ABSTRACT
Today critical thinking is one of the main goals of formal education. However, there is no agreement on the most efficient efforts to improve critical thinking, especially for college students. This study aims to develop teaching materials based on Gambier products (Uncaria gambir Roxb.) to enhance students' critical thinking. This study is preliminary research that focuses on user analysis, including needs analysis and context analysis. To find out the characteristics of users by sending a questionnaire to potential users. Context analysis takes from research data in scientific journal articles. The analysis was descriptive qualitative, and the researcher decided to use andragogy learning principles. Indigenous science as study material for Gambir products includes the manufacturing process, chemical properties, and benefits of Gambier products. Teaching materials designed digitally to suit distance learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Problem Based Learning and Inquiry-Based Learning models are applied to support the achievement of students' critical thinking. © 2022 American Institute of Physics Inc.. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) pandemic caused millions of deaths and socio-economics damage worldwide. Corresponding to this, many studies on antiviral drugs exploration are rising to investigate the potential of drug compounds that can repress the replication of the SARS-CoV-2 virus by targeting its main protease named 3-chymotrypsin like protease (3CLpro). Without 3CLpro splicing, polyproteins of SARS-CoV-2 will not function to form new virions. We conducted an in silico thermodynamic study, and found several already known compounds from natural sources such as lovastatin, quinidine, and quinine were potential in inhibiting 3CLpro. However, most of the findings still need further wet-lab experiments to confirm their activity against it. To facilitate rapid screening of protease inhibitors, we aim to develop a screening kit for researchers with focus studies on herbal sources for COVID-19 treatments. Hence, the development of 3CLpro as the target of inhibition screening is essential. Our current work focused on the expression of the SARS-CoV-2 3CL Pro gene harbored by pET-32b(+) in E. coli BL21(DE3) and its purification. The recombinant E.coli were cultivated in LB media at 37 °C with 5 hours IPTG-induced phase followed by crude protein lysate extraction by sonication, and then Ni-NTA purification. A band of recombinant 3CLpro protein (33.8 kDa) detected by SDS PAGE and Western blotting after Ni-NTA purification was specific and clear, showing the right size of our protein interest. A final concentrated protein mixture obtained by 10-kDa membrane filtration displayed >90% purity with a total protein of 2.497 mg mL-1. Further functional assays and inhibitory tests with several natural compounds showed that 3CLpro functioned well as a drug target. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.