Role and mechanistic actions of protein kinase inhibitors as an effective drug target for cancer and COVID.

Kinases can be grouped into 20 families which play a vital role as a regulator of neoplasia, metastasis, and cytokine suppression. Human genome sequencing has discovered more than 500 kinases. Mutations of the kinase itself or the pathway regulated by kinases leads to the progression of diseases such as Alzheimer's, viral infections, and cancers. Cancer chemotherapy has made significant leaps in recent years. The utilization of chemotherapeutic agents for treating cancers has become difficult due to their unpredictable nature and their toxicity toward the host cells. Therefore, targeted therapy as a therapeutic option against cancer-specific cells and toward the signaling pathways is a valuable avenue of research. SARS-CoV-2 is a member of the Betacoronavirus genus that is responsible for causing the COVID pandemic. Kinase family provides a valuable source of biological targets against cancers and for recent COVID infections. Kinases such as tyrosine kinases, Rho kinase, Bruton tyrosine kinase, ABL kinases, and NAK kinases play an important role in the modulation of signaling pathways involved in both cancers and viral infections such as COVID. These kinase inhibitors consist of multiple protein targets such as the viral replication machinery and specific molecules targeting signaling pathways for cancer. Thus, kinase inhibitors can be used for their anti-inflammatory, anti-fibrotic activity along with cytokine suppression in cases of COVID. The main goal of this review is to focus on the pharmacology of kinase inhibitors for cancer and COVID, as well as ideas for future development.

In silico screening of chemical constituents in rasam as a beneficial supplementary treatment for novel coronavirus

Context: The novel coronavirus named as COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) from its origin in Hubei spread across the continent in a short period of six months' time. Till date there is no drug to cure the novel corona virus SARS-CoV-2. Earlier studies on SARS-CoV-1 suggests that interleukin 6 (IL-6) and Interleukin 8 (IL-8) were in the higher levels indicating the key role of IL. Aim: Molecular simulation studies were carried out on the selected 24 chemical constituents present in rasam against IL-6 to identify the key interaction between the amino acid residues and their chemical structure. Materials and Methods: A library of 24 chemical constituents was sketched using Chem Sketch programming 8.0. The 3D structures of ligands were retrieved in mol format in Maestro v 11.3 and the ligands were optimized utilizing ligprep (4.3) module (Schrodinger 2018-1).

In silico screening of traditional herbal medicine derived chemical constituents for possible potential inhibition against sars-cov-2

The outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 has initiated an exploration to find an efficient anti-viral agent. From the previous scientific studies of traditional herbal medicines like garlic, ginger, onion, turmeric, chilli, cinchona and pepper, 131 chemical constituents were identified. The filtered search of drug-like-molecules searched using Datawarrior resulted in 13 active constituents (apoquinine, catechin, cinchonidine, cinchonine, cuprediene, epicatechin, epiprocurcumenol, epiquinine, procurcumenol, quinidine, quinine, zedoaronediol, procurcumadiol) showed no mutagenic, carcinogenic or toxic properties. In silico study of these 13 compounds with the best binding affinity towards SARS-CoV-2 protease was carried out. The ligands were subjected to molecular docking using Autodock Vina. Epicatechin and apoquine showed highest binding affinity of-7 and-7.5kcal/mol while catechin and epicatechin showed four hydrogen bond interactions. It is interesting and worth noticing the interaction of GLU166 residue with the ligand in most of the constituents. The effectiveness of catechin and epicatechin as an antiviral agent could be tested against COVID-19.