scholarly journals Can Artemisia herba-alba Be Useful for Managing COVID-19 and Comorbidities?

Molecules ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 492
Author(s):  
Anamul Hasan ◽  
Partha Biswas ◽  
Tohmina Afroze Bondhon ◽  
Khoshnur Jannat ◽  
Tridib K. Paul ◽  
...  

The focus of this roadmap is to evaluate the possible efficacy of Artemisia herba-alba Asso. (Asteraceae) for the treatment of COVID-19 and some of its symptoms and several comorbidities using a combination of in silico (molecular docking) studies, reported ethnic uses, and pharmacological activity studies of this plant. In this exploratory study, we show that various phytochemicals from Artemisia herba-alba can be useful against COVID-19 (in silico studies) and for its associated comorbidities. COVID-19 is a new disease, so reports of any therapeutic treatments against it (traditional or conventional) are scanty. On the other hand, we demonstrate, using Artemisia herba-alba as an example, that through a proper search and identification of medicinal plant(s) and their phytochemicals identification using secondary data (published reports) on the plant’s ethnic uses, phytochemical constituents, and pharmacological activities against COVID-19 comorbidities and symptoms coupled with the use of primary data obtained from in silico (molecular docking and molecular dynamics) studies on the binding of the selected plant’s phytochemicals (such as: rutin, 4,5-di-O-caffeoylquinic acid, and schaftoside) with various vital components of SARS-CoV-2, it may be possible to rapidly identify plants that are suitable for further research regarding therapeutic use against COVID-19 and its associated symptoms and comorbidities.

Author(s):  
Saranya Sivaraj ◽  
Gomathi Kannayiram ◽  
Gayathri Dasararaju

Objective: This study is aimed to evaluate the anti-diabetic effect of sequentially extracted (hexane, dichloromethane, ethyl acetate, and ethanol) Myristica fragrans houtt (mace) through in vitro and in silico studies. Methods: The in vitro anti-diabetic effect of the sequentially extracted plant were evaluated for its alpha-amylase inhibitory activity and the potential binding was studied by in silico studies using Schrödinger Maestro.Results: All extracts showed dose dependent alpha-amylase inhibitory effect. At concentration 500 µg/ml, all the extracts showed more than 60% inhibition of the alpha-amylase enzyme and the highest inhibition (81.30%) at 500 µg/ml was observed in DCM extract of mace. Potential compounds were identified by in silico molecular docking studies of alpha-amylase with phytocomponents from DCM extract. Among the top three compounds from virtual screening, induced fit docking studies revealed 2,5-bis(3,4-dimethoxyphenyl)-3,4-dimethyloxolane possessed better binding affinity when compared with the drug metformin. Conclusion: The obtained in vitro and in silico results suggest that all extracts of Myristica fragrans can be used successfully for the management of diabetes mellitus.Keywords: Myristica fragrans, Mace, Sequential extraction, Alpha-amylase, Molecular docking.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 223-235
Author(s):  
Pooja Shah ◽  
Vishal Chavda ◽  
Snehal Patel ◽  
Shraddha Bhadada ◽  
Ghulam Md. Ashraf

Background: Postprandial hyperglycemia considered to be a major risk factor for cerebrovascular complications. Objective: The current study was designed to elucidate the beneficial role of voglibose via in-silico in vitro to in-vivo studies in improving the postprandial glycaemic state by protection against strokeprone type 2 diabetes. Material and Methods: In-Silico molecular docking and virtual screening were carried out with the help of iGEMDOCK+ Pymol+docking software and Protein Drug Bank database (PDB). Based on the results of docking studies, in-vivo investigation was carried out for possible neuroprotective action. T2DM was induced by a single injection of streptozotocin (90mg/kg, i.v.) to neonates. Six weeks after induction, voglibose was administered at the dose of 10mg/kg p.o. for two weeks. After eight weeks, diabetic rats were subjected to middle cerebral artery occlusion, and after 72 hours of surgery, neurological deficits were determined. The blood was collected for the determination of serum glucose, CK-MB, LDH and lipid levels. Brains were excised for determination of brain infarct volume, brain hemisphere weight difference, Na+-K+ ATPase activity, ROS parameters, NO levels, and aldose reductase activity. Results: In-silico docking studies showed good docking binding score for stroke associated proteins, which possibly hypotheses neuroprotective action of voglibose in stroke. In the present in-vivo study, pre-treatment with voglibose showed a significant decrease (p<0.05) in serum glucose and lipid levels. Voglibose has shown significant (p<0.05) reduction in neurological score, brain infarct volume, the difference in brain hemisphere weight. On biochemical evaluation, treatment with voglibose produced significant (p<0.05) decrease in CK-MB, LDH, and NO levels in blood and reduction in Na+-K+ ATPase, oxidative stress, and aldose reductase activity in brain homogenate. Conclusion: In-silico molecular docking and virtual screening studies and in-vivo studies in MCAo induced stroke, animal model outcomes support the strong anti-stroke signature for possible neuroprotective therapeutics.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 268-276
Author(s):  
Sridevi Ayla ◽  
Monika Kallubai ◽  
Suvarnalatha Devi Pallipati ◽  
Golla Narasimha

Background:Laccase, a multicopper oxidoreductase (EC: 1.10.3.2), is a widely used enzyme in bioremediation of textile dye effluents. Fungal Laccase is preferably used as a remediating agent in the treatment and transformation of toxic organic pollutants. In this study, crude laccase from a basidiomycetes fungus, Phanerochaete sordida, was able to decolorize azo, antroquinone and indigoid dyes. In addition, interactions between dyes and enzyme were analysed using molecular docking studies.Methods:In this work, a white rot basidiomycete’s fungus, Phanerochaete sordida, was selected from forest soil isolates of Eastern Ghats, and Tirumala and lignolytic enzymes production was assayed after 7 days of incubation. The crude enzyme was checked for decolourisation of various synthetic textile dyes (Vat Brown, Acid Blue, Indigo, Reactive Blue and Reactive Black). Molecular docking studies were done using Autodock-4.2 to understand the interactions between dyes and enzymes.Results:Highest decolourisation efficiency was achieved with the crude enzyme in case of vat brown whereas the lowest decolourisation efficiency was achieved in Reactive blue decolourisation. Similar results were observed in their binding affinity with lignin peroxidase of Phanerochaete chrysosporium through molecular docking approach.Conclusion:Thus, experimental results and subsequent in silico validation involving an advanced remediation approach would be useful to reduce time and cost in other similar experiments.


Gut Pathogens ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Padikkamannil Abishad ◽  
Pollumahanti Niveditha ◽  
Varsha Unni ◽  
Jess Vergis ◽  
Nitin Vasantrao Kurkure ◽  
...  

Abstract Background In the wake of emergence of antimicrobial resistance, bioactive phytochemical compounds are proving to be important therapeutic agents. The present study envisaged in silico molecular docking as well as in vitro antimicrobial efficacy screening of identified phytochemical ligands to the dispersin (aap) and outer membrane osmoporin (OmpC) domains of enteroaggregative Escherichia coli (EAEC) and non-typhoidal Salmonella spp. (NTS), respectively. Materials and methods The evaluation of drug-likeness, molecular properties, and bioactivity of the identified phytocompounds (thymol, carvacrol, and cinnamaldehyde) was carried out using Swiss ADME, while Protox-II and StopTox servers were used to identify its toxicity. The in silico molecular docking of the phytochemical ligands with the protein motifs of dispersin (PDB ID: 2jvu) and outer membrane osmoporin (PDB ID: 3uu2) were carried out using AutoDock v.4.20. Further, the antimicrobial efficacy of these compounds against multi-drug resistant EAEC and NTS strains was determined by estimating the minimum inhibitory concentrations and minimum bactericidal concentrations. Subsequently, these phytochemicals were subjected to their safety (sheep and human erythrocytic haemolysis) as well as stability (cationic salts, and pH) assays. Results All the three identified phytochemicals ligands were found to be zero violators of Lipinski’s rule of five and exhibited drug-likeness. The compounds tested were categorized as toxicity class-4 by Protox-II and were found to be non- cardiotoxic by StopTox. The docking studies employing 3D model of dispersin and ompC motifs with the identified phytochemical ligands exhibited good binding affinity. The identified phytochemical compounds were observed to be comparatively stable at different conditions (cationic salts, and pH); however, a concentration-dependent increase in the haemolytic assay was observed against sheep as well as human erythrocytes. Conclusions In silico molecular docking studies provided useful insights to understand the interaction of phytochemical ligands with protein motifs of pathogen and should be used routinely before the wet screening of any phytochemicals for their antibacterial, stability, and safety aspects.


Author(s):  
Arifa Begum ◽  
Shaheen Begum ◽  
Prasad Kvsrg ◽  
Bharathi K.

Objective: The 2, 4-thiazolidinedione containing compounds could lead to most promising scaffolds with higher efficiency toward the targets recognized for its antidiabetic activity when combined with azaglycine moiety. The objective of the present work was to merge functionalized aza glycines with 2, 4-thiazolidinediones, perform in silico evaluation by molecular properties prediction and undertake the molecular docking studies with targets relevant to diabetes, bacterial and viral infections using Swiss Dock programme for unraveling the target identification which can be used for further designing.Methods: (i) In silico studies were performed using Molinspiration online tool, Swiss ADME website and Swiss Target Prediction websites to compute the physicochemical descriptors, oral bioavailability and brain penetration. (ii) Molecular docking studies were performed using Swiss Dock web service for enumeration of binding affinities and assess their biological potentiality.Results: The results predicted good drug likeness, solubility, permeability and oral bioavailability for the compounds. All the compounds showed good docking scores as compared to the reference drugs. The N-oleoyl functionalized aza glycine derivative demonstrated superior binding properties towards all the studied target reference proteins, suggesting its significance in pharmacological actions.Conclusion: The binding interactions observed in the molecular docking studies suggest good binding affinity of the oleoyl functionalized aza glycine derivative, indicating that this derivative would be a promising lead for further investigations of anti-viral, anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic activities.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (6) ◽  
pp. 1482-1490
Author(s):  
Manju Mathew ◽  
Raja Chinnamanayakar ◽  
Ezhilarasi Muthuvel Ramanathan

A series of 1-(5-(5-(4-chlorophenyl)furan-2-yl)-4,5-dihyropyrazol-1-yl ethanone (5a-h) was synthesized through E-(3-(5-(4-chloro-phenyl)furan-2-yl)-1-phenylprop-2-en-1-one (3a-h) with hydrazine monohydrate and sodium acetate. Totally, eight compounds were synthesized and their structures were elucidated by infrared, 1H & 13C NMR, elemental analysis, antimicrobial studies, in silico molecular docking studies and also in silico ADME prediction. Antimicrobial studies of the synthesized compounds showed good to moderate activity against the all the stains compared with standard drugs. in silico Molecular docking study was carried out using bacterial protein and BC protein. Synthesized compounds (5a-h) showed good docking score compared with ciprofloxacin. Antimicrobial study was carried out for 4-chlorophenyl furfuran pyrazole derivatives (5a-h). The results of assessment of toxicities, drug likeness and drug score profiles of compounds (5a-j) are promising


Author(s):  
Aboubakr Haredi Abdelmonsef ◽  
Mahmoud Eldeeb Mohamed ◽  
Mohamed El-Naggar ◽  
Hussain Temairk ◽  
Ahmed Mohamed Mosallam

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Narasimhamurthy Konappa ◽  
Arakere C. Udayashankar ◽  
Soumya Krishnamurthy ◽  
Chamanalli Kyathegowda Pradeep ◽  
Srinivas Chowdappa ◽  
...  

Abstract Amomum nilgiricum is one of the plant species reported from Western Ghats of India, belonging to the family Zingiberaceae, with ethno-botanical values, and is well-known for their ethno medicinal applications. In the present investigation, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts of A. nilgiricum were analyzed by Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC–MS) to identify the important functional groups and phytochemical constituents. The FTIR spectra revealed the occurrence of functional characteristic peaks of aromatic amines, carboxylic acids, ketones, phenols and alkyl halides group from leaf and rhizome extracts. The GC–MS analysis of ethyl acetate and methanol extracts from leaves, and methanol extract from rhizomes of A. nilgiricum detected the presence of 25 phytochemical compounds. Further, the leaf and rhizome extracts of A. nilgiricum showed remarkable antibacterial and antifungal activities at 100 mg/mL. The results of DPPH and ferric reducing antioxidant power assay recorded maximum antioxidant activity in A. nilgiricum methanolic leaf extract. While, ethyl acetate leaf extract exhibited maximum α-amylase inhibition activity, followed by methanolic leaf extract exhibiting aldose reductase inhibition. Subsequently, these 25 identified compounds were analyzed for their bioactivity through in silico molecular docking studies. Results revealed that among the phytochemical compounds identified, serverogenin acetate might have maximum antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antioxidant and antidiabetic properties followed by 2,4-dimethyl-1,3-dioxane and (1,3-13C2)propanedioic acid. To our best knowledge, this is the first description on the phytochemical constituents of the leaves and rhizomes of A. nilgiricum, which show pharmacological significance, as there has been no literature available yet on GC–MS and phytochemical studies of this plant species. The in silico molecular docking of serverogenin acetate was also performed to confirm its broad spectrum activities based on the binding interactions with the antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antioxidant and antidiabetic target proteins. The results of the present study will create a way for the invention of herbal medicines for several ailments by using A. nilgiricum plants, which may lead to the development of novel drugs.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document