Current Drug Discovery Technologies - Online First

One of the most prevalent sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) is infection with the human papillomavirus (HPV). The current treatment methods comprise employing chemotherapeutic medications or doing surgery to remove the developed tumors. A more affordable option for treating HPV-related diseases has emerged with the advent of medication-based therapy. The interaction between E6 protein and E6AP generates a p53 degradation complex in HPV-infected cells, which facilitates carcinogenesis.

The purpose of this work is to use a virtual screening technique to find possible small molecule inhibitors against the HPV16 E6 protein.

Compounds 5, 7, and 10 are three new HPV 16 E6 inhibitors that were created utilizing a fragment-based methodology. The trials subset in the ZINC database was screened virtually using the structural information of these three novel chemicals, yielding 9800 hits. Using the GLIDE module of the Schrodinger software, three virtual screening phases were applied to the molecules that were collected from the database. MD simulations and DFT (Density Function Theory) were also carried out.

The findings indicated that when compared to the reference molecule, luteolin, the five-hit compounds (ZINC000034853956, ZINC000001534965, ZINC000095617673, ZINC000005764481, and ZINC000071606215) demonstrated superior glide scores. Important interactions between these compounds and the HPV 16 E6 protein were seen. Using the QikProp tool, the pharmacokinetic characteristics of these hit compounds were examined. The findings demonstrated that the pharmacokinetic characteristics and oral absorption by humans of all five compounds were found to be satisfactory. Except for ZINC000005764481, all five hit compounds were predicted to be toxic; the remaining four displayed drug-like characteristics.

To create HPV 16 E6 inhibitors for the treatment of HPV-related disorders, the four hit compounds (ZINC000034853956, ZINC000001534965, ZINC000095617673, and ZINC00007160-6215) can be employed as lead molecules.

Atorvastatin (ATO) is an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor used to lower blood cholesterol, but it causes renal injury in high doses. Thymoquinone (TQ), is a natural antioxidant that has been shown to protect the kidney through its anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, & antiapoptotic, effects.

The current study aimed to investigate whether posttreatment TQ could reverse ATO-induced renal injury, and the possible mechanism of action by which TQ produced such an effect.

Forty adult male rats were divided into 4 groups: (control; TQ-treated; ATO-treated; ATO plus TQ-treated). Blood and kidney tissue samples were tested for kidney functions, oxidative stress and apoptosis markers, and morphometric analyses of the histopathological and ultrastructural evaluations. Statistical analyses were done using JASP, Shapiro-Wilk, and Levene’s test. ANOVA and Kruskal-Wallis tests were done to determine differences between groups. The significance level was set at p<.05.

The ATO-treated group showed abnormal outcome measures including kidney functions, oxidative stress and apoptotic markers, and morphometric analyses of the histopathological and ultrastructural findings. Post-treatment TQ improved all outcome measures.

Posttreatment TQ could reverse oxidative stress-induced renal injury produced by high-dose ATO, suggesting a potential clinical application in patients with renal insufficiency with hypercholesterolemia.

The study focuses on evaluating the parasitic potential of novel metronidazole analogs using computational methods. Specifically, it aims to target key enzymes of oral anaerobes, including UDP-N-acetylglucosamine 1-carboxyvinyltransferase (MurA) of Fusobacterium nucleatum and DNA topoisomerase (Topo) of Prevotella intermedia.

The objective is to assess the pharmacokinetic and toxicity properties of 368 novel nitroimidazole candidates through virtual screening. Additionally, the study aims to determine the binding affinity of the most promising candidates with the target proteins through molecular docking analyses.

A combinatorial library of nitroimidazole candidates was constructed, and virtual screening was performed. Molecular docking analyses were conducted to evaluate the binding affinity of selected compounds with MurA and Topo. Further investigation involved molecular dynamic simulation to assess the stability of the compounds within the active sites of MurA and Topo.

All selected compounds exhibited activity against both MurA and Topo. Among them, Mnz11, Mnz12, and Mnz15 demonstrated the lowest binding free energies and IC50 values. Molecular dynamic simulation indicated that these three compounds remained stable within the active sites of MurA and Topo, with RMSD values consistently below 2Å. Additionally, the antibacterial potential of the most potent compound, Mnz15, was evaluated against a series of oral microbes.

The study concludes that the newly identified nitroimidazole candidates show promise as anti-parasitic agents, based on their activity against key enzymes of oral anaerobes and their pharmacokinetic properties evaluated through computational methods.

The increasing problem of multi-drug resistant (MDR) pathogens is a worldwide concern, especially in the pharmaceutical industry. At the same time, medicinal plants have renewed interest because of their wide variety of bioactive phytochemicals, which could be used to develop new antimicrobial drugs. This renewed interest is partly due to the growing resistance to traditional drugs and their associated side effects.

The objective of this study is to assess the antimicrobial properties of the total extract and various fractions of Adiantum capillus veneris against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The aerial parts of Adiantum capillus veneris were subjected to extraction using methanol, chloroform, and ether, and the resulting extracts were tested for their antimicrobial activity against MRSA. Additionally, essential oil was obtained from the aerial parts using a Clevenger apparatus and boiling water. Furthermore, Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) was utilized to analyze the phytochemicals isolated from the extracts of Adiantum capillus veneris.

The essential oil was obtained through distillation and then analyzed using GC/MS. The antimicrobial activity was evaluated using the agar diffusion method.

GC/MS analysis revealed that the composition was primarily phytol (59.9%), constituting 99.3% of phyto-constituents. However, both the total extract and the individual fractions exhibited no inhibitory effects against MRSA strains.