Daphnoretin from Carthamus tinctorius as a Potential Inflammatory Inhibitor in COVID-19 by Binding to Toll-like Receptor-4: An in silico Molecular Docking Study

BACKGROUND: Cytokine storm in COVID-19 patients has contributed to many morbidities and mortalities in patients. Studies have found that toll-like receptors (TLRs) and some Fc receptors play essential roles in the hyperactivation of the immune system. Up to date, researchers are still in progress to discover effective and safe drugs to alleviate the hyperinflammatory state in COVID-19. The previous studies had shown that Carthamus tinctorius and its bioactive compounds might have anti-inflammatory activities in animal models. AIM: We aimed to investigate the possible interactions of several flavonoids from C. tinctorius with several immune system components using a biocomputational approach. METHODS: Molecular docking was done using the AutoDock program based on the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) COVID-19 pathway. The most suitable receptors found were studied to study the interactions with several flavonoids from C. tinctorius. RESULTS: TLR4, TLR8, and FcγRIIa were found to bind with SARS CoV2 inflammatory pathway and further selected as macromolecules for potential interactions study with 22 flavonoids from C. tinctorius. Of the 22 flavonoids studied, daphnoretin showed the best binding affinity with TLR4 and Rutin was shown to attach best with FcγRIIa. Unlike its excellent binding to TLR4, daphnoretin showed weak binding to TLR8. CONCLUSION: Daphnoretin showed an excellent affinity with TLR4 and might be a good candidate as an inhibitor in hyperinflammatory reactions in COVID-19 DTLR8.

Molecular docking human plasma kallikrein to prevent acute respiratory distress syndrome(Ards) in covid-19 patient

SARS CoV-2 infection causes various clinical manifestations ranging from mild to severe. Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) is a severe complication of COVID-19 caused by activation of the kallikrein-kinin system which produces bradykinin which is a potent proinflammatory mediator. This research is an in silico study which aims to determine the potential of active medicinal plant compounds in inhibiting the kallikrein-kinin system.Molecular docking in this study using Autodock 4.2 with Lamarckian GA criteria. Human plasma kallikrein (PDB ID: 5TJX) was docked with 70 compounds and one native ligandand analyzed using Autodock 4.2.The smallest binding energy obtained from docking 5TJX with several compounds in sequence, namely, xanthohumol, nafamostat, demethoxycurcumin, epicatechingallate, beta mangostin, alpha mangostin (-9.52,-9.35,-9.33,-9.28,-9.19,-9.06 kcal/mol). Therefore, the compound shows the best potential as a plasma kallikrein inhibitor. However, further research is still needed to determine the potential of drugs and medicinal plant active compounds for medical treatment.

Google class activities during COVID 19: Learning studies on introductory education courses

Online-based learning platforms are becoming an important thing to be implemented at the time of this pandemic. Google classroom is one of them. however, the online-based learning process required self-directed learning related to determining goals and ways to make it happen. the purpose of this study was to look at self-directed learning students based on their previous achievements. This research is a pre-experimental research design with a one-shot case study. the results of the study prove that students with good learning achievement get a good self-directed learning scale score as well. Based on ANOVA analysis, one path for each category of high learning achievement is significantly different from the medium category and also different from the low category. students with good achievements tend to have goals and ways to achieve learning. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

Android-Based Learning Environment to Enhance Creative Thinking Mathematics and Self-Efficacy

The ability to think mathematics and self-efficacy is a combination of skills needed to face a bright future. But the present conditions force the learning process to take place online which is caused by the spread of the pandemic COVID 19. The innovation of the learning process as a result of technological transformation enables innovation based on Android learning. The purpose of this study is to impact the Android-based pursuit of mathematical creative thinking skills. This research is pre-experimental research with one-group pretest-posttest design. The research sample is junior high school students in Aceh Province. The sampling technique used was purposive sampling to get samples with equal ability. The instruments in this study were tests of mathematical creative thinking ability and self-efficacy scale. Test analysis using paired sample t-test with one way ANOVA test. The results of the study, in general, prove that android-based learning has a positive impact on students' mathematical creative thinking abilities and self-efficacy has a positive impact on mathematics creative thinking abilities. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.

COVID-19 detection in limited hospital facilities: The role of monocytes

INTRODUCTION COVID-19 is an emerging infectious disease with etiology severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus-2 (SARS-COV-2) which is causing various clinical manifestations not only in the respiratory tract. COVID-19 declared as a pandemic that causes high mortality worldwide. Simple examination modalities are needed to help diagnose COVID-19. This descriptive case report has aims to show the role of monocyte count to help establish the diagnosis of COVID-19. METHODOLOGY This is a case report from confirmed COVID-19 cases in RS Bhayangkara Brimob. Data will be presented according to the descriptive method. RESULTS52 confirmed cases from April 2020 until May 2020 were used in this research, consist of 42 (81.13%) male patients and 10 (16.87%) female patients. 34 (65,38%) patients had an increase in monocyte count. Of 45 symptomatic patients, 29 of them (64.44%) were known to have monocytes> 7. Of 17 confirmed positive patients who shown unilateral and bilateral infiltrate, 13 of them had an increase in monocyte count, 1 patient(100%), and 12 (26,67%) patients, respectively. CONCLUSIONS From the data, we conclude that simple laboratory result parameters such as lymphocyte, sedimentation rate, particularly monocyte, help to establish the diagnosis of COVID-19. This is based on increasing monocyte in mostly all confirmed COVID-19 patients involved in this study.

Geospatial analysis of coastline erosion along pulau tuba, Langkawi

The erosion in Malaysia has brought attention to many authorities especially the coastline in the eastern part of Peninsular Malaysia. Although the erosion in the northern part of Peninsular Malaysia does not receive as much attention as the eastern part of Peninsular Malaysia, however, the issue should not be neglected. High spatial resolution satellite imageries were used for the extraction of coastline and classification level of erosion rate along with the Pulau Tuba. The coastline data was extracted using two different methods known as Maximum Likelihood (ML) and On-Screen Digitizing (OSD) in the determination of the best approach of coastline detection from the Sentinel-2 data of the year 2016 and 2019. Furthermore, the level of erosion is made based on the physical and economic parameters outlined by the National Coastal Erosion Study 2015 (NCES). Due to some inevitable constraints of Movement Control Order by the Malaysian government due to the COVID-19 pandemic, physical observation data of Pulau Tuba were collected via Google Maps. The information acquired includes type of coastal geomorphology, land use, development on the area, activities conducted, and adaptation of erosion if any. These data were utilized to determine the erosion rate and categories using the proposed model by NCES for five divided management units (MU) of the Pulau Tuba areas utilizing Erdas Imagine and ArcGIS software. The analysis found that the ML approach has under-detected the coastline length between 3.19% to 45.0% as compared to OSD for both years of 2016 and 2019. Rate of erosion for Pulau Tuba based on the NCES approach found that the highest erosion rate occurred at the MU1 (Pulau Dayang Bunting- Pulau Tuba causeway) with 2.91% and classified as K1 (critical erosion category) with a value of 4.39 m/yr-1and the highest accretion rate at the MU3 with 3.06%. The critical erosion category was associated with the MU that has significant development and on-going activities that occurred in the area especially in MU 4 (Pulau Tuba) and MU 5 (Teluk Berembang). Other than that, the high number of erosions occurred in that section is due to the exposure of waves, wind, currents, and tides. © 2021 Institute of Physics Publishing. All rights reserved.