Virtual Screening Attributes Male Biased COVID-19 Mortality to Predicted Antiviral Activity of Female Sex Hormones
Letters in Drug Design and Discovery
; 18(9):872-883, 2021.
Article
in English
| Scopus | ID: covidwho-1662488
ABSTRACT
Background:
Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) is a newly emerged pandemic leading to a state of international alert and leaving millions of infections and thousands of deaths all over the world. Analysis of statistics and epidemiological data for the pandemic outcome pinpointed a puzzling influence of human sex on the heterogeneous outcome of COVID-19, where hospital admissions and mortality were higher among males than females. Two theories explained the observed male-biased COVID-19 mortality based on either dosage of immunoregulatory genes coded in X- chromosomes, or on the abundance of the angiotensin-converting enzyme two (ACE2) receptors in males than females.Objective:
In our study, we propose a third scenario through virtual screening of direct antiviral effects of sex hormones.Materials andMethods:
Updated screening statistics from 47 countries displaying sex-disaggregated data on COVID-19 were employed and visualized in the form of heatmaps depicting sex difference effects on statistics of cases and deaths. Molecular docking and binding simulations of investigated sex steroids against COVID-19 specific proteins were investigated.Results:
Analysis of COVID-19 sex-disaggregated data confirmed that male-biased mortality and computer-aided docking found unexpected female sex hormones biased binding against key targets implicated in the life cycle of COVID-19 compared to the male sex hormone testosterone. Other investigated steroids showed promising docking scores, while the male sex hormone exhibited the lowest affinity.Conclusion:
Female sex hormones virtually exhibit direct anti-COVID-19 effect, the proposed antiviral effect of sex hormones should be considered to explain the outcomes of mortality. Moreover, the fluctuation of sex hormones influences sex and personal derived-differential response to COVID-19 infection. © 2021, Bentham Science Publishers. All rights reserved.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
Databases of international organizations
Database:
Scopus
Type of study:
Prognostic study
Language:
English
Journal:
Letters in Drug Design and Discovery
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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