Oral Tissue Regeneration: Small Molecule Drugs and Autophagy Activation

Multiple small molecule drugs have been utilized to alleviate survival stress in oral tissue-related stem cells by activating autophagy. These drugs include both synthetic peptides and natural compounds derived from plants, each targeting different processes of autophagy to achieve a balanced autophagy and enhance oral tissue regeneration.

Certain peptides and proteins, such as IL-37, galectin-1, WP9QY peptide, and Copine-7, have been shown to enhance oral stem cell function by regulating autophagy. For example, IL-37 has been found to enhance osteogenic and odontogenic differentiation of human DPSCs via autophagy, while Gal-1 and WP9QY peptide act as RANKL and TNF-α antagonists, respectively, inhibiting LPS-induced autophagy and apoptosis of human PDLSCs.

Moringin, an isothiocyanate extracted from Moringa oleifera seeds, has also been found to regulate the function of oral tissue stem cells by manipulating autophagy pathways. Studies have shown that moringin treatment can induce mitophagy and down-regulate pro-apoptotic genes expression while up-regulating anti-apoptotic genes expression in human-PDLSCs. Additionally, moringin has demonstrated potential as a therapeutic approach for neural injury by inducing PDLSCs and hGMSCs towards neural progenitor differentiation.

Furthermore, Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology has revealed that moringin enhances the PI3K/AKT/mTOR signaling pathway, an important signaling pathway for oral tissue regeneration.