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Strobilanthes glutinosus (family: Acanthaceae) is one of the important medicinal plants and the current research work was carried out to assess the phytochemical, biological, and in-silico evaluations of different solvent extracts of S. glutinosus. The phytochemical composition was assessed by determining qualitative phytochemical testing, total bioactive contents, and GC-MS analysis. For biological evaluation, antioxidant (DPPH and FRAP), antibacterial, and enzyme inhibition (urease) potential were determined. The methanol extract was found to contain the highest total phenolic (247.85 mg GAE/g extract), and flavonoid content (71.91 mg QAE/g extract), which can be correlated to the observed higher antioxidant potential of this extract. On the contrary, the n-hexane extract presented maximum anti-urease activity with IC50 value of 0.244 mg/ml, whereas, in the case of antibacterial assays, a dose-dependent activity was observed. Similarly, the GC-MS investigation of methanol extract and n-hexane fraction revealed the tentative identification of several important classes of secondary metabolites. Furthermore, the main compounds as identified by GC-MS were further studied for in-silico molecular docking studies in order to highlight any interactions between the compounds identified and the urease enzyme. Overall, the present investigation highlighted the studied plant extracts to be considered further for the isolation of bioactive compounds for the pharmaceutical and food industry.

Coronavirus disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The virus first appeared in Wuhan (China) in December 2019 and has spread globally. Till now, it affected 269 million people with 5.3 million deaths in 224 countries and territories. With the emergence of variants like Omicron, the COVID-19 cases grew exponentially, with thousands of deaths. The general symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, sore throat, cough, lung infections, and, in severe cases, acute respiratory distress syndrome, sepsis, and death. SARS-CoV-2 predominantly affects the lung, but it can also affect other organs such as the brain, heart, and gastrointestinal system. It is observed that 75 % of hospitalized COVID-19 patients have at least one COVID-19 associated comorbidity. The most common reported comorbidities are hypertension, NDs, diabetes, cancer, endothelial dysfunction, and CVDs. Moreover, older and pre-existing polypharmacy patients have worsened COVID-19 associated complications. SARS-CoV-2 also results in the hypercoagulability issues like gangrene, stroke, pulmonary embolism, and other associated complications. This review aims to provide the latest information on the impact of the COVID-19 on pre-existing comorbidities such as CVDs, NDs, COPD, and other complications. This review will help us to understand the current scenario of COVID-19 and comorbidities; thus, it will play an important role in the management and decision-making efforts to tackle such complications.

About 270 million cases have been confirmed, and 5.3 million fatalities Worldwide due to SARS-CoV-2. Several vaccine candidates have entered phase 3 of the clinical trial and are being investigated to provide immunity to the maximum percentage of people. A safe and effective vaccine is required to tackle the current COVID-19 waves. There have been reports that clinical endpoints and psychological parameters are necessary to consider vaccine efficacy. This review examines the clinical endpoints required for a successful SARS-CoV-2 vaccine and the influences of psychological parameters on its efficacy.The main research question was to find out the clinical endpoints that determine the vaccine efficacy? And what kind of psychological parameters affect the vaccine efficacy? The information was taken from several journals, databases, and scientific search engines like Googe scholar, Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science, Science direct, WHO website, and other various sites. The research studies were searched using keywords; SAR-CoV-2 vaccine efficacy, psychological effect on SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, SARS-CoV-2 vaccine endpoints.This review has highlighted various clinical endpoints that are the main determinants of clinical vaccine efficacy. Currently, vaccinations are being carried out throughout the world; it is important to investigate the main determinants affecting vaccine efficacy. We have focused on the clinical endpoints and the influence of psychological parameters that affect the vaccine efficacy in clinical settings. The primary endpoints include the risk of infection, symptoms, and severity of COVID-19, while hospitalization length, supplemental oxygen requirement, and mechanical ventilation are secondary endpoints in the clinical endpoints. Some tangential endpoints were also considered, including organ dysfunction, stroke, and MI. Many psychological associated things have influenced the vaccine efficacy, like the lower antibody titers in the vaccinated people. In addition to that, Short- and long-term stress and sleep deprivation were also found to affect the vaccine efficacy.The review summarizes the important clinical endpoints required for a successful vaccine candidate. In addition to primary and secondary endpoints, auxiliary endpoints and the disease burden also play an important role in modulating vaccine efficacy. Moreover, the psychological perspective also influences vaccine efficacy. Effective follow-up of participants should follow to examine the clinical endpoints to reach any conclusion about vaccine efficacy.

COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) is a viral disease that causes acute respiratory syndrome, which has increased the morbidity and mortality rate throughout the world. World Health Organization has declared this COVID-19 outbreak as pandemic and classified health emergency throughout the world. In the recent past, outbreaks of SARS and MERS have shown the interspecies transmission potential of coronaviruses and limitations of already prescribed drugs to overcome this global public health issue. Therefore, there is a dire need to identify a new regimen of targeted drugs from natural compounds having anti-COVID19 potential. This study aimed at screening 1018 brown algal natural compounds (many of them previously reported to have immunomodulatory effects) having probable anti-COVID19 potentials. The source compounds were extracted from MarinLit, a database dedicated to marine natural products and screened against COVID-19 main protease. The top seven compounds were further analysed, and their interactions with the active site were visualized. This study will further warrant screening the potent compounds against the virus in in-vitro conditions.

Background: Over the last two decades, humanity has observed the extraordinary anomaly caused by novel, weird coronavirus strains, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS). As the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus has made its entry into the world, it has dramatically affected life in every domain by continuously producing new variants. The vaccine development is an ongoing process, although some vaccines got marketed. The big challenge is now whether the vaccine candidates can provide long-lasting protection or prevention against mutant variants. Methods: The information was gathered from various journals, electronic searches via Internet-based information such as PubMed, Google Scholar, Science Direct, online electronic journals, WHO landscape, world meters, WHO website, and News. Results: This review will present and discuss some coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) related aspects including: the pathophysiology, epidemiology, mutant variants vaccine candidates, vaccine efficacy, and management strategies. Due to the high death rate, continuous spread, an inadequate workforce, lack of required therapeutics, and incomplete understanding of the viral strain, it becomes crucial to build the knowledge of its biological characteristics and make available the rapid diagnostic and vital therapeutic machinery for the combat and management of an infection. Conclusion: The data summarizes current research on the COVID 19 infection and therapeutic interventions, which will direct future decision-making on the effort-worthy phases of the COVID 19 and the development of critical therapeutics. The only possible solution is the vaccine development targeting against all variant strains to halt its progress; the identified theoretical and practical knowledge can eliminate the gaps to improve a better understanding of the novel coronavirus structure and its design of a vaccine. In addition, to that the long-lasting protection is another challenging objective that need to be looked into.

Mushrooms are well-known for their richness of health-beneficial bioactive metabolites. In recent years, consumer interests regarding fatty acid compositions of different foods are increasing. Thus, the present study was designed to characterize sterols and fatty acid compositions of fifteen types of edible mushrooms marketed in Korea utilizing gas chromatography (GC)-flame ionization detection (FID) and GC-mass spectrometry (MS). Among all studied samples, significant variations were recorded for contents of sterols. Among all sterols identified and quantified, ergosterol (ergosta-5,7,22-trien- 3β-ol) was found to be the most abundant (774.2–82.1 mg/100 g dry weight (DW)), with minor presence of ergosta-5,7-dien-3β-ol, ergosta-7-3β-ol, and ergosta-7,22-dien-3β-ol. Regarding fatty acid compositions, linoleic (C18:2n6c) was recorded in the highest quantity (79.5% of total fatty acids), followed by palmitic, oleic, and stearic acid. These four fatty acids together accounted for 64.8% (Santali; No 3) to 96.6% (‘DDL01’ ferulae; No 9) of total fatty acids. Exceptionally, in ‘Nolu’ Lion's mane (No. 5) mushrooms, palmitic acid had the highest quantity (34.9% of total fatty acids), followed by linoleic (24.5% of total), oleic, and stearic acid. Fat quality indices such as the ratio of hypocholesterolemic/hypercholesterolemic fatty acids, atherogenic index, and thrombogenic index from these studied mushrooms indicate that mushroom fats are beneficial for health.

Capparis spinose L. also known as Caper is of great significance as a traditional medicinal food plant. The present work was targeted on the determination of chemical composition, pharmacological properties, and in-vitro toxicity of methanol and dichloromethane (DCM) extracts of different parts of C. spinosa. Chemical composition was established by determining total bioactive contents and via UHPLC-MS secondary metabolites profiling. For determination of biological activities, antioxidant capacity was determined through DPPH, ABTS, CUPRAC, FRAP, phosphomolybdenum, and metal chelating assays while enzyme inhibition against cholinesterase, tyrosinase, α-amylase and α-glucosidase were also tested. All the extracts were also tested for toxicity against two breast cell lines. The methanolic extracts were found to contain highest total phenolic and flavonoids which is correlated with their significant radical scavenging, cholinesterase, tyrosinase and glucosidase inhibition potential. Whereas DCM extracts showed significant activity for reducing power, phosphomolybdenum, metal chelation, tyrosinase, and α-amylase inhibition activities. The secondary metabolites profiling of both methanolic extracts exposed the presence of 21 different secondary metabolites belonging to glucosinolate, alkaloid, flavonoid, phenol, triterpene, and alkaloid derivatives. The present results tend to validate folklore uses of C. spinose and indicate this plant to be used as a potent source of designing novel bioactive compounds.

Suaeda fruticosa is an edible medicinal halophyte known for its traditional uses. In this study, methanol and dichloromethane extracts of S. fruticosa were explored for phytochemical, biological and toxicological parameters. Total phenolic and flavonoid constituents were determined by using standard aluminum chloride and Folin-Ciocalteu methods, and UHPLC-MS analysis of methanol extract was performed for tentative identification of secondary metabolites. Different standard methods like DPPH, ABTS, FRAP, CUPRAC, total antioxidant capacity (TAC), and metal chelation assays were utilized to find out the antioxidant potential of extracts. Enzyme inhibition studies of extracts against acetylcholinesterase, butyrylcholinesterase, tyrosinase, α-amylase and, α-glucosidase enzymes were also studied. Likewise, the cytotoxicity was also assessed against MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, and DU-145 cell lines. The higher phenolic and flavonoids contents were observed in methanol extracts which can be correlated to its higher radical scavenging potential. Similarly, 11 different secondary metabolites were tentatively identified by UHPLC profiling. Both the extract showed significant inhibition against all the enzymes except for α-glucosidase. Moreover, docking studies were also performed against the tested enzymes. In the case of cytotoxicity, both the samples were found moderately toxic against the tested cell lines. This plant can be explored further for its potential therapeutic and edible uses.

Graphical abstract, Highlights • The potential antigen targets are being utilized for the formulation of an effective vaccine. Spike protein is the most utilized antigen target for vaccine development, however other structural and non-structural proteins are also considered potent targets. • Several clinical trials, for the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, are ongoing. However a varying number of challenges are being encountered during the process of vaccine development, manufacturing, and mass distribution. • Conventional vaccination strategies pose toxicities, novel platforms for SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are proving to be effective and safe in larger clinical trials., The SARS-CoV-2, previously called a novel coronavirus, that broke out in the Wuhan city of China caused a significant number of morbidity and mortality in the world. It is spreading at peak levels since the first case reported and the need for vaccines is in immense demand globally. Numerous treatment and vaccination strategies that were previously employed for other pathogens including coronaviruses are now being been adopted to guide the formulation of new SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. Several vaccine targets can be utilized for the development of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. In this review, we highlighted the potential of various antigenic targets and other modes for formulating an effective vaccine against SARS-CoV-2. There are a varying number of challenges encountered during developing the most effective vaccines, and measures for tackling such challenges will assist in fast pace development of vaccines. This review will give a concise overview of various aspects of the vaccine development process against SARS-CoV-2, including 1) potential antigen targets 2) different vaccination strategies from conventional to novel platforms, 3) ongoing clinical trials, 4) varying challenges encountered during developing the most effective vaccine and the futuristic approaches.

Marine habitats are well-known for their diverse life forms that are potential sources of novel bioactive compounds. Evidence from existing studies suggests that these compounds contribute significantly to the field of pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals, and cosmeceuticals. The isolation of natural compounds from a marine environment with protease inhibitory activity has gained importance due to drug discovery potential. Despite the increasing research endeavours focusing on protease inhibitors' design and characterization, many of these compounds have failed to reach final phases of clinical trials. As a result, the search for new sources for the development of protease inhibitors remains pertinent. This review focuses on the diverse marine protease inhibitors and their structure-activity relationships. Furthermore, the potential of marine protease inhibitors in drug discovery and molecular mechanism inhibitor binding are critically discussed.

The term hypoxia refers to conditions characterized by a relative restriction of oxygen supply. It is usually associated to a paradoxical overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and to the activation of several transcription factors, including HIF-1α, which in turn trigger angiogenic and apoptotic response. In this study we have investigated the mechanisms by which the anthocyanin cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (C3G) modulates hypoxia induced response in human endothelial cells (HUVECs). In fact, hypoxia induces an increase of ROS generation in HUVECs paralleled by a loss of antioxidant cellular capacity. According to the observed increase of HO-1 mRNA expression, pretreatment of C3G to HUVEC reduces the entity of oxidative stress thanks to the activation of cellular antioxidant response. C3G also attenuates HIF-1α protein accumulation conditions supporting the hypothesis of a major role of oxidative stress in the presence of low oxygen. Furthermore, the increased expression of angiogenesis and apoptosis markers (MMP-2 and caspase-3) due to HIF-1α activation by hypoxia is reduced in C3G pretreated cells. Overall, our data suggest that the modulation of intracellular redox status induced by C3G may be an important protective mechanism against endothelial damage in hypoxic conditions.

A series of cis restricted 1,2,4-triazole analogs of combretastatin A-4 (CA-4) were designed and synthesized. The antiproliferative activity of these compounds was measured on hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2, leukemia HL-60, and breast cancer MCF-7 cell lines. The obtained results showed a substantial ability of the synthesized anilides to inhibit tumor growth. On HepG2 cells, 5o and 5r showed potent IC50 values of 0.10 and 0.04 μM, respectively. While on HL-60 cells, the IC50 values were 0.004 and 0.01 μM for 5b and 5i, respectively. The inhibitory activity of tubulin polymerization was evaluated on HepG2 cells. The anilide 5r showed a remarkable tubulin inhibition compared to CA-4. Moreover, flow cytometry studies showed that HepG2 cells treated with the most potent compounds 5b and 5r were arrested in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle. This effect was accompanied by cellular apoptosis and activation of caspase-3. Molecular modeling showed several hydrogen bonding and van der Waals interactions with several important amino acids inside the colchicine binding site of tubulin.