30a-3p-BECN1, miR-330-5p-SPTLC1, miR-1303-HMGCR, and miR-874-3p-HMGCS1. However, the therapeutic consequences of miRNA modulation are species- and disease-form-dependent, and direct evidence connecting natural-product activity with specific miRNA-mediated mechanisms remains limited. Although several natural products and natural product-drug combinations demonstrate activity against intracellular amastigotes and in animal models, much of the literature still relies on promastigote assays, crude extracts, molecular docking, or correlative immune and transcriptomic measurements. Clinical translation will require chemical standardization, direct target validation, macrophage-selective delivery, pharmacokinetic and toxicological evaluation, and demonstration of efficacy in clinically relevant infection models. Overall, natural products and host-directed interventions represent complementary therapeutic strategies, but progress will depend on moving from descriptive screening toward standardized, mechanism-based, and translationally relevant investigation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.