Mapping CircRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory axis identifies hsa_circ_0080942 and hsa_circ_0080135 as a potential theranostic agents for SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) can control the flux of genetic information; affect RNA stability and play crucial roles in mediating epigenetic modifications. A number of studies have highlighted the potential roles of both virus-encoded and host-encoded ncRNAs in viral infections, transmission and therapeutics. However, the role of an emerging type of non-coding transcript, circular RNA (circRNA) in severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection has not been fully elucidated so far. Moreover, the potential pathogenic role of circRNA-miRNA-mRNA regulatory axis has not been fully explored as yet. The current study aimed to holistically map the regulatory networks driven by SARS-CoV-2 related circRNAs, miRNAs and mRNAs to uncover plausible interactions and interplay amongst them in order to explore possible therapeutic options in SARS-CoV-2 infection. Patient datasets were analyzed systematically in a unified approach to explore circRNA, miRNA, and mRNA expression profiles. CircRNA-miRNA-mRNA network was constructed based on cytokine storm related circRNAs forming a total of 165 circRNA-miRNA-mRNA pairs. This study implies the potential regulatory role of the obtained circRNA-miRNA-mRNA network and proposes that two differentially expressed circRNAs hsa_circ_0080942 and hsa_circ_0080135 might serve as a potential theranostic agents for SARS-CoV-2 infection. Collectively, the results shed light on the functional role of circRNAs as ceRNAs to sponge miRNA and regulate mRNA expression during SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Human Coronavirus Spike Protein Based Multi-Epitope Vaccine against COVID-19 and Potential Future Zoonotic Coronaviruses by Using Immunoinformatic Approaches.

Zoonotic coronaviruses (CoV) have emerged twice and have caused severe respiratory diseases in humans. Due to the frequent outbreaks of different human coronaviruses (HCoVs), the development of a pan-HCoV vaccine is of great importance. Various conserved epitopes shared by HCoVs are reported to induce cross-reactive T-cell responses. Therefore, this study aimed to design a multi-epitope vaccine, targeting the HCoV spike protein. Genetic analysis revealed that the spike region is highly conserved among SARS-CoV-2, bat SL-CoV, and SARS-CoV. By employing the immunoinformatic approach, we prioritized 20 MHC I and 10 MHCII conserved epitopes to design a multi-epitope vaccine. This vaccine candidate is anticipated to strongly elicit both humoral and cell-mediated immune responses. These results warrant further development of this vaccine into real-world application.

Inhibitory Potential of Phytochemicals on Interleukin-6-Mediated T-Cell Reduction in COVID-19 Patients: A Computational Approach.

BACKGROUND: A recent COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in a large death toll rate globally and even no cure or vaccine has been successfully employed to combat this disease. Patients have been reported with multi-organ dysfunction along with acute respiratory distress syndrome which implies a critical situation for patients and made them difficult to breathe and survive. Moreover, pathology of COVID-19 is also related to cytokine storm which indicates the elevated levels of interleukin (IL)-1, IL-6, IL-12, and IL-18 along with tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α. Among them, the proinflammatory cytokine IL-6 has been reported to be induced via binding of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS)-CoV-2 to the host receptors. METHODOLOGY: Interleukin-6 blockade has been proposed to constitute novel therapeutics against COVID-19. Thus, in this study, 15 phytocompounds with known antiviral activity have been subjected to test for their inhibitory effect on IL-6. Based on the affinity prediction, top 3 compounds (isoorientin, lupeol, and andrographolide) with best scores were selected for 50 ns molecular dynamics simulation and MMGB/PBSA binding free energy analysis. RESULTS: Three phytocompounds including isoorientin, lupeol, and andrographolide have shown strong interactions with the targeted protein IL-6 with least binding energies (-7.1 to -7.7 kcal/mol). Drug-likeness and ADMET profiles of prioritized phytocompounds are also very prominsing and can be further tested to be potential IL-6 blockers and thus benficial for COVID-19 treatment. The moelcular dynamics simulation couple with MMGB/PBSA binding free energy estimation validated conformational stability of the ligands and stronger intermolecular binding. The mean RMSD of the complexes is as: IL6-isoorientin complex (3.97 Å ± 0.77), IL6-lupeol (3.97 Å ± 0.76), and IL6-andrographolide complex (3.96 Å ± 0.77). In addition, the stability observation was affirmed by compounds mean RMSD: isoorientin (0.72 Å ± 0.32), lupeol (mean 0.38 Å ± 0.08), and andrographolide (1.09 Å ± 0.49). A similar strong agreement on systems stability was unraveled by MMGB/PBSA that found net binding net ~ -20 kcal/mol for the complexes dominated by van der Waal interaction energy. CONCLUSION: It has been predicted that proposing potential IL-6 inhibitors with less side effects can help critical COVID-19 patients because it may control the cytokine storm, a major responsible factor of its pathogenesis. In this study, 3 potential phytocompounds have been proposed to have inhibitory effect on IL-6 that can be tested as potential therapeutic options against SARS-CoV-2.