In silico screening of phytochemical compounds and FDA drugs as potential inhibitors for NSP16/10 5' methyl transferase activity.

The recent global pandemic associated with the highly contagious novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has led to an unpredictable loss of life and economy worldwide, and the discovery of antiviral drugs is an urgent necessity. For the discovery of new drug leads and for the treatment of various diseases, natural products and purified photochemical from medicinal plants are used. The RNA cap was methylated by two S-adenosyl-L-methionine (SAM)-dependent methyltransferases of SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), catalyzed by NSP16 2'-O-Mtase. Natural substrate SAM, 128 Phytocompounds retrieved from the Phytocompounds database, and 11 standard FDA-approved HIV drugs reclaimed from the PubChem database are subjected to docking analysis. The docking study was done using AutoDock Vina. Further, admetSAR and DruLiTO servers are used to analyze the drug-likeness properties. The NSP16/10 structure and natural substrate SAM, Phytocompounds Withanolide (WTL), and HIV standard drug Dolutegravir (DLT) as hit compounds were identified by molecular dynamics using the Gromacs GPU-enabled package. To examine the effectiveness of the identified drugs versus COVID-19, further in vitro and in vivo studies are required. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma.

Drug utilization pattern of hospitalized patients with COVID-19 in a tertiary care center

[...]in a small proportion of cases like immune deficient patients or those with comorbid conditions, the disease can progress to a more severe stage characterized by a dysregulated immune response with hyperinflammation with subsequent development of acute respiratory distress syndrome. Real-time polymerase chain reaction test of the oropharyngeal/ nasal swab was the confirmatory laboratory evidence to identify COVID-19 infection. [5] In India, a wide range of repurposed drugs including azithromycin, remdesivir, dexamethasone, and even multivitamins such as zinc and Vitamin C was recommended for the management of hospitalized patients with COVID-19. The demographic and prescription characteristics such as age, sex, SPO2 at the time of admission, CT - chest score if available, duration of stay in the hospital, details of treatment received with the number of days of treatment for each drug, route of administration, presence of comorbid conditions, and adverse reactions if any, until the occurrence of a clinical endpoint, namely, inpatient death or non-fatal discharge were all collected.

Covid-19-related mucormycotic osteomyelitis of the maxilla: A case report of findings, surgical management and post-surgical rehabilitation

Aim and objective: To report a case of surgical management and postsurgical rehabilitation COVID-19-related mucormycotic osteomyelitis of the maxilla. Background: Patients with the SARS-CoV-2 infection, also termed the COVID-19 illness, have been found to be afflicted with other associated bacterial and fungal diseases which have been termed as co-infections. In this regard, mucormycosis, a fungal infection, has been found to occur in these patients especially with a lowered immune response and has been found to cause osteomyelitis of the jaw bones. Case description: We present a case of mucormycosis in a COVID-19-affected patient that occurred in August 2020 denoted the first wave of disease in India, causing extensive osteomyelitis of the left maxilla. The patient presented clinically with odontalgia and tooth mobility in the upper anterior region. Clinical examination revealed the presence of abscesses in the attached gingiva in relation to tooth numbers 13,12, 11, 22, 23,24 and 25. A deep horizontal cleft was observed in the mucogingival junction in relation to 23 discharging pus. Computed tomography (CT) imaging revealed a diffuse radiolucency extending from the alveolar ridge of the upper anterior teeth to the left maxillary sinus, breaking the floor of the sinus. We have performed extensive medical and surgical management of this patient including postoperative prosthetic rehabilitation which is documented in the present case report. Clinical significance: Our observation of maxillary osteomyelitis secondary to mucormycosis in the first COVID wave in India makes our case extremely rare and important as this highlights that COVID-19 complications were significant but under-evaluated in the first wave of the disease. © Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers. 2021.

To Compare The Effect Of Chitraka Pratisaraneeya Kshara(alkali) With Yava Pratisaraneeya Kshara (alkali) in Garbhashaya Grivamukhagata Vrana (Cervical Erosion)

Immunologic resilience and COVID-19 survival advantage.

BACKGROUND: The risk of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) varies significantly among persons of similar age and is higher in males. Age-independent, sex-biased differences in susceptibility to severe COVID-19 may be ascribable to deficits in a sexually dimorphic protective attribute that we termed immunologic resilience (IR). OBJECTIVE: We sought to examine whether deficits in IR that antedate or are induced by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection independently predict COVID-19 mortality. METHODS: IR levels were quantified with 2 novel metrics: immune health grades (IHG-I [best] to IHG-IV) to gauge CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell count equilibrium, and blood gene expression signatures. IR metrics were examined in a prospective COVID-19 cohort (n = 522); primary outcome was 30-day mortality. Associations of IR metrics with outcomes in non-COVID-19 cohorts (n = 13,461) provided the framework for linking pre-COVID-19 IR status to IR during COVID-19, as well as to COVID-19 outcomes. RESULTS: IHG-I, tracking high-grade equilibrium between CD8+ and CD4+ T-cell counts, was the most common grade (73%) among healthy adults, particularly in females. SARS-CoV-2 infection was associated with underrepresentation of IHG-I (21%) versus overrepresentation (77%) of IHG-II or IHG-IV, especially in males versus females (P < .01). Presentation with IHG-I was associated with 88% lower mortality, after controlling for age and sex; reduced risk of hospitalization and respiratory failure; lower plasma IL-6 levels; rapid clearance of nasopharyngeal SARS-CoV-2 burden; and gene expression signatures correlating with survival that signify immunocompetence and controlled inflammation. In non-COVID-19 cohorts, IR-preserving metrics were associated with resistance to progressive influenza or HIV infection, as well as lower 9-year mortality in the Framingham Heart Study, especially in females. CONCLUSIONS: Preservation of immunocompetence with controlled inflammation during antigenic challenges is a hallmark of IR and associates with longevity and AIDS resistance. Independent of age, a male-biased proclivity to degrade IR before and/or during SARS-CoV-2 infection predisposes to severe COVID-19.

Cikm analyticup 2020: Covid-19 retweet prediction with personalized attention

This paper describes the first place winning solution for the CIKM AnalytiCup 2020 COVID-19 retweet prediction challenge. The objective of the challenge is to predict the popularity of COVID-19 related tweets in terms of the number of retweets, and the submitted solutions of the challenge are ranked based on Mean Squared Logarithmic Error(MSLE) on the leaderboard. The proposed deep learning model to predict retweet counts uses minimal hand-engineered features and learns to predict retweet count based on a personalized attention mechanism. As a tweet keyword may have different informativeness for different users, the personalized attention mechanism helps the deep learning model to weigh the importance of tweet keywords based on a user's interest to retweet. Additional techniques such as adding external data sets to training and pseudolabeling are also experimented with to further improve the MSLE score. The final solution comprises of an ensemble of different personalized attention-based deep learning models, and the source code for the solution can be found at https://github.com/vinayakarajt/ CIKM2020. © 2020 CEUR-WS. All rights reserved.

Elders' Dignity and Challenges During Covid-19 Pandemic

The paper attempts to investigate and understand the elder dignity and challenges of elderly persons of 60 years and above during the period of the Covid-19 pandemic. A paradigm shift in the current trends and process dealing with the challenges of ageing at the individual, family, community, and all others concerned have been analysed in the span of the Covid-19 pandemic. The paper has two objectives: (1) to analyse the socio-psychological problems of the elders, and (2) to examine the sources of these problems. Given the limited availability of the information on the concerned issues, the researchers have used the available secondary materials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Indian Journal of Gerontology is the property of Indian Gerontological Association and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Challenges of elderly people in the COVID-19 pandemic

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) prevails as an exceedingly transmittable disease, was first noticed in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. The disease has spread to most of the countries and territories around the world. India is not an exemption;the disease was first identified on 30 January 2020 in Kerala. The number of infected people in entire India is rising day by day. This study focused on the difficulties faced by elderly people who are predominantly affected during the span of COVID-19 Pandemic. Elders were mainly influenced by social vulnerability;especially experienced at the times of lockdown and quarantine were loneliness, anxiety and uncertainty can give rise to depressive disorders and insomnia. The challenges faced by the elders during COVID-19.

C-phycocyanin of spirulina plantesis inhibits nsp12 required for replication of sars-COV-2: A novel finding in-silico

SARS-CoV-2 or COVID-19 is one of the deadly pandemics faced by the world population, which has infected 7 million and claimed the lives of 0.4 million people. In spite of a few drugs available to control the pandemics, a formal vaccine is the least that the world expects under the current scenario. However, the release of a vaccine is expected to come at the cost of its own time. SARS-CoV-2 replicates in the host cells with the aids of the molecular machinery of a complex formed by three non-structural proteins (NSPs) viz., nsp12, nsp8, and nsp7. Recent studies reveal that among the three NSPs, nsp12 is vital for viral replication and is the target for drugs. Several studies have linked the viral infection to a weaker immune system, which is quite likely to be targeted by the virus. In search of such a natural compound that might increase the immunity and block the viral replication within the host, we selected C-Phycocyanin of Spirulina plantesis to study its anti-viral property in-silico. Spirulina is a free-floating filamentous microalgae growing in alkaline water bodies. It is a well-known source of valuable food supplements, such as proteins, vitamins, amino acids, minerals, etc. In the present study, we focused on the possibility of C-Phycocyanin to inhibit the active site of nsp12, which is very much needed for viral replication. Auto Dock, Auto Grid, and Discovery Studios tools reveal that C-Phycocyanin inhibits the active site of nsp12 thereby interfering with the replication of the virus itself.