ABSTRACT
Introduction: Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death worldwide and Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated the problem much more. There is a high risk of being infected with SARS-CoV-2 among patients having lung cancer. This study aims to assess the knowledge, attitudes, and help-seeking for early symptoms of lung cancer in Bangladeshi people. Method: A cross-sectional study was conducted with 744 randomly selected respondents from eight different administrative regions of Bangladesh between June and August 2021. A structured questionnaire was used covering socio-demographic characteristics of the participants including their knowledge, attitudes, and participant's risk about lung cancer to accomplish our aim and objectives. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to identify factors associated with the knowledge and awareness of lung cancer. Result: Of the 744 participants, 90.3% (672/744) reported to have heard about lung cancer. A total of 17 participants were identified as lung cancer patients. Being a smoker (96.7%) and unexplained shortness of breath (92.6%) were identified as the most common risk factor and symptoms of lung cancer respectively. Among the socio-demographic variables, the level of education of the respondents was identified as an independent predictor for both knowledge (p<0.001) and awareness (p<0.001) about lung cancer. Smoking status was significantly associated with the participant's awareness of lung cancer (p<0.001). Conclusion: Although most participants were knowledgeable about smoking as a major risk factor, it was not proportional to their actions to stop smoking. This study highlights the importance of raising awareness and enhancing positive steps to avoid modified risk factors or even encourage early testing for lung cancer.
ABSTRACT
The emerging variants of SARS coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) have been continuously spreading all over the world and have raised global health concerns. The B.1.1.7 (United Kingdom), P.1 (Brazil), B.1.351 (South Africa) and B.1.617 (India) variants, resulting from multiple mutations in the spike glycoprotein (SGp), are resistant to neutralizing antibodies and enable increased transmission. Hence, new drugs might be of great importance against the novel variants of SARS-CoV-2. The SGp and main protease (Mpro) of SARS-CoV-2 are important targets for designing and developing antiviral compounds for new drug discovery. In this study, we selected seventeen phytochemicals and later performed molecular docking to determine the binding interactions of the compounds with the two receptors and calculated several drug-likeliness properties for each compound. Luteolin, myricetin and quercetin demonstrated higher affinity for both the proteins and interacted efficiently. To obtain compounds with better properties, we designed three analogues from these compounds and showed their greater druggable properties compared to the parent compounds. Furthermore, we found that the analogues bind to the residues of both proteins, including the recently identified novel variants of SARS-CoV-2. The binding study was further verified by molecular dynamics (MD) simulation and molecular mechanics/Poisson Boltzmann surface area (MM/PBSA) approaches by assessing the stability of the complexes. MD simulations revealed that Arg457 of SGp and Met49 of Mpro are the most important residues that interacted with the designed inhibitors. Our analysis may provide some breakthroughs to develop new therapeutics to treat the proliferation of SARS-CoV-2 in vitro and in vivo.
ABSTRACT
SARS-CoV-2 is a single-stranded RNA (+) virus first identified in China and then became an ongoing global outbreak. In most cases, it is fatal in humans due to respiratory malfunction. Extensive researches are going to find an effective therapeutic technique for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infected individuals. In this study, we attempted to design a siRNA molecule to silence the most suitable nucleocapsid(N) gene of SARS-CoV-2, which play a major role during viral pathogenesis, replication, encapsidation and RNA packaging. At first, 270 complete N gene sequences of different strains in Bangladesh of these viruses were retrieved from the NCBI database. Different computational methods were used to design siRNA molecules. A siRNA molecule was built against these strains using the SiDirect 2.0 server. Using Mfold and the OligoCalc server, the siRNA molecule was tested for its secondary structure and GC material. The Clustal Omega tool was employed to evaluate any off-target harmony of the planned siRNA molecule. Herein, we proposed a duplex siRNA molecule that does not fit any off-target sequences for the gene silencing of SARS-CoV-2. To treat SARS-CoV-2 infections, currently, any effective therapy is not available. Our engineered siRNA molecule could give an alternative therapeutic approach against various sequenced SARS-CoV-2 strains in Bangladesh.