Cooperating countries: Vietnam and Austria

Coordinating institution: University of Innsbruck

Project coordinator: Dr. Stefan Schwaiger

Partner institutions: University of Medicine and Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City

Project duration: 01.11.2020 - 31.10.2023

Vietnam has both the highest and fastest-growing rate of diabetes in Southeast Asia. The impaired wound healing is one of the common and dangerous complications of diabetes. Vietnamese traditional herbal medicine is a promising source for finding novel wound healing agents for diabetic patients. Matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) has been considered as an attractive molecular target for diabetic wound healing. Aiming at finding novel MMP-9 inhibitors, in this project, fifteen Vietnamese medicinal plants will be screened utilizing MMP-9 bioassay, followed by the bio-guided isolation and determination of the active principles. These active compounds could be applied for diabetic wound healing. The results will not only shed light on the native ethnopharmacological uses of Vietnamese medicinal plants by modern research evidences but also be able to open a new stage of development of novel herbal medicine products based on scientific evidences.

Vietnam is one of the countries with plentiful and valuable medicinal plant resources, derived from the large biodiversity as well as the rich ethnopharmacological heritage which is usually orally transformed from generation to generation or sometimes recorded in literature. The use of Vietnamese traditional herbal medicine is mostly based on a long empirical knowledge for millennia.

Drug discovery is a time-consuming and expensive process. More than 80% of medicines were natural products or nature-derived substances. Traditional medicine is a highly successful source for new drug discovery thanks to time-tested safety and efficacy. The integration of traditional and modern medicine is a shortcut strategy which might lead to saving of cost and time in new drug discovery process. It also shed light on the native ethnopharmacological uses of medicinal plants by modern research evidences and enhance the applying range of traditional medicine.

This project will use the integrated approach for the discovery of wound healing agent(s). In this project, Vietnamese folkloric medicine will be studied in the light of modern methodology and then can be applied to practice with larger scale. The outcomes of this project could help sustainably exploit Vietnamese herbal medicine resources and its native ethnopharmacological heritage before it might be lost as well as promote drug discovery contributing to human civilization. This study stimulates a sustainable development by providing the scientific evidences for cost-effective drug discovery as well as by orientating the development and reservation of Vietnamese medicinal plant resources for long time exploitation. The planed research project will be performed in the frame of the ‘The Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit-sharing (ABS)’.

¹ https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/sustainable-development-goals/