Chapters authored
Docking-Based Screening of Cell-Penetrating Peptides with Antiviral Features and Ebola Virus Proteins as a Drug Discovery Approach to Develop a Treatment for Ebola Virus Disease
Ebola drug discovery continues to be challenging as yet. Proteins of the virus should be targeted at the relevant biologically active site for drug or inhibitor binding to be effective. In this regard, by considering the important role of Ebola virus proteins in the viral mechanisms of this viral disease, the Ebola proteins are selected as our drug targets in this study. The discovery of novel therapeutic molecules or peptides will be highly expensive; therefore, we attempted to identify possible antigens of EBOV proteins by conducting docking-based screening of cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) that have antiviral potential features utilizing Hex software version 8.0.0. The E-value scores obtained in this research were very much higher than the previously reported docking studies. CPPs that possess suitable interaction with the targets would be specified as promising candidates for further in vitro and in vivo examination aimed at developing new drugs for Ebola infection treatment.
Part of the book: Current Perspectives on Viral Disease Outbreaks
Evaluation of Drug Repositioning by Molecular Docking of Pharmaceutical Resources to Identification of Potential SARS-CoV-2 Viral Inhibitors
Unfortunately, to date, there is no approved specific antiviral drug treatment against COVID-19. Due to the costly and time-consuming nature of the de novo drug discovery and development process, in recent days, the computational drug repositioning method has been highly regarded for accelerating the drug-discovery process. The selection of drug target molecule(s), preparation of an approved therapeutics agent library, and in silico evaluation of their affinity to the subjected target(s) are the main steps of a molecular docking-based drug repositioning process, which is the most common computational drug re-tasking process. In this chapter, after a review on origin, pathophysiology, molecular biology, and drug development strategies against COVID-19, recent advances, challenges as well as the future perspective of molecular docking-based drug repositioning for COVID-19 are discussed. Furthermore, as a case study, the molecular docking-based drug repurposing process was planned to screen the 3CLpro inhibitor(s) among the nine Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved antiviral protease inhibitors. The results demonstrated that Fosamprenavir had the highest binding affinity to 3CLpro and can be considered for more in silico, in vitro, and in vivo evaluations as an effective repurposed anti-COVID-19 drug.
Part of the book: Drug Repurposing
Bioactive Ingredients in Functional Foods: Current Status and Future Trends
Bioactive ingredients (BI) bestow various health-promoting outcomes on consumers, including treating or preventing diabetes, obesity, cancer, coronary heart diseases, and so on. Several BI have been found in nature, such as flavonoids, carotenoids, polyphenols, curcumin, phytosterols, probiotics, bioactive peptide, minerals, and nano-bio minerals, which can be incorporated into foodstuffs to improve their nutritional values. The foods containing BI are considered functional food. This review shed light on the health benefits of various BI for consumers. Due to the growing rate of population and surging demands for healthy foods in the future, it is pivotal to use affordable natural sources of BI to provide functional foods for a vast majority of people. Thus, in this review article, some potent by-products are addressed as alternative sources of BI.
Part of the book: Current Topics in Functional Food