Identification of Leading Compounds from Euphorbia neriifolia (Dudsor) Extracts as a Potential Inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 ACE2-RBDS1 Receptor Complex: An Insight from Molecular Docking ADMET Profiling and MD-simulation Studies

Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) are deadly and infectious disease that impacts individuals in a variety of ways. Scientists have stepped up their attempts to find an antiviral drug that targets the spike protein (S) of Angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) (receptor protein) as a viable therapeutic target for coronavirus. The most recent study examines the potential antagonistic effects of 17 phytochemicals present in the plant extraction of Euphorbia neriifolia on the anti-SARS-CoV-2 ACE2 protein. Computational techniques like molecular docking, absorption, distribution, metabolism, excretion, and toxicity (ADMET) investigations, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation analysis were used to investigate the actions of these phytochemicals. The results of molecular docking studies showed that the control ligand (2-acetamido-2-deoxy-β-D-glucopyranose) had a binding potential of -6.2 kcal/mol, but the binding potentials of delphin, β-amyrin, and tulipanin are greater at -10.4, 10.0, and -9.6 kcal/mol. To verify their drug-likeness, the discovered hits were put via Lipinski filters and ADMET analysis. According to MD simulations of the complex run for 100 numbers, delphin binds to the SARS-CoV-2 ACE2 receptor's active region with good stability. In root-mean-square deviation (RMSD) and root mean square fluctuation (RMSF) calculations, delphinan, β-amyrin, and tulipanin showed reduced variance with the receptor binding domain subunit 1(RBD S1) ACE2 protein complex. The solvent accessible surface area (SASA), radius of gyration (Rg), molecular surface area (MolSA), and polar surface area (PSA) validation results for these three compounds were likewise encouraging. The convenient binding energies across the 100 numbers binding period were discovered by using molecular mechanics of generalized born and surface (MM/GBSA) to estimate the ligand-binding free energies to the protein receptor. All things considered, the information points to a greater likelihood of chemicals found in Euphorbia neriifolia binding to the SARS-CoV-2 ACE2 active site. To determine these lead compounds' anti-SARS-CoV-2 potential, in vitro and in vivo studies should be conducted.

How to cite this article

Islam MN, Pramanik MEA, Hossain MA, et al. Identification of Leading Compounds from Euphorbia Neriifolia (Dudsor) Extracts as a Potential Inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2 ACE2-RBDS1 Receptor Complex: An Insight from Molecular Docking ADMET Profiling and MD-simulation Studies. Euroasian J Hepato-Gastroenterol 2023;13(2):89-107.

Euphorbia neriifolia Leaf Juice on Mild and Moderate COVID-19 Patients: Implications in OMICRON Era

Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) has shattered the public health delivery system of most of the countries of the world. COVID-19 displays variable clinical presentations. The severe COVID-19 represents a fulminant pathological condition and most of the patients run a downhill course if extensive medical measures are not adopted. The major challenges about COVID-19 are related to develop strategies to manage huge populations of mild and moderate cases of COVID-19 with two realistic purposes: (1) early negativity of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus and (2) arrest of progression of moderate COVID-19 patients from developing severe complications. Although several medications have been repurposed for these purposes, none of these have passed the test of time in global perspective. Thus, there remains a pressing need to develop new and novel innovative management strategies for these patients as new variants of SARS-CoV-2 have been destroying the normal public health delivery system of different countries from time to time. The study presented here has checked the safety and efficacy of a herbal medication, leaves of Euphorbia neriifolia Linn (E. neriifolia), in mild and moderate COVID-19 patients. Sixty patients (30 mild COVID-19 and 30 moderate COVID-19) were enrolled in the study. Fifteen mild COVID-19 patients received standard of care (SOC) management, and the remaining 15 patients received SOC plus E. neriifolia. The moderate COVID-19 patients similarly received either SOC (N = 15) or SOC plus E. neriifolia (N = 15). Although there were marked diversity regarding biochemical parameters of these patients at entry, the moderate COVID-19 patients receiving E. neriifolia showed decrease in C-reactive protein and D-dimer and increase in oxygen saturation 7 days after trial commencement. However, these improvements were not detected in moderate COVID-19 patients receiving SOC. Hospital staying was significantly lower in both mild and moderate COVID-19 patients receiving SOC plus E. neriifolia than those receiving only SOC. Taken together, it may be proposed that usage of E. neriifolia may have beneficial effects regarding management for COVID-19 patients, especially for those in developing and resource-constrained countries, although a conclusive statement may not be given due to small sample size. This herbal medication is also pertinent in the context of emergence of OMICRON variant of COVID-19 as the overload of SARS-CoV-2-infecetd patients may be addressed considerably by this medication without hospitalization, if proper communication between patients and physicians can be ensured.

P2716Correlation between computed tomography derived ischemia index and conventional fractional flow reserve

Background

Computed tomography (CT) derived ischemia index is a novel tool to determine the significance of coronary artery disease, however, its ability to identify myocardial ischemia has not been examined.

Methods

From Jan. 2013 to Dec. 2015, 14,000 patients underwent ECG-gated CT coronary angiography for suspected coronary artery disease. From Jan. 2013 to Jan. 2016, 483 patients (589 vessels) underwent conventional FFR to assess myocardial ischemia. Among those, FFR was assessed in 148 patients (167 vessels) within 30 days after CT coronary angiography. We further excluded 24 patients with prior stenting or bypass grafting, 3 patients with multiple MDCT or FFR, and 6 patients with insufficient datasets. Finally, we included 117 patients (127 vessels) to assess the correlation between CT derived ischemia index and conventional FFR.

CT derived ischemia index was calculated as follows: left ventricular volume distally to the coronary artery lumen (cm3)/coronary artery lumen area (mm2). Left ventricular volume was automatically determined using Advantage Workstation and divided according to the nearest coronary artery tree. Center of coronary arteries were manually traced and contours of coronary artery lumen were automatically depicted. CT derived ischemia index was calculated at approximately every 0.625mm point of coronary artery. Moving median of consecutive 5 points (approximately 3.125mm) were used to remove outliers. Maximum value of CT derived ischemia index per coronary artery segment was calculated to determine the significance of coronary artery disease.

Results

Mean age was 71.3±10.5 years and 63.8% of patients were male. Coronary angiography was performed to assess conventional FFR at the median of 13 days (IQR 7 to 18 days) after CT. Majority of the target vessel was left anterior descending artery (71.7%), followed by right coronary artery (14.2%), left circumflex artery (13.4%) and left main coronary artery (0.8%). According to the quantitative coronary angiography, minimum lumen diameter was 1.47±0.32mm with percent diameter stenosis of 48.3±10.4%. Median FFR value was 0.83 (IQR 0.76 to 0.88) and positive test for myocardial ischemia (FFR <0.80) was observed in 42 vessels (33.1%). Maximum CT derived ischemia index per segment ranged from 1.825 to 57.296 (median 8.333, IQR 4.911 to 14.484). There was a negative correlation between CT derived ischemia index and FFR (r=−0.319, 95% confidence interval −0.467 to −0.153, P<0.001). Receiver operating characteristic analysis indicated CT derived ischemia index of 9.962 has 76.2% sensitivity and 70.6% specificity for the presence of FFR<0.80 (AUC 0.73, 95% CI 0.64 to 0.82).

Conclusions

A novel tool of CT derived ischemia index has a significant negative correlation with conventional FFR in lesions with mild to moderate stenosis. Larger multicenter prospective studies are needed to fully determine the impact of CT derived ischemia index.

Use of Anticoagulant Warfarin in Patients Presenting With Atrial Fibrillation in a Tertiary Level Hospital

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia in the World, occurring in approximately 0.4% of the general population. The purpose of the present study was to see the trend of use of warfarin in hospital admitted patients with atrial fibrillation. It was conducted in the department of cardiology, University Cardiac Centre, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, Dhaka, Bangladesh from January 2008 to January 2009. A total of 150 patients with atrial fibrillation were enrolled in this study. Out of them, male were 60(40%) and female 90(60%); age range 22-79 years. Most common presenting symptoms were palpitation (80%) & dyspnoea (70%). Chronic rheumatic heart disease (Mitral stenosis) (33%) was found in most cases followed by IHD (22%), hypertension (21%). According to CHADS₂ score, most of the patients belonged to moderate risk group (47%) and 32% in low risk group. Anticoagulation with warfarin was used in 40% cases of valvular AF & 25% patients with non valvular AF. Among non valvular AF, it was prescribed for 38% in high risk group, 34% in moderate risk & 3% in low risk group. The study states that warfarin is underused in both valvular & non valvular AF.

Fully Developed Heat Transfer to a Gaseous Suspension of Particles Flowing Turbulently in Ducts of Different Size

This paper is a sequel to two earlier studies of friction (I)† and eddy diffusion (2) carried out for the same flow conditions as in the present study of heat transfer. Heat was transferred to an upward flowing suspension of 0-40 μ zinc particles in pipes of 1, 2 and 3 in bore. The solids/gas flow rate was in the range 0 < Ws/ W g< 17 and the pipe Reynolds number in the range 3·5 × 104< Re < 105.

It was found that the fractional increase in heat transfer coefficient due to the presence of solids was always less than the increase in the friction factor. Minimum values of both these parameters are often observed in the range 1 < W s/ W q< 2·5. This paper gives further evidence that turbulence is suppressed by the particles, particularly when the duct is small and Re is large; in this case the wall Nusselt number, Nu s, is markedly reduced below the value when gas flows alone. However, when the pipe is large and Re is low, Nu s can be substantially higher than the value for gas alone. In this case the suspension is a superior coolant to the flow of gas alone.

Effect of chelating agents on the susceptibility of some strains of gram-negative bacteria to some antibacterial agents

The effects of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and related chelating agents on the susceptibility of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and other strains of gram-negative bacteria to some beta-lactam antibiotics and some non-antibiotic antibacterial agents have been studied by two methods: (i) the determination of minimal inhibitory concentrations in the presence and absence of a chelating agent; and (ii) pretreatment with a chelating agent, followed by exposure for up to 120 min at 37 C to a beta-lactam drug in a nutrient medium or to the other type of antibacterial agent in a non-nutrient environment. The pretreatment technique gave the more significant results, especially with chlorhexidine, cetrimide, and benzalkonium chloride. Chelating agents that had previously been found to give a low order of activity as measured by effects on bacterial viability nevertheless appeared to induce some changes in the surface layers of the treated organisms, rendering them susceptible to sub-inhibitory concentrations of non-antibiotic drugs.

Transformation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli with resistance plasmid DNA: formation of smaller conjugative plasmids from RPI

Sheared DNA from RPI, and R plasmid from a strain of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, was used to transform other strains of P. aeruginosa and Escherichia coli. From transformed cells other plasmids like RPI were isolated. These deletion plasmids were conjugally transferrable and confer resistance mainly against carbenicillin and tetracycline.

Effect of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and related chelating agents on whole cells of gram-negative bacteria

The effects of ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid and of four other chelating agents on seven strains of gram-negative bacteria are described. Changes in viability, cell lysis, and release of intracellular materials from suspensions in various buffers, pH 7.8 or 9.2, were observed. Cyclohexane-1,2-diaminotetraacetic acid was the most toxic compound, whereas iminodiacetic acid and nitrilotriacetic acid had little bactericidal activity. The activity of the five drugs appeared to be related to their chelating ability. Of the bacterial strains used, Pseudomonas aeruginosa NCTC 1999 and NCTC 6750 were the most susceptible, and Klebsiella aerogenes K1 was the most resistant. In contrast, the two strains of P. aeruginosa were the most resistant to the nonchelating antibacterial agents cetrimide, chlorhexidine, and benzalkonium chloride.