QSPR Study and Distance-Based New Topological Descriptors of Some Drugs Used in the COVID-19 Treatment

In chemistry and medical sciences, it is essential to study the chemical, biological, clinical, and therapeutic aspects of pharmaceuticals. To save time and money, mathematical chemistry focuses on topological indices used in quantitative structure-property relationship (QSPR) models to predict the properties of chemical structures. The COVID-19 pandemic is widely recognized as the greatest life-threatening crisis facing modern medicine. Scientists have tested various antiviral drugs available to treat COVID-19 disease, and some have found that they help get rid of this viral infection. Antiviral drugs such as Arbidol, chloroquine, hydroxychloroquine, lopinavir, remdesivir, ritonavir, thalidomide, and theaflavin are used to treat COVID-19. In this paper, reformulated leap Zagreb indices are introduced. Then, the reformulated leap Zagreb indices, leap eccentric connectivity indices, and reformulated Zagreb connectivity indices of these antiviral drugs are calculated. Curvilinear and multilinear regression models predicting the physicochemical properties of these antiviral drugs in terms of proposed indices are obtained and analyzed. The findings and models of this study will shed light on new drug discoveries for the treatment of COVID-19.

Maillard reaction for nucleation of polymer quantum dots from chitosan-glucose conjugate: Antagonistic for cancer and viral diseases.

Polymer dots (PDs) ingrained from biopolymers are characterized by their biocompatibility & non-toxicity to be superiorly applicable for biomedicines. The point of novelty in the current study is to focus on the effect of Maillard reaction for conjugation of chitosan with glucose to enhance the affinity of chitosan as a biological resource of PDs. Chitosan-glucose conjugate was firstly prepared by Maillard reaction. PDs were nucleated from chitosan (C1 acidic, 10.6 nm & C2 basic, 11.4 nm) and chitosan-glucose conjugate (C3 acidic, 6.8 nm & C4 basic, 5.7 nm). The affinity of chitosan versus chitosan-glucose conjugate as molecular precursors for PDs as antiviral and anticancer laborers was studied. The synthesized PDs were tested against lung cancer (NSCLC, A549) and the estimated IC50 was 282.4 & 165.4 µg/mL for PDs (C3 & C4) ingrained from chitosan-glucose conjugate. The antiviral action of PDs against Coronavirus (229E) was estimated and the obtained IC50 for C3 & C4 was 43.6 and 19.3 mg/mL, respectively. PDs ingrained from chitosan-glucose conjugate showed higher anticancer and antiviral activities compared to that clustered from chitosan. Consequently, the modification of chitosan via Maillard reaction enhanced the biological affinity of the obtained PDs to be effectively applicable as antitumor and antiviral laborers.

Functionalized starch for formulation of graphitic carbon nanodots as viricidal/anticancer laborers

Biocompatibility of carbon nanodots (CNDs) ingrained from biopolymers are considered as prerequisite characters for their successive exploitation in different biomedical purposes. CNDs are known to be categorized to carbogenic nanodots (CgNDs) and graphitic nanodots (GNDs). The point of novelty in the current approach is to study the effect of chemical medication for starch before and after its functionalization with glucose, to ingrain carbon nanodots, that were sequentially applicable as viricidal and anticancer laborers. The represented data revealed that, CgNDs were nucleated from alkali-hydrolyzed starch exhibited with particle size of 4.8 ± 1.8 nm, whereas, glucose-functionalized starch was successfully exploited for ingraining of GNDs with particle size of 3.1 ± 1.3 nm. The viricidal action of the prepared CgNDs and GNDs against Low Pathogenic Coronavirus (229E) was estimated via CPE-inhibition Assay and the obtained IC50 was 61.2 and 29.6 mg/mL for CgNDs and GNDs, respectively. The synthesized CgNDs and GNDs were tested against human non-small cell lung cancer cell line (NSCLC, A549) via Sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay and the estimated IC50 was 356.5 and 220.3 μg/mL in case of CgNDs and GNDs, respectively. The obtained data approved the seniority of GNDs over CgNDs to be applicable as antiviral and antitumor laborers.

A Rare Case of a Child Diagnosed With Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome After COVID-19 Presenting With Renal Infarctions and Transient Blast Cells: A Case Report and Literature Review

Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) can develop weeks after the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The disease’s clinical spectrum includes persistent febrile illness, features resembling Kawasaki disease, and cytokine storm symptoms. In severe cases, multisystem organ failure and death may result if not treated promptly. This report discusses a rare case of a 13-year-old girl presenting with fever and acute kidney injury (AKI) eight weeks after recovering from COVID-19 who was diagnosed with MIS-C. A 13-year-old female presented with a fever and abdominal pain following a recent COVID-19. A physical examination revealed a febrile, ill-looking child with abdominal tenderness. Pancytopenia, transaminitis, AKI, and a hyperinflammatory state were noted in the initial laboratory workup. Furthermore, blast cells were seen on the peripheral blood smear. Despite appropriate empiric antibiotic therapy for sepsis, she did not show signs of clinical improvement. An abdominal computed tomography (CT) scan revealed multiple focal areas of hypoattenuating lesions involving both kidneys, suggestive of bilateral renal infarction. Since she met the criteria of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for MIS-C diagnosis, a high dose of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) led to a dramatic improvement in the patient’s condition and complete recovery from her illness. This case report describes a rare clinical presentation of MIS-C in a child who presented with AKI due to presumably thrombotic events and transient blast cells in blood film secondary to a severe inflammatory process. Further studies are needed to determine the prevalence of thrombotic AKI associated with MIS-C.

Dynamics of COVID-19 Using SEIQR Epidemic Model

The major goal of this study is to create an optimal technique for managing COVID-19 spread by transforming the SEIQR model into a dynamic (multistage) programming problem with continuous and discrete time-varying transmission rates as optimizing variables. We have developed an optimal control problem for a discrete-time, deterministic susceptible class (S), exposed class (E), infected class (I), quarantined class (Q), and recovered class (R) epidemic with a finite time horizon. The problem involves finding the minimum objective function of a controlled process subject to the constraints of limited resources. For our model, we present a new technique based on dynamic programming problem solutions that can be used to minimize infection rate and maximize recovery rate. We developed suitable conditions for obtaining monotonic solutions and proposed a dynamic programming model to obtain optimal transmission rate sequences. We explored the positivity and unique solvability nature of these implicit and explicit time-discrete models. According to our findings, isolating the affected humans can limit the danger of COVID-19 spreading in the future.

Characteristics and outcomes of COVID-19 among people living with HIV at Eka Kotebe General Hospital, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Introduction: Evidence on the interplay between HIV and COVID-19 is not entirely consistent. Methods: A retrospective cohort study was conducted on the medical records of patients who had a positive RT-PCR for COVID-19 and were admitted to Eka Kotebe General Hospital between March 2020 and October 2021. Results: A total of 427 patients, including 108 people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWH) and 319 people without HIV/AIDS, were included in the study. The median age of PLWH and people without HIV was 49.5 years (interquartile range 40-59 years) and 48 years (interquartile range 32-65 years), respectively. Of these patients, 258 (60.4%) were male and 169 (39.6%) were female. There were significant differences between PLWH and people without HIV in terms of age, tuberculosis, pregnancy, chronic liver disease, complications, shock, white blood cell count, and end outcome (alive or dead). There was no association between HIV status and the need for oxygen, intensive care unit admission, or disease severity. After adjusting for other variables, mortality was significantly higher among PLWH (adjusted odds ratio 2.25, 95% confidence interval 1.11-5.56; P = 0.023). Conclusions: PLWH with COVID-19 had a higher rate of in-hospital mortality than people without HIV, although no association was found between HIV status and the requirement for intensive care unit admission, mechanical ventilation, oxygen support, or the severity of the disease at the time of admission.