ABSTRACT
Background: Diabetes mellitus has been established as a contributory factor for comorbidity in subjects with COVID-19 owing to diabetics being at high infection susceptibility from different bacteria and viruses including those of the respiratory tract. CURB 65 scores are an easier system among the various scoring systems developed to assess CAP risk. Aim: To record and comparatively analyze the CURB-65 scores in non-diabetic and diabetic subjects hospitalized for COVID-19 infection in an Indian health care center. Methods: In 280 subjects admitted for COVID-19 infection, glycemic state and CURB-65 scores were evaluated. The subjects were grouped as having mild, moderate, or severe illnesses based on the CURB-65 scoring. Also, ICU admission, the requirement of a ventilator, hospitalization duration, and mortality rates were assessed. All subjects were followed till discharge or death, whichever was early. Results: Mild CURB-65 was seen for 65.21% (n=90) diabetic subjects and 97.18% (n=138) non-diabetic subjects. 30.43% (n=42) diabetic subjects and 2.81% (n=4) non-diabetic subjects had CURB-65 scores as moderate. ICU admission was needed in 24.63% (n=34) diabetic subjects and in 5.63% (n=8) non-diabetic subjects (p=0.002). Ventilatory support was needed in 18.84% (n=26) diabetic subjects in the study and in 4.22% (n=6) non-diabetic subjects. This difference was statistically significant with p=0.007.24.63% (n=34) diabetic subjects died and in non-diabetic (p < 0.0001). The mean duration of hospital stay was 9.23+or-5.2 days in diabetic subjects and 7.03+or-4.28 days in nondiabetic subjects (p=0.005). Conclusion: Increased and higher values of CURB-65 scores were seen for subjects having diabetes mellitus and COVID-19 infection compared to non-diabetic subjects with COVID- 19 infection. Also, the disease severity was more in subjects with diabetes mellitus and COVID-19 compared to non-diabetics.
ABSTRACT
Students are facing challenges from various routes in covid-19 pandemic. This troublesome route enervated them physically, psychologically and socially. Though students preparing to face constraints from their academic segment, but premature to face family concern involving financials, health, physical and loss of dear and near ones. This paper studies the various types of constraints play against the students and the factors of distress in this ongoing pandemic. The response has been collected from 151 students in Nagpur region inclusive of the diverse factors like age groups, levels of study, their residence and working place. The study also explored on online education, its implementation and related inadequacies concerning most of the students and aggravate the pressure furthermore. The study revealed that almost 100% of the students are facing distress of one type or another. Some 69% of the students of graduation and post-graduation are facing the problems of headache, eye burning because of average 12 and more hours of usage of cell phones for study and assignments. Schools and colleges are giving more assignment in online mode as compared to offline, often susceptible to anxiety and severe depression This needs to address early to bring them to the normalcy.
ABSTRACT
Emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has given rise to COVID-19 pandemic, that is wreaking havoc worldwide. Therefore, there is an urgent need to find out novel drugs to combat SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this backdrop, the present study was aimed to assess potent bioactive compounds from different fungi as potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) using an in-silico analysis. Nearly 118 bioactive compounds were extracted from Dictyophora indusiata, Geassstrum triplex and Cyathus stercoreus and identified using HR LC/MS analysis. Of which, only bergenin (D. indusiata), quercitrin (G. triplex) and dihydroartemisinin (C. stercoreus) were selected based on their medicinal uses, binding score and active site covered. The 6LU7, a protein crystallographic structure of SARS-CoV-2 Mpro, was docked with bergenin, quercitrin and dihydroartemisinin using Autodock 4.2 and the binding energies obtained were -7.86, -10.29 and -7.20 kcal/mol, respectively. Bergenin, quercitrin and dihydroartemisinin formed hydrogen bond, electrostatic interactions and hydrophobic interactions with foremost active site amino acids THR190, GLU166, GLN189, GLY143, HIS163, HIS164, CYS145 and PHE140. Present investigation suggests that these three drugs may be used as alternative inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 Mpro. However, further research is necessary to assess in vitro potential of these drugs. To the best of our knowledge, present investigation reported these three bioactive compounds of fungal origin for the first time.
Subject(s)
COVID-19ABSTRACT
Objective There is an increased interest in drug repurposing against Covid-19 (SARS-CoV-2) as its spread has significantly outpaced development of effective therapeutics. Our aim is to identify approved drugs that can inhibit the interaction of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein with human angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) that is critical for coronavirus infection. Methods The published crystal structure of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein-ACE2 receptor interaction was first analyzed for druggable binding pockets. The binding interface was then probed by an integrated virtual screening protocol executed by a high-performance computer cluster, involving docking and consensus scoring using various machine-learning, empirical and knowledge-based scoring functions. The consensus-ranked lists of screened drugs were generated via ‘rank-by-rank’ and ‘rank-by-number’ schemes. Findings Although spike protein and ACE2 lacked druggable pockets in their unbound forms, they presented a well-defined pocket when bound together. Accordingly, we identified many drugs with high binding potential against this protein-protein interaction pocket. Importantly, several antivirals against two major (+)ssRNA viruses (HCV and HIV) constituted major group of our top hits, of which Atazanavir, Grazoprevir, Saquinavir, Simeprevir, Telaprevir and Tipranavir could be of most importance for immediate experimental/clinical investigations. Additional notable hits included many anti-inflammatory/antioxidant, antibiotic/antifungal, and other relevant compounds with proven activity against respiratory diseases, further emphasizing robustness of our current study. Notably, we also discovered Maraviroc, the only FDA-approved drug capable of targeting virus-host interaction and blocking HIV entry. Conclusion Our newly identified compounds warrant further experimental investigation against SARS-CoV-2 spike-ACE2 interaction, which if proven effective may present much-needed immediate clinical potential against Covid-19.