Intestinal and pancreatic α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitors offer an approach to lower the levels of post-prandial hyperglycemia through the control of dietary starch breakdown in digestion. This study hypothesized that lactucaxanthin (Lxn) in lettuce (Lactuca sativa) inhibits the activity of α-amylase and α-glucosidase. In this study, the interaction of Lxn with α-amylase and α-glucosidase in silico and its inhibitory effect on these enzymes were studied using in vitro and STZ-induced diabetic rat models. Lxn was isolated from lettuce with 96% purity confirmed by HPLC and LCMS. The in silico analysis showed that Lxn has a lower binding energy (-6.05 and -6.34 kcal mol) with α-amylase and α-glucosidase compared to their synthetic inhibitors, acarbose (-0.21 kcal mol) and miglitol (-2.78 kcal mol), respectively. In vitro α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibition assays revealed that Lxn had IC values of 435.5 μg mL and 1.84 mg mL, but acarbose has values of 2.5 and 16.19 μg mL. The in vivo results showed an increased activity for α-amylase and α-glucosidase in the intestine (4.7 and 1.30 fold, p < 0.05) and pancreas (1.3 and 1.48 fold, p < 0.05) of STZ induced diabetic rats compared to normal rats. Whereas the activity decreased (p < 0.05) in the Lxn fed diabetic rats, except for the intestinal α-glucosidase activity (1.69 ± 0.12 PNP per min per mg protein). This was confirmed by the low blood glucose level (239.4 ± 18.2 mg dL) in diabetic rats fed Lxn compared to the diabetic group (572.2 ± 30.5 mg dL, p < 0.05). Lxn significantly inhibited (p < 0.05) the activity of α-amylase and α-glucosidase and could be of medical and nutritional relevance in the treatment of diabetes.

The COVID-19 pandemic has severely destructed human life worldwide, with no suitable treatment until now. SARS-CoV-2 virus is unprecedented, resistance against number of therapeutics and spreading rapidly with high mortality, which warrants the need to discover new effective drugs to combat this situation. This current study is undertaken to explore the antiviral potential of marine algal compounds to inhibit the viral entry and its multiplication using computational analysis. Among the proven drug discovery targets of SARS-CoV-2, spike glycoprotein and 3-chymotrypsin-like protease are responsible for the virus attachment and viral genome replication in the host cell. In this study, the above-mentioned drug targets were docked with marine algal compounds (sulfated polysaccharides, polysaccharide derivatives and polyphenols) using molecular docking tools (AutoDockTools). The obtained results indicate that κ-carrageenan, laminarin, eckol, trifucol and β-D-galactose are the top-ranking compounds showing better docking scores with SARS-CoV-2 targets, than the current experimental COVID-19 antiviral drugs like dexamethasone, remdesivir, favipiravir and MIV-150. Further, molecular dynamic simulation, ADMET and density functional theory calculations were evaluated to substantiate the findings. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on in silico analysis of aforesaid algal metabolites against SARS-CoV-2 targets. This study concludes that these metabolites can be curative for COVID-19 in the hour of need after further validations in in vitro and in vivo testings. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma

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Over the past year, owing to the emergent demand for the search for potential COVID-19 therapeutics, identifying alternative candidates from biological sources is one of the sustainable ways to reinforce the drug discovery process. Marine macroalgae have numerous advantages because of the richest availability of underexploited bioactive compounds. Polyphenolic compounds like phlorotannins obtained from brown macroalgae are reported as proven antiviral and immunostimulatory agents. Thus, the present study evaluated the possibility of phlorotannins as antagonists to the multiple target proteins essential for SARS-CoV-2 replication. Twenty different types of potent phlorotannins were targeted against druggable target proteins, viz., 3CLpro, RdRp, and Spro using AutoDock molecular docking, drug-likeness were assessed by ADMET profiling (Qik-Prop module). Further, validated with 200 ns molecular dynamics (MD) simulation (Desmond module) for the top-ranked phlorotannins based on docking binding affinities. Among the twenty phlorotannins studied, eckol hexacetate, phlorofucofuroeckol, fucofuroeckol, and bifuhalol-hexacetate showed significant binding affinities across the selected targets. Besides, MD simulations highlighted Glu166, Gln189, Cys145, and Thr190 tetrad as potential interaction sites to inhibit 3CLpro's activity. Moreover, phlorotannins were confirmed to be druglike, with no major deviation observed in ADMET-profiling. Hence, phlorotannins could be therapeutic candidates against SARS-CoV-2. However, further investigations are needed to prove its efficacy as an antiviral agent. Conclusively, this study may envisage that the novel finding could notably impact the advancement of antiviral interventions for COVID-19 in the near future.

Background Salmonella belongs to the Enterobacteriaceae family, a gram-negative, non-spore-forming, rod-shaped, motile, and pathogenic bacteria that transmit through unhygienic conditions. It is estimated that 21 million new infections arise every year, resulting in approximately 200,000 deaths. It is more prevalent among children, the old aged, and immunocompromised individuals. The frequent usage of classical antimicrobials has begun the increasing emergence of various drug-resistant pathogenic bacterial strains. Hence, this study was intended to evaluate the bioactive seaweed sulfated polysaccharides (SSPs) against the ompF (outer membrane porin F) protein target of Salmonella typhi. SSP is the sulfated compound with a wide range of biological activities, such as anti-microbial, anti-allergy, anti-cancer, anti-coagulant, anti-inflammation, anti-oxidant, and anti-viral. Results In this study, eleven compounds were targeted against S. typhi OmpF by the molecular docking approach and were compared with two commercially available typhoid medications. The SSP showed good binding affinity compared to commercial drugs, particularly carrageenan/MIV-150, carrageenan lambda, fucoidan, and 3-phenyllactate, ranked as top antagonists against OmpF. Further, pharmacokinetics and toxicology (ADMET) studies corroborated that SSP possessed drug-likeness and highly progressed in all parameters. Conclusions AutoDockTools and Schrodinger's QikProp module results suggest that SSP could be a promising drug for extensively drug-resistant (XDR) S. typhi. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on in silico analysis of SSP against S. typhi OmpF, thus implying the capabilities of SSPs especially compounds like carrageenans, as a potential anti-microbial agent against Salmonella typhi infections. Eventually, advanced studies could corroborate SSPs to the next level of application in the crisis of XDR microbial diseases. Graphical Abstract

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Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are promising biocompatible solvents that have many applications in biomedical research including drug delivery. In this study, nanomicelles were designed and developed for encapsulation of paclitaxel (PTX) for cancer therapy using DES from proline (PA) and lactic acid (LA) as resources. The self-assembled DES grafted polyglutamic acid conjugated folic acid (DES-g-PGA-FA) micelles were determined through Critical micelle concentration (CMC) by fluorescence analysis using pyrene as a probe (CMC = 0.7 mg/ mL). The successful preparation of DESs and DESs grafted polymer was confirmed by spectroscopy techniques, and density. The crystalline nature, thermal stability, particle size, surface morphology of the micelles and drug loaded micelles were determined by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and also microscope techniques analysis. In addition, the encapsulation efficiency and sustained release behavior of PTX loaded micelles was tested by UVvisible spectroscopy at the λ max value of 280 nm. Anticancer activity of the compound (PTX loaded polymeric micelles) was assessed on the human cervical cancer cell line (HeLa) and toxicity effect against normal human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) using the tetrazolium-based MTT assay. These results demonstrate that the polymeric micelles are a promising carrier for anticancer therapeutics and minimize adverse side effects to normal cells.[a] P. Pradeepkumar, Dr. M. Rajan

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