bims-antpol 2023-08-20 papers

Issue of 2023‒08‒20
four papers selected by
Rick Sheridan, EMSKE Phytochem

Database (Oxford). 2023 Aug 18. pii: baad056. [Epub ahead of print]2023

AVPCD: a plant-derived medicine database of antiviral phytochemicals for cancer, Covid-19, malaria and HIV.

Shahid Ullah, Wajeeha Rahman, Farhan Ullah, Anees Ullah, Gulzar Ahmad, Muhammad Ijaz, Hameed Ullah, Zilong Zheng, Tianshun Gao.

Serious illnesses caused by viruses are becoming the world's most critical public health issues and lead millions of deaths each year in the world. Thousands of studies confirmed that the plant-derived medicines could play positive therapeutic effects on the patients with viral diseases. Since thousands of antiviral phytochemicals have been identified as lifesaving drugs in medical research, a comprehensive database is highly desirable to integrate the medicinal plants with their different medicinal properties. Therefore, we provided a friendly antiviral phytochemical database AVPCD covering 2537 antiviral phytochemicals from 383 medicinal compounds and 319 different families with annotation of their scientific, family and common names, along with the parts used, disease information, active compounds, links of relevant articles for COVID-19, cancer, HIV and malaria. Furthermore, each compound in AVPCD was annotated with its 2D and 3D structure, molecular formula, molecular weight, isomeric SMILES, InChI, InChI Key and IUPAC name and 21 other properties. Each compound was annotated with more than 20 properties. Specifically, a scoring method was designed to measure the confidence of each phytochemical for the viral diseases. In addition, we constructed a user-friendly platform with several powerful modules for searching and browsing the details of all phytochemicals. We believe this database will facilitate global researchers, drug developers and health practitioners in obtaining useful information against viral diseases.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/database/baad056

Food Sci Nutr. 2023 Aug;11(8): 4444-4459

Antiviral foods in the battle against viral infections: Understanding the molecular mechanism.

Md Shofiul Azam, Md Nahidul Islam, Md Wahiduzzaman, Mahabub Alam, Akib Atique Khan Dhrubo.

Viruses produce a variety of illnesses, which may also cause acute respiratory syndrome. All viral infections, including COVID-19, are associated with the strength of the immune system. Till now, traditional medicine or vaccines for most viral diseases have not been effective. Antiviral and immune-boosting diets may provide defense against viral diseases by lowering the risk of infection and assisting rapid recovery. The purpose of this review was to gather, analyze, and present data based on scientific evidence in order to provide an overview of the mechanistic insights of antiviral bioactive metabolites. We have covered a wide range of food with antiviral properties in this review, along with their potential mechanism of action against viral infections. Additionally, the opportunities and challenges of using antiviral food have been critically reviewed. Bioactive plant compounds, not only help in maintaining the body's normal physiological mechanism and good health but are also essential for improving the body's immunity and therefore can be effective against viral diseases. These agents fight viral diseases either by incorporating the body's defense mechanism or by enhancing the cell's immune system. Regular intake of antiviral foods may prevent future pandemic and consumption of these antiviral agents with traditional medicine may reduce the severity of viral diseases. Therefore, the synergistic effect of antiviral foods and medication needs to be investigated.

Keywords: COVID‐19; antiviral food; immunity; probiotics; viral infections

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/fsn3.3454

Saudi J Biol Sci. 2023 Sep;30(9): 103751

Identification of phytoconstituents from Albizia lebbeck as potential therapeutics against HIV-1 reverse transcriptase associated with infective endocarditis: In silico and in vitro approaches.

Abeer A Al-Masri.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is an unadorned disease affected via the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which has become the most infectious diseases worldwide. HIV-1 RT has been shown to be present in the cardiac tissue of patients with HIV-associated infective endocarditis, and to be associated with the development of valvular lesions and other cardiac abnormalities. The use of anti-retroviral therapies has helped to control the virus and reduce the incidence of HIV-1 associated infective endocarditis. Though, these treatments have several adjacent effects, and the improvement of drug-resistant stresses of the virus has become a significant challenge in HIV treatment. This study is to identify A. lebbeck phytoconstituents with HIV-1 RT inhibitory activity for potential therapeutic use against HIV-1 RT associated with infective endocarditis. We performed in silico and in vitro screening of natural cardiovascular phytoconstituents from Albizia lebbeck, a medicinal plant that has been traditionally used for the management of numerous diseases. The in silico results showed that all three compounds (geraldone, luteolin, and isookanin) exhibited affinities of solid binidng to the active amino acids of HIV-1 RT's DNA-polymerase (DNA-p) and Ribonuclease-H (RNA-H) active positions, suggesting their potential as HIV-1 RT inhibitors. In vitro assessment of the three compounds at a concentration of 1 mg/mL revealed that Geraldone exhibited the most effective inhibitory consequence on HIV-1 RT activity (83.45%), followed by Isookanin (75.88%) and Luteolin (66.36%). These findings suggest that these compounds have the potential to inhibit HIV-1 RT associated with infective endocarditis and could assist as main compounds for emerging unique anti-HIV-1 agents. Further studies are needed to confirm the in vitro and in vivo efficacy of these molecules and assess their safety and efficiency as anti-HIV-1 drugs.

Keywords: ADMET analysis; Albizia lebbeck; Geraldone; HIV-1 reverse transcriptase; Infective endocarditis; Isookanin; Luteolin

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sjbs.2023.103751

Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2023 Aug 16. 1-39

Plant leaf proanthocyanidins: from agricultural production by-products to potential bioactive molecules.

Wenyi Zhou, Lei Zhao, Kai Wang, Catherine M G C Renard, Carine Le Bourvellec, Zhuoyan Hu, Xuwei Liu.

Proanthocyanidins (PAs) are a class of polymers composed of flavan-3-ol units that have a variety of bioactivities, and could be applied as natural biologics in food, pharmaceuticals, and cosmetics. PAs are widely found in fruit and vegetables (F&Vegs) and are generally extracted from their flesh and peel. To reduce the cost of extraction and increase the number of commercially viable sources of PAs, it is possible to exploit the by-products of plants. Leaves are major by-products of agricultural production of F&Vegs, and although their share has not been accurately quantified. They make up no less than 20% of the plant and leaves might be an interesting resource at different stages during production and processing. The specific structural PAs in the leaves of various plants are easily overlooked and are notably characterized by their stable content and degree of polymerization. This review examines the existing data on the effects of various factors (e.g. processing conditions, and environment, climate, species, and maturity) on the content and structure of leaf PAs, and highlights their bioactivity (e.g. antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, anticancer, and anti-obesity activity), as well as their interactions with gut microbiota and other biomolecules (e.g. polysaccharides and proteins). Future research is also needed to focus on their precise extraction, bioactivity of high-polymer native or modified PAs and better application type.

Keywords: Agro-industrial waste; nature; processing; procyanidin; sustainability

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/10408398.2023.2244079