Cristiane Santos Silva e Silva Figueiredo, Patrícia Vieira de Oliveira, Larissa dos Reis Ferreira, Thallysson José Dourado de Sousa, Mayara de Santana do Nascimento, Julliana Ribeiro Alves dos Santos, Adrielle Zagmignan, Rodrigo Assunção de Holanda, Lívia Câmara de Carvalho Galvão and Luís Cláudio Nascimento da Silva* Pages 3506 - 3526 ( 21 )
Cinnamaldehyde (CNM) is a cyclic terpene alcohol found as the major compound of essential oils from some plants of the genus Cinnamomum (Lauraceae). CNM has several reported pharmacological activities, including antimicrobial, antivirulence, antioxidant, and immunomodulatory effects. These properties make CNM an attractive lead molecule for the development of anti-infective agents. In this descriptive review, we discuss the application of CNM in experimental models of microbial infection using invertebrate and vertebrate organisms. CNM (pure or in formulations) has been successfully applied in the treatment of infections caused by a range of bacterial (such as Cronobacter sakazakii, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella enterica, Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus agalactiae, Vibrio cholerae) and fungal (such as Aspergillus fumigatus, Candida albicans and Cryptococcus neoformans) pathogens. All these experimental evidence-based findings have promoted the use of cinnamaldehyde as the leading molecule for developing new anti- infective drugs.
<i>Cinnamomum sp.<i>, essential oils, virulence factors, immunomodulation, anti-infective agents, experimental models.