Naturally Occurring Compounds as Potential Inhibitors of Epidermal Growth Factor Receptors (EGFRs).

The Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) activation appears essential in tumor growth and progression. Targeting EGFR signaling pathway has become an exciting area in cancer therapy. Synthetic chemotherapy drugs have been used to inhibit some EGFR signaling in various cancer cells. The use of naturally occurring compounds as EGFR inhibitors is an attractive area for research due to the urgent need to combat resistance over current EGFR inhibitors. In this review, we first summarize the schematic role of EGFR in cancer and the current EGFR inhibitor used, its advantage, and disadvantage. Next, we discuss the natural products that have been reported as the source of EGFR inhibitors. The discussion covers the natural products which where majorly reported from the year 2005-2020. A total of 21 groups of natural compounds and their derivatives were reported to have the potential to inhibit EGFR signaling pathways. We then discuss the advanced technologies and approaches that rapidly discover EGFR inhibitor-based natural products. Hopefully, this literature review could increase the excitement of finding an effective EGFR pathway inhibitor from natural products.

The dynamics of circulating SARS-CoV-2 lineages in Bogor and surrounding areas reflect variant shifting during the first and second waves of COVID-19 in Indonesia.

Background: Indonesia is one of the Southeast Asian countries with high case numbers of COVID-19 with up to 4.2 million confirmed cases by 29 October 2021. Understanding the genome of SARS-CoV-2 is crucial for delivering public health intervention as certain variants may have different attributes that can potentially affect their transmissibility, as well as the performance of diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics. Objectives: We aimed to investigate the dynamics of circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants over a 15-month period in Bogor and its surrounding areas in correlation with the first and second wave of COVID-19 in Indonesia. Methods: Nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swab samples collected from suspected patients from Bogor, Jakarta and Tangerang were confirmed for SARS-CoV-2 infection with RT-PCR. RNA samples of those confirmed patients were subjected to whole genome sequencing using the ARTIC Network protocol and sequencer platform from Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT). Results: We successfully identified 16 lineages and six clades out of 202 samples (male n = 116, female n = 86). Genome analysis revealed that Indonesian lineage B.1.466.2 dominated during the first wave (n = 48, 23.8%) while Delta variants (AY.23, AY.24, AY.39, AY.42, AY.43 dan AY.79) were dominant during the second wave (n = 53, 26.2%) following the highest number of confirmed cases in Indonesia. In the spike protein gene, S_D614G and S_P681R changes were dominant in both B.1.466.2 and Delta variants, while N439K was only observed in B.1.466.2 (n = 44) and B.1.470 (n = 1). Additionally, the S_T19R, S_E156G, S_F157del, S_R158del, S_L452R, S_T478K, S_D950N and S_V1264L changes were only detected in Delta variants, consistent with those changes being characteristic of Delta variants in general. Conclusions: We demonstrated a shift in SARS-CoV-2 variants from the first wave of COVID-19 to Delta variants in the second wave, during which the number of confirmed cases surpassed those in the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic. Higher proportion of unique mutations detected in Delta variants compared to the first wave variants indicated potential mutational effects on viral transmissibility that correlated with a higher incidence of confirmed cases. Genomic surveillance of circulating variants, especially those with higher transmissibility, should be continuously conducted to rapidly inform decision making and support outbreak preparedness, prevention, and public health response.