Molecular docking reveals the potential of Salvadora persica flavonoids to inhibit COVID-19 virus main protease.

A promising alternative to address the problem of acquired drug resistance is to rely on combination therapies. Identification of the right combinations is often accomplished through trial and error, a labor and resource intensive process whose scale quickly escalates as more drugs can be combined. To address this problem, we present a broad computational approach for predicting synergistic combinations using easily obtainable single drug efficacy, no detailed mechanistic understanding of drug function, and limited drug combination testing. When applied to mutant BRAF melanoma, we found that our approach exhibited significant predictive power. Additionally, we validated previously untested synergy predictions involving anticancer molecules. As additional large combinatorial screens become available, this methodology could prove to be impactful for identification of drug synergy in context of other types of cancers.

Nitroxyl (HNO) reacts with thiols and this reactivity requires the use of donors with 1-nitrosocyclohexyl acetate, pivalate and trifluoroacetate forming a new group. These acyloxy nitroso compounds inhibit glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) by forming a reduction reversible active site disulfide and a reduction irreversible sulfinic acid or sulfinamide modification at Cys 244. Addition of these acyloxy nitroso compounds to AhpC C165S yields a sulfinic acid and sulfinamide modification. A potential mechanism for these transformations includes nucleophilic addition of the protein thiol to a nitroso compound to yield an N-hydroxysulfenamide, which reacts with thiol to give disulfide or rearranges to sulfinamides. Known HNO donors produce the un-substituted protein sulfinamide as the major product while the acetate and pivalate give substituted sulfinamides that hydrolyze to sulfinic acids. These results suggest that nitroso compounds form a general class of thiol-modifying compounds allowing their further exploration.

No abstract

No abstract

SARS-CoV-2 is a novel coronavirus that was first identified during the outbreak in Wuhan, China in 2019.

FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) mutations occur in approximately 30% of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients. In the current study, the oxindole chemotype is employed as a structural motif for the design of new FLT3 inhibitors as potential hits for AML irradiation.Cell-based screening was performed with 18 oxindole derivatives and 5a-c inhibited 68%-73% and 83%-91% of internal tandem duplication (ITD)-mutated MV4-11 cell growth for 48-and 72-h treatments while only 0%-2% and 27%-39% in wild-type THP-1 cells. The most potent compound 5a inhibited MV4-11 cells with IC 50 of 4.3 μM at 72 h while it was 8.7 μM in THP-1 cells, thus showing two-fold selective inhibition against the oncogenic ITD mutation. The ability of 5a to modulate cell death was examined. High-throughput protein profiling revealed low levels of the growth factors IGFBP-2 and -4 with the blockage of various apoptotic inhibitors such as Survivin. p21 with cellular stress mechanisms was characterized by increased expression of HSP proteins along with TNF-β. Mechanistically, compounds 5a and 5b inhibited FLT3 kinase with IC 50 values of 2.49 and 1.45 μM, respectively. Theoretical docking studies supported

Several studies are now underway as a worldwide response for the containment of the COVID-19 outbreak; unfortunately, none of them have resulted in an effective treatment.