Effect of Key Phytochemicals from Andrographis paniculata, Tinospora cordifolia, and Ocimum sanctum on PLpro-ISG15 De-Conjugation Machinery-A Computational Approach

ISGylation is an important process through which interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) elicit an antiviral response in the host cells. Several viruses, including the SARS-CoV-2, suppress the host immune response by reversing the ISGylation through a process known as de-ISGylation. The PLpro of SARS-CoV-2 interacts with the host ISG15 and brings about de-ISGylation. Hence, inhibiting the de-ISGylation to restore the activity of ISGs can be an attractive strategy to augment the host immune response against SARS-CoV-2. In the present study, we evaluated several phytochemicals from well-known immunomodulatory herbs, viz. Andrographispaniculata (AG), Tinospora cordifolia (GU), and Ocimum sanctum (TU) for their effect on deISGylation that was mediated by the PLpro of SARS-CoV2. For this purpose, we considered the complex 6XA9, which represents the interaction between SARS-CoV-2 PLpro and ISG15 proteins. The phytochemicals from these herbs were first evaluated for their ability to bind to the interface region between PLpro and ISG15. Molecular docking studies indicated that 14-deoxy-15-isopropylidene-11,12-didehydroandrographolide (AG1), Isocolumbin (GU1), and Orientin (TU1) from AG, GU, and TU, respectively possess better binding energy. The molecular dynamic parameters and MMPBSA calculations indicated that AG1, GU1, and TU1 could favorably bind to the interface and engaged key residues between (PLpro-ISG15)-complex. Protein–protein MMPBSA calculations indicated that GU1 and TU1 could disrupt the interactions between ISG15 and PLpro. Our studies provide a novel molecular basis for the immunomodulatory action of these phytochemicals and open up new strategies to evaluate drug molecules for their effect on de-ISGylation to overcome the virus-mediated immune suppression.

COVID-19 Fake News Detection Using GloVe and Bi-LSTM

Fake news detection is a key use case of Natural Language Processing and Machine Learning. With the advancement of technology, electronic content has become more significant and extensively used than ever before, resulting in a revival in the spurious news as well as tweets that seek quick attention. It is critical to achieve early detection and identification of misinformation in social media. In these difficult times of COVID-19 where the whole world is fighting a global pandemic, it is very important to provide people with genuine news and updates about the prevailing situation. The Twitter is flooded with tweets about COVID-19 and related news, but not all the information is factual and full of veracity. To classify this issue, a Deep Learning model is being proposed to classify misinformation about COVID-19 and related news. Pre-trained state-of-the-art GloVe model was used in the proposed method for converting tokens into vectors. Deep Learning models like RNN, LSTM, and Bi-LSTM were tested to obtain better results after preprocessing the data using basic NLP preprocessing techniques. Bi-LSTM model got a training accuracy as high as 99%. All the results are tabulated and cogently laid out in the latter section. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Evaluation of plant-derived compounds to inhibit COVID-19 through in silico studies

The recent threat which has received worldwide attention is COVID-19, a rapidly spreading new strain of Coronavirus. It has affected more than 176 countries and due to the lack of efficacious drugs or vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, it has further worsened the situation everywhere. After infecting the host, the ssRNA genome of SARS-CoV-2 is translated into a large polyprotein which will be further processed into different nonstructural proteins to form a viral replication complex by the virtue of virus-specific proteases namely main protease (3-CL protease) and papain protease. The crystallized form of SARS-CoV-2 main protease (Mpro) is demonstrated to be a novel therapeutic drug target according to current research. The present study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of few plant-based bioactive compounds against COVID-19 Mpro (PDB ID: 6LU7: Resolution 2.16 A) by molecular docking study. Molecular docking investigations were performed by using Auto DockVina to analyze the inhibition capacity of these compounds against COVID-19 as a whole complex and also in the absence of Chain C which is present with protein as a peptide. According to the obtained results, Ritonavir and Curcuminwere found to be more effective on COVID-19 than nelfinavir which is an anti-HIV drug. This is followed by Glycyrrhizin and Piperine, which correlates with COVID-19 as a whole complex and also in the absence of Chain C. So, this study will pave a way for performing more advanced experimental research and to evaluate the natural compounds to cure COVID-19.

Anxiety controlling wrist band

Since the 1950s, suicide rate has been tripled among people aged between 15 and 24. Also, suicide is reported as the second most common cause of their deaths. Depression and anxiety are one of the major reasons for planting the thought of suicide in students' mind. People with anxiety disorders and stressful mind have excessive worry and fear about everyday situations. This intense worry and fear, though appears harmless, can reach its peak within minutes causing panic attacks. The main objective of our project is calming down the mind of people who are emotionally unstable and preventing the occurrence of any medical complications due to anxiety. Our innovation focuses on measuring the heart rate and controlling perturbation, anxiety, stress by applying acupressure at the H7 (Heart 7) point on the wrist crease. © 2021 The authors and IOS Press.