ABSTRACT
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmissions are occurring rapidly; it is raising the alarm around the globe. Though vaccines are currently available, the evolution and mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 threaten available vaccines' significance. The drugs are still undergoing clinical trials, and certain medications are approved for "emergency use" or as an "off-label" drug during the pandemic. These drugs have been effective yet accommodating side effects, which also can be lethal. Complementary and alternative medicine is highly demanded since it embraces a holistic approach. Since ancient times, natural products have been used as drugs to treat various diseases in the medical field and are still widely practiced. Medicinal plants contain many active compounds that serve as the key to an effective drug design. The Kabasura kudineer and Nilavembu kudineer are the two most widely approved formulations to treat COVID-19. However, the mechanism of these formulations is not well known. The proposed study used a network pharmacology approach to understand the immune-boosting mechanism by the Kabasura kudineer, Nilavembu kudineer, and JACOM in treating COVID-19. The plants and phytochemical chemical compounds in the Kabasura kudineer, Nilavembu kudineer, and JACOM were obtained from the literature. The Swiss target prediction algorithm was used to predict the targets for these phytochemical compounds. The common genes for the COVID-19 infection and the drug targets were identified. The gene-gene interaction network was constructed to understand the interactions between these common genes and enrichment analyses to determine the biological process, molecular functions, cellular functions, pathways involved, etc. Finally, virtual screening and molecular docking studies were performed to identify the most potential targets and significant phytochemical compounds to treat the COVID-19. The present study identified potential targets as ACE, Cathepsin L, Cathepsin B, Cathepsin K, DPP4, EGFR, HDAC2, IL6, RIPK1, and VEGFA. Similarly, betulinic acid, 5â³-(2â-Hydroxybenzyl) uvarinol, antofine, (S)-1'-methyloctyl caffeate, (Z)-3-phenyl-2-propenal, 7-oxo-10α-cucurbitadienol, and PLX-4720 collectively to be potential treatment agents for COVID-19.
Subject(s)
COVID-19 Drug Treatment , Humans , Immune System , Molecular Docking Simulation , Network Pharmacology , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic, its rapid spread has impacted health care workers psychologically. Nurses experience heightened sense of anxiety as they are directly engaged in patient care. This study was designed to assess the Knowledge, attitude, fears of practicing nurses towards the Pandemic situation. Materials: The online questionnaire based descriptive study was conducted among nurses in the southern parts of Tamil Nadu. The Questionnaire was constructed by authors based on previous studies. The data collected were analyzed for descriptive statistics using SPSS 25. Results: A total of 186 completed questionnaires were analyzed for statistics. Female nurses were 146 (78.5%) whereas male participants were 40 (21.5%). Those with 5-10 years’ work experience had participated in large numbers (76). About 53% of the participants are working in Government hospitals. 93(50%) nurses had completed bachelor’s degree in nursing. About 108 nurses (58.1%) are from urban areas. The Mean knowledge score of the participants were 9.34. A majority of 144 nurses (77.4%) had scored more than 80% bloom cut-off marks. About 83 nurses had shown positive attitude in this COVID pandemic situation while more than half of the nurses agreed that spread among them can be controlled by regular Hospital infection control programs. In this study, about 111 nurses (59%) scored higher in anxiety/fear related questions showing that they are under occupation-related stress and anxiety. Conclusion: the study shows that the nurses are well informed about the COVID-19, its transmission and nature of spread. The fear/anxiety stress that most of the participants shows the imminent need for reinforcing active participation in counselling sessions, and hospital infection control programs to tackle the burden of work-related anxiety.
ABSTRACT
Siddha’s folk medicine system is used to enhance immune responses as preventive medicine. Siddha medicine’s enormousplethora of data will enhance human wellbeing. Since the oldyears, Kabasura Kudineer(KSK) has beenanimmunedrugtoseveralillnesses. Aqueous extract was employed for preparing the extract and analyzed for Total Antioxidant Capacity, Fe2+ chelating activity assay, Hydrogen peroxide scavenging activity, ABTS Scavenging assay and Reducing power assay. Thiswas found to possess high antioxidant properties of aqueous extract of KSK and their derivatives have been confirmed with the different tests. This experimentation further affirms the antioxidative nature of KSK extract, which further aid in the fight in this COVID-19 pandemic situation.