Natural substances and semisynthetic derivatives as potential alternative products against SARS-CoV-2

Author(s):  
Virginia Fuochi ◽  
Pio Maria Furneri

Background and Objective: Today, a new β-coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 has emerged and it is causing a global pandemic. Inter-human transmission studies have indicated a significant role of aerosols in the transmission of many respiratory viruses. Hence, it is very important to decrease the spread of the virus through disinfectant agents. This review aimed to provide an overview related to possible alternative inhibitory molecules against this virus. Method: For this review the literature search was performed in the MEDLINE electronic database using the public access known as NCBI-PUBMED. Keywords "coronavirus" and “SARS-CoV-2” and “COVID19” were used. No specific time range was used. Results: We provide a review related to structure, anti-coronavirus activity and molecular mechanism of natural substances and semisynthetic derivatives such as glycopeptides, lipopeptides, probiotics, surfactants, terpenes and resveratrol. We also include the latest in vitro experiments with anti-SARS-CoV-2 activity. We also provide the theoretical basis for discussing the prospects of such natural molecules as possible alternative anti-Coronavirus products, so as to develop a complete screening for future applications. Conclusion: In summary, this review suggest to investigate deeper several molecules most of which belong to natural substances to fight COVID19 disease.

Nutrients ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. 1709 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Teresa Viggiani ◽  
Lorenzo Polimeno ◽  
Alfredo Di Leo ◽  
Michele Barone

Phytoestrogens are natural substances that have been extensively studied for their beneficial effect on human health. Herein, we analyzed the data of the literature on the role of phytoestrogens in the prevention of colorectal neoproliferative lesions (CNL). Both in vitro and in vivo studies suggest that the beneficial effects of phytoestrogens on CNL mainly depend on their ability to bind estrogen receptor beta (ERβ) in the intestinal mucosa and counter ER-alpha (ERα) activity. Epidemiological data demonstrate a correlation between the low prevalence of CNL in Eastern populations and the consumption of soy products (phytoestrogen-enriched diet). However, both observational and interventional studies have produced inconclusive results. In our opinion, these discrepancies depend on an inadequate evaluation of phytoestrogen intake (dietary questionnaires were not aimed at establishing phytoestrogen intake) and absorption (depending mainly on the intestinal microbiota of the analyzed subjects). For this reason, in the present review, we performed an overview of phytoestrogen dietary intake and metabolism to offer the reader the opportunity for a better interpretation of the literature. Future prospective trials focusing on the protective effect of phytoestrogens against CNL should take into account both their dietary intake and absorption, considering the effective role of the intestinal microbiota.


Author(s):  
Ranjan K. Mohapatra ◽  
Kuldeep Dhama ◽  
Snehasish Mishra ◽  
Ashish K. Sarangi ◽  
Venkataramana Kandi ◽  
...  

Abstract Background The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the cause of ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has infected millions of people around the world, especially the elderly and immunocompromised individuals. The infection transmission rate is considered more rapid than other deadly pandemics and severe epidemics encountered earlier, such as Ebola, Zika, Influenza, Marburg, SARS, and MERS. The public health situation therefore is really at a challenging crossroads. Main body The internal and external and resident microbiota community is crucial in human health and is essential for immune responses. This community tends to be altered due to pathogenic infections which would lead to severity of the disease as it progresses. Few of these resident microflora become negatively active during infectious diseases leading to coinfection, especially the opportunistic pathogens. Once such a condition sets in, it is difficult to diagnose, treat, and manage COVID-19 in a patient. Conclusion This review highlights the various reported possible coinfections that arise in COVID-19 patients vis-à-vis other serious pathological conditions. The local immunity in lungs, nasal passages, oral cavity, and salivary glands are involved with different aspects of COVID-19 transmission and pathology. Also, the role of adaptive immune system is discussed at the site of infection to control the infection along with the proinflammatory cytokine therapy.


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 19
Author(s):  
Hye-Mi Ahn ◽  
Eun-Young Choi ◽  
Youn-Jae Kim

Lung adenocarcinoma is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths. Despite the availability of advanced anticancer drugs for lung cancer treatment, the prognosis of patients still remains poor. There is a need to explore novel oncogenic mechanisms to overcome these therapeutic limitations. The functional experiments in vitro and in vivo were performed to evaluate the role of GPR87 expression on lung adenocarcinoma metastasis. The public lung adenocarcinoma TCGA dataset was used to determine the clinical relevance of GPR87 expression in patients with lung adenocarcinoma. GPR87 is upregulated in various cancer; however, the biological function of GPR87 has not yet been established in lung adenocarcinoma. In this study, we found that GPR87 expression is upregulated in lung adenocarcinoma and is associated with poor patient prognosis. Additionally, we showed that GPR87 overexpression promotes invasiveness and metastasis of lung adenocarcinoma cells. Furthermore, we demonstrated that AKT-eNOS-NO signaling is a novel downstream pathway of GPR87 in lung adenocarcinoma. Conversely, we confirmed that silencing of GPR87 expression suppressed these phenotypes. Our results reveal the oncogenic function of GPR87 in cancer progression and metastasis through the activation of eNOS as a key mediator. Therefore, we propose that targeting eNOS could be a novel therapeutic strategy to improve the clinical treatment of lung adenocarcinoma.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Asfa Widiyanto

Coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has become global pandemic, which affects all countries in the world including Indonesia. The mitigation of covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia cannot neglect the role of religion, since religion constitutes the main identity of most people. Hence, religion becomes value reference and ‘system of knowing’, including in addressing the covid-19 pandemic. By employing comparative and content analysis, it is hoped that this paper will constitute a significant contribution in unravelling the complex role of religion in dealing with covid-19 pandemic, most particularly in the context of post-truth. There are three concerns of this paper. First, it examines the challenges of religious conservatism towards covid-19 mitigation among Indonesian Muslims, most particularly in the context of post-truth which in some ways intensifies the emergence of conservativism in the public space. Second, it explores the possibility of ‘new spirituality’ which is pertinent for the mitigation of Covid-19. Third, it explores the contribution of Indonesian Muslim knowledge culture to the fight against covid-19.


1994 ◽  
Vol 71 (3) ◽  
pp. 550-560 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sigman L. Splichal ◽  
Bill F. Chamberlin

Federal, state, and local governments are converting public records to computer formats at a rapid pace, creating novel issues with respect to public access. Record requesters are finding access laws, written when most documents were on paper and stored in file cabinets, inadequate when applied to requests for records held in government computers. As a result, requesters have turned to the courts to define the contours of public access in the computer age. Several court cases suggest government agencies are using the fact information is in a computer as an excuse to withhold records. This paper underlines the need to rewrite access laws to acknowledge the pervasive role of computers in government. It proposes a fifteen-point approach to computerized information to help guide the public and media in their quest to ensure computers are used to enhance public access, not undermine it.


2006 ◽  
Vol 80 (16) ◽  
pp. 8030-8037 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Caporale ◽  
Christina Cousens ◽  
Patrizia Centorame ◽  
Chiara Pinoni ◽  
Marcelo De las Heras ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Jaagsiekte sheep retrovirus (JSRV) is the causative agent of ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma (OPA). The expression of the JSRV envelope (Env) alone is sufficient to transform a variety of cell lines in vitro and induce lung cancer in immunodeficient mice. In order to determine the role of the JSRV Env in OPA tumorigenesis in sheep, we derived a JSRV replication-defective virus (JS-RD) which expresses env under the control of its own long terminal repeat (LTR). JS-RD was produced by transiently transfecting 293T cells with a two plasmid system, involving (i) a packaging plasmid, with the putative JSRV packaging signal deleted, expressing the structural and enzymatic proteins Gag, Pro, and Pol, and (ii) a plasmid which expresses env in trans for JS-RD particles and provides the genomes necessary to deliver JSRV env upon infection. During the optimization of the JS-RD system we determined that both R-U5 (in the viral 5′ LTR) and the env region are important for JSRV particle production. Two independent experimental transmission studies were carried out with newborn lambs. Four of five lambs inoculated with JS-RD showed OPA lesions in the lungs at various times between 4 and 12 months postinoculation. Abundant expression of JSRV Env was detected in tumor cells of JS-RD-infected animals and PCR assays confirmed the presence of the deleted JS-RD genome. These data strongly suggest that the JSRV Env functions as a dominant oncoprotein in the natural immunocompetent host and that JSRV can induce OPA in the absence of viral spread.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 153303382110119
Author(s):  
Haopeng Wang ◽  
Mengyuan Yin ◽  
Lei Ye ◽  
Peng Gao ◽  
Xiang Mao ◽  
...  

The prognosis of glioma is significantly correlated with the pathological grades; however, the correlations between the prognostic biomarkers with pathological grades have not been elucidated. S100A11 is involved in a variety of malignant biological processes of tumor, whereas its biological and clinicopathological features on glioma remain unclear. In this study, the S100A11 expression and clinical information were obtained from the public databases (TCGA, GEPIA2) to analyze its correlations with the pathological grade and the prognosis of glioma patients. We then verified the expression of S100A11 by immunohistochemistry staining. The effects of S100A11 on the proliferation of glioma cells were confirmed by cytological function assays (CCK-8, Flow cytometry, Clone formation assay) in vitro, the role of S100A11 in regulation of glioma growth was determined by xenograft model assay. We observed that S100A11 expression positively correlated with the pathological grades, while negatively correlated with the survival time of patients. In cytological analysis, we found the proliferations of glioma cell lines were significantly inhibited in vitro ( P < 0.05) after interfering S100A11 expression via shRNAs. The cell cycle was blocked at G0/G1 stage. The ability of clone formation was significantly decreased, and the tumorigenicity in vivo was weakened ( P < 0.05). In summary, S100A11 was over-expressed in gliomas and positively correlated with the pathological grades. Interfering the expression of S100A11 significantly inhibited the proliferation of glioma in vitro and the tumorigenicity in vivo ( P < 0.05). In conclusion, S100A11 might be considered as a potential biomarker in glioma.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yubin Feng ◽  
shuang Hu ◽  
lanlan Li ◽  
xiaoqing Peng ◽  
Feihu Chen

Abstract BackgroundLong noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) plays an important role in the development of physiology and pathology. Many reports have shown that LncRNA HOXA cluster antisense RNA 2 (HOXA-AS2) is a carcinogen and plays an important role in many tumors, but there are few reports on its role in Acute myeloid leukemia (AML). MethodsThe expression of HOXA-AS2 in AML cell line was detected by qRT-PCR. AML cases from the public database (GEPIA) were also included in this study. Cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, flow cytometry, immunofluorescence and Western blot were used to detect the role of HOXA-AS2 in AML cells. Luciferase reporter gene detection, RIP, RNA pull-down and RNA-ChIP detection were used to demonstrate the molecular biological mechanism of HOXA-AS2 in AML.ResultsOur results show that HOXA-AS2 was upregulated in AML cell lines and tissues, and the overexpression of HOXA-AS2 is negatively correlated with the survival of patients. Silencing HOXA-AS2 can inhibit the proliferation and induce differentiation of AML cells in vitro and in vivo. After overexpressing HOXA-AS2, it will show the opposite result. Moreover, more in-depth mechanism studies show that HOXA-AS2 exerts its carcinogenicity mainly by binding with the epigenetic inhibitor Enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) and then inhibiting the expression of Large Tumor Suppressor 2 (LATS2). ConclusionsTaken together, our results highlight the important role of HOXA-AS2 in AML, suggesting that HOXA-AS2 may be an effective therapeutic target for patients with AML.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 261-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Axel Marx ◽  
Guillaume Van der Loo

<p>The EU trade policy is increasingly confronted with demands for more transparency. This article aims to investigate how transparency takes shape in EU trade policy. First, we operationalize the concept of transparency along two dimensions: a process dimension and an actor dimension. We then apply this framework to analysis of EU Free Trade Agreements (FTAs). After analyzing transparency in relation to FTAs from the perspective of the institutional actors (Commission, Council and Parliament), the different instruments and policies that grant the public actors (civil society and citizens) access to information and documents about EU FTAs are explored by discussing Regulation 1049/2001, which provides for public access to European Parliament, Council and Commission documents, and the role of the European Ombudsman. The article is based on an analysis of official documents, assessments in the academic literature and case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The ultimate aim is to assess current initiatives and identify relevant gaps in the EU’s transparency policies. This article argues that the EU has made significant progress in fostering transparency in the negotiation phase of FTAs, but less in the implementation phase.</p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiajun Ding ◽  
Jiahui Xu ◽  
Qiaodan Deng ◽  
Wei Ma ◽  
Rui Zhang ◽  
...  

Ribophorin 1 (RPN1) is a major part of Oligosaccharyltransferase (OST) complex, which is vital for the N-linked glycosylation. Though it has been verified that the abnormal glycosylation is closely related to the development of breast cancer, the detail role of RPN1 in breast cancer remains unknown. In this study, we explored the public databases to investigate the relationship between the expression levels of OST subunits and the prognosis of breast cancer. Then, we focused on the function of RPN1 in breast cancer and its potential mechanisms. Our study showed that the expression of several OST subunits including RPN1, RPN2, STT3A STT3B, and DDOST were upregulated in breast cancer samples. The protein expression level of RPN1 was also upregulated in breast cancer. Higher expression of RPN1 was correlated with worse clinical features and poorer prognosis. Furthermore, knockdown of RPN1 suppressed the proliferation and invasion of breast cancer cells in vitro and induced cell apoptosis triggered by endoplasmic reticulum stress. Our results identified the oncogenic function of RPN1 in breast cancer, implying that RPN1 might be a potential biomarker and therapeutic target for breast cancer.


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