Dengue infection has turned into a serious health concern globally due to its high morbidity rate and a high possibility of increase
in its mortality rate on the account of unavailability of any proper treatment for severe dengue infection. The situation demands an
urgent development of efficient and practicable treatment to deal with Dengue virus (DENV). Flavonoids, a class of
phytochemicals present in medicinal plants, possess anti-viral activity and can be strong drug candidates against viruses. NS1
glycoprotein of Dengue virus is involved in its RNA replication and can be a strong target for screening of drugs against this virus.
Current study focuses on the identification of flavonoids which can block Asn-130 glycosylation site of Dengue virus NS1 to inhibit
viral replication as glycosylation of NS1 is required for its biological functioning. Molecular docking approach was used in this
study and the results revealed that flavonoids have strong potential interactions with active site of NS1. Six flavonoids
(Deoxycalyxin A; 3,5,7,3',4'-pentahydroxyflavonol-3-O-beta-D-galactopyranoside; (3R)-3',8-Dihydroxyvestitol; Sanggenon O;
Epigallocatechin gallate; Chamaejasmin) blocked the Asn-130 glycosylation site of NS1 and could be able to inhibit the viral
replication. It can be concluded from this study that these flavonoids could serve as antiviral drugs for dengue infections. Further
in-vitro analyses are required to confirm their efficacy and to evaluate their drug potency.
The current novel corona virus illness (COVID-19) is a developing viral disease that was discovered in 2019. There is currently no viable therapeutic strategy for this illness management. Because traditional medication development and discovery has lagged behind the threat of emerging and re-emerging illnesses like Ebola, MERS-CoV, and, more recently, SARS-CoV-2. Drug developers began to consider drug repurposing (or repositioning) as a viable option to the more traditional drug development method. The goal of drug repurposing is to uncover new uses for an approved or investigational medicine that aren't related to its original use. The main benefits of this strategy are that there is less developmental risk and that it takes less time because the safety and pharmacologic requirements are met. The main protease (Mpro) of corona viruses is one of the well-studied and appealing therapeutic targets. As a result, the current research examines the molecular docking of Mpro (PDB ID:
5R81
) conjugated repurposed drugs. 12,432 approved drugs were collected from ChEMBL and drugbank libraries, and docked separately into the receptor grid created on 5R81, using the three phases of molecular docking including high throughput virtual screening (HTVS), standard precision (SP), and extra precision (XP). Based on docking scores and MM-GBSA binding free energy calculation, top three drugs (kanamycin, sulfinalol and carvedilol) were chosen for further analyses for molecular dynamic simulations.
Background: Chikungunya is a vector-borne disease that is spread by the mosquito Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. Disease mostly occurs in Africa, Asia and the Indian subcontinent. Recent outbreak of chikungunya was reported in 2017 in Karachi, Pakistan, after which sporadic cases were reported from different areas of Pakistan. There are very limited demographic data available for chikungunya in Pakistan and therefore, further information is required. The current study will provide latest information to assist public health professionals and policy makers in order to provide effective management of cases by means of appropriate resource. Methods: In this cross sectional study, information regarding 750 laboratory confirmed cases from Dec 2016 to Apr 2018 were collected from the virology laboratory, NIH. Data regarding age, sex, reporting facility, district and province were collected. Data entry and cleaning was done in Microsoft excel and descriptive analysis using epiInfo. The data were grouped, tabulated and represented graphically while geographical location of the cases was mapped. Results: A total of 403(53.73%) cases were male and 347 (46.27%) female with an age range from 0.6 to 80 years and the mean age was (32.5+- 17.5). The most affected age group was 20 to 29 Years. Sindh remained the most affected province with 494 (65.87%) cases reported followed by KP with 167 (22.27%) cases. The highest number of cases [148(19.7%)] were reported in May 2017. Conclusion: Provision and sharing of accurate and timely data can reduce the risk and spread of the disease.
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