Chemical composition and toxicity studies on Lantana camara L. flower essential oil and its in silico binding and pharmacokinetics to superoxide dismutase 1 for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) therapy.

Using the gas chromatography mass spectrometry method, the chemical components of essential oil from flowers of Lantana camara growing in Egypt are analyzed. Through this investigation, 22 chemicals from floral oil were identified. Most of the oil is made up of sesquiterpene caryophyllene (15.51%) and monoterpene sabinene (14.90%). When the oil's composition was compared to oils extracted from the same plant on several continents, we observed that the essential components were largely the same with some difference in proportions and some compounds due to geographical differences. A molecular docking study of essential oil components was conducted with human superoxide dismutase 1, a target involved in the pathophysiology of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Isospathulenol showed a comparable docking score to the reference ligand bound to the dismutase enzyme. Isospathulenol showed a reasonable drug score with some safety concerns. In addition, isospathulenol is predicted to have high GI absorption, good permeability through the blood-brain barrier and reasonable bioavailability score with ease access to synthetic modifications. In addition, the same compound is devoid from any violation to Lipinski rules or any PAINS alerts. This may establish the promising characteristics of such a compound to be optimized into potential drug candidates for treatment of ALS.

Identification of Benzothiazoles Bearing 1,3,4-Thiadiazole as Antiproliferative Hybrids Targeting VEGFR-2 and BRAF Kinase: Design, Synthesis, BIO Evaluation and In Silico Study.

Cancer remains a leading cause of death worldwide, often resulting from uncontrolled growth in various organs. Protein kinase inhibitors represent an important class of targeted cancer therapies. Recently, the kinases BRAF and VEGFR-2 have shown synergistic effects on tumor progression. Seeking to develop dual BRAF/VEGFR-2 inhibitors, we synthesized 18 amino-benzothiazole derivatives with structural similarities to reported dual inhibitors. Four compounds-4a, 4f, 4l, and 4r-demonstrated remarkable cytotoxicity, with IC50 values ranging from 3.58 to 15.36 µM, against three cancer cell lines. Furthermore, these compounds showed IC50 values of 38.77-66.22 µM in the case of a normal cell line, which was significantly safer than the reference, sorafenib. Subsequent investigation revealed that compound 4f exhibited the capacity to inhibit the BRAF and VEGFR-2 enzymes, with IC50 values similar to sorafenib (0.071 and 0.194 µM, respectively). Moreover, compound 4f caused G2-M- and S-phase cycle arrest. Molecular modeling demonstrated binding patterns compatible with inhibition for both targets, where 4f exerted the critical interactions in the BRAF site and interacted in the VEGFR-2 site in a manner akin to sorafenib, demonstrating affinity similar to dabrafenib.

AI-driven Discovery of Celecoxib and Dexamethasone for Exploring their Mode of Action as Human Interleukin (IL-6) Inhibitors to Treat COVID-19-induced Cytokine Storm in Humans.

BACKGROUND: In the case of COVID-19 patients, it has been observed that the immune system of the infected person exhibits an extreme inflammatory response known as cytokine release syndrome (CRS) where the inflammatory cytokines are swiftly produced in quite large amounts in response to infective stimuli. Numerous case studies of COVID-19 patients with severe symptoms have documented the presence of higher plasma concentrations of human interleukin-6 (IL-6), which suggests that IL-6 is a crucial factor in the pathophysiology of the disease. In order to prevent CRS in COVID-19 patients, the drugs that can exhibit binding interactions with IL-6 and block the signaling pathways to decrease the IL-6 activity may be repurposed. METHODS: This research work focused on molecular docking-based screening of the drugs celecoxib (CXB) and dexamethasone (DME) to explore their potential to interact with the binding sites of IL-6 protein and reduce the hyper-activation of IL-6 in the infected personnel. RESULTS: Both of the drugs were observed to bind with the IL-6 (IL-6 receptor alpha chain) and IL-6Rα receptor with the respective affinities of -7.3 kcal/mol and -6.3 kcal/mol, respectively, for CXB and DME. Moreover, various types of binding interactions of the drugs with the target proteins were also observed in the docking studies. The dynamic behaviors of IL-6/IL-6Rα in complex with the drugs were also explored through molecular dynamics simulation analysis. The results indicated significant stabilities of the acquired drug-protein complexes up to 100 ns. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study have suggested the potential of the drugs studied to be utilized as antagonists for countering CRS in COVID-19 ailment. This study presents the studied drugs as promising candidates both for the clinical and pre-clinical treatment of COVID-19.

Development of new thiazolidine-2,4-dione hybrids as aldose reductase inhibitors endowed with antihyperglycaemic activity: design, synthesis, biological investigations, and in silico insights.

This research study describes the development of new small molecules based on 2,4-thiazolidinedione (2,4-TZD) and their aldose reductase (AR) inhibitory activities. The synthesis of 17 new derivatives of 2,4-TZDs hybrids was feasible by incorporating two known bioactive scaffolds, benzothiazole heterocycle, and nitro phenacyl moiety. The most active hybrid (8b) was found to inhibit AR in a non-competitive manner (0.16 µM), as confirmed by kinetic studies and molecular docking simulations. Furthermore, the in vivo experiments demonstrated that compound 8b had a significant hypoglycaemic effect in mice with hyperglycaemia induced by streptozotocin. Fifty milligrams per kilogram dose of 8b produced a marked decrease in blood glucose concentration, and a lower dose of 5 mg/kg demonstrated a noticeable antihyperglycaemic effect. These outcomes suggested that compound 8b may be used as a promising therapeutic agent for the treatment of diabetic complications.

Nontoxic and Naturally Occurring Active Compounds as Potential Inhibitors of Biological Targets in Liriomyza trifolii.

In recent years, novel strategies to control insects have been based on protease inhibitors (PIs). In this regard, molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations have been extensively used to investigate insect gut proteases and the interactions of PIs for the development of resistance against insects. We, herein, report an in silico study of (disodium 5'-inosinate and petunidin 3-glucoside), (calcium 5'-guanylate and chlorogenic acid), chlorogenic acid alone, (kaempferol-3,7-di-O-glucoside with hyperoside and delphinidin 3-glucoside), and (myricetin 3'-glucoside and hyperoside) as potential inhibitors of acetylcholinesterase receptors, actin, α-tubulin, arginine kinase, and histone receptor III subtypes, respectively. The study demonstrated that the inhibitors are capable of forming stable complexes with the corresponding proteins while also showing great potential for inhibitory activity in the proposed protein-inhibitor combinations.

Synthesis, antitumor, and apoptosis-inducing activities of novel 5-arylidenethiazolidine-2,4-dione derivatives: Histone deacetylases inhibitory activity and molecular docking study.

The antitumor activity of the newly synthesized 5-arylidenethiazolidine-2,4-dione derivatives 18a-f and 19a-f was investigated, compared to doxorubicin (IC50 = 4.17-8.87 µM) and SAHA (IC50 = 2.70-7.11 µM). Among the tested molecules, compounds 18b, 18c, 18f, 19d, and 19e displayed the highest antitumor activity against cancer cell lines (IC50 = 3.16-28.94 µM). Further, compounds 18b, 18c, 18f, and 19d were tested as Histone deacetylases (HDACs) inhibitors compared with Entinostat (IC50 = 0.093-0.75 µM). Compounds 18b, 18c, 18f, and 19d inhibited HDAC1, HDAC2, HDAC8, and HDAC6 enzymes with IC50 values ranging from 0.144 to 1.741 µM. In addition, compound 18b caused apoptosis via a mitochondrial-mediated pathway and led to cell cycle arrest at the G1 phase. It also increased caspases-3 and caspases-7 by 5.2-3.9 and 9.1-3.7 folds, respectively. The molecular docking analysis of compounds 18b and 18c revealed that they could bind to the active sites of HDAC1, HDAC2, HDAC8, and HDAC6 like co-crystallized inhibitors.

In Silico Discovery of GPCRs and GnRHRs as Novel Binding Receptors of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein Could Explain Neuroendocrine Disorders in COVID-19.

Despite the intense research work since the beginning of the pandemic, the pathogenesis of COVID-19 is not yet clearly understood. The previous mechanism of COVID-19, based on ACE2 tropism and explained through a single receptor, is insufficient to explain the pathogenesis due to the absence of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors in most of the affected organs. In the current study, we used the PatchDock server to run a molecular docking study of both the gonadotropin-releasing hormone receptor (GnRHR) and G-protein-coupled-receptor (GPCR) with the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations were run to analyze the stability of the complexes using the GROMACS package. The docking results showed a high affinity between the spike protein with the GnRHR (-1424.9 kcal/mol) and GPCR (-1451.8 kcal/mol). The results of the MD simulations revealed the significant stability of the spike protein with the GnRHR and GPCR up to 100 ns. The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein had strong binding interactions with the GPCRs and GnRHRs, which are highly expressed in the brain, endocrine organs, and olfactory neurons. This study paves the way towards understanding the complex mechanism of neuroendocrine involvement and peripheral organ involvement, may explain the changing symptoms in patients due to new variants, and may lead to the discovery of new drug targets for COVID-19. In vitro studies involving genetic engineering or gene knockdown of the GPCRs and GnRHRs are needed to further investigate the role of these receptors in COVID-19 pathogenesis.