Recent Advances in Anti-Infective Drug Discovery - Volume 20, Issue 2, 2025

Viral infections pose a great burden for humankind and many viruses have no effective treatments. Hepatitis A Virus (HAV) and Coxsackie-B4 (Cox-B4) are common viruses having many drawbacks. Using plant extracts as antiviral agents is a globally applied approach due to its efficacy and minimal adverse effects.

This study aimed to test the antiviral action of the green coffee extract against HAV and Cox-B4 viruses, assess the possible mechanisms regulating this role, and apply molecular docking to evaluate the connection between bioactive compounds in the green coffee extract and viral proteins and receptors.

The antiviral effect of four plant extracts, including green tea, green coffee, pomegranate peel, and orange peel on HAV and Cox-B4 viruses has been screened in this study. The most promising results have been obtained using an inverted microscope and electron microscopy. Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) has been used to detect various compounds in the green coffee extract. Gene expression of MxA has been examined in different groups of treatments. Oxidative enzymes, including Glutathione (GSH), Superoxide Dismutase (SOD), and Malondialdehyde (MDA) were tested in infected Vero cells (African green monkey kidney cells) and upon using green coffee. In silico studies were performed using molecular docking software.

Green coffee has been found to have an antiviral impact on HAV and Cox-B4 with IC50= 8.8±0.6 and 14.5±0.8 µg/ml, respectively, visualizing and confirming the results using both Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) and inverted microscope. The green coffee extract has been found to regulate oxidative enzymes, including SOD, GSH, and MDA, to normal concentrations as well as MxA gene expression to regular levels. Linoleic acid and arachidic acid have been found to be the most common molecules in green coffee extract, interacting with the tested viruses.

Green coffee methanolic extract has been found to have an efficient antiviral impact on HAV and Cox-B4 viruses, as validated by in vivo investigations.

The structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) proteins plays a noteworthy role in chromosome dynamics. Several recent studies reported that the condensin core subunits of structural maintenance of chromosomes 2 (SMC2) play important roles in the atypical mitosis of the Plasmodium life cycle and may perform different functions during different proliferative stages. For eukaryotes, the structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC) proteins are divided into six subunits and form three heterodimers of structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC1/3) cohesion complex, structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC2/4) condensin complex, and structural maintenance of chromosomes (SMC5/6) complex for chromosome cohesion, condensation, and DNA damage repair, respectively.

The objective of this study was to investigate the structural maintenance of chromosomes 2 (SMC2) protein of P. falciparum as a putative drug target of malariacausing Plasmodium falciparum.

In this study, we investigated the structural maintenance of chromosomes 2 (SMC2) protein of P. falciparum as a putative drug target of malaria-causing P. falciparum by using in-silico approaches like Homology modeling, in-silico evaluation of the modeled structure, molecular docking study to investigate the interaction of receptor-ligand, and molecular dynamic simulation study with MM calculation.

We reported the structural maintenance of chromosomes 2 (SMC2) protein of P. falciparum as a potent drug target that can pave the way for novel drug discovery to mitigate malaria.

In-silico-based studies play a significant role in understanding any protein for potential drug development.

Infestation in greenhouse cucumber with the two-spotted spider mite (Tetranychus urticae Koch) commonly causes severe damage to crop quality and quantity and increases crop production costs.

This study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of high-abamectin-producing isolates of S. avermitilis against T. urticae-infested cucumber and to assess their impact on biochemical stress markers in these vegetables.

In this study, 72 non-antagonistic Streptomyces were isolated from rhizospheric soil samples collected from eight different locations in Egypt and screened for their ability to produce the secondary metabolite, abamectin.

The screening process identified two potent abamectin-producing isolates, EW8 and T2, which produced 42.7 and 29.6 µg/L abamectin, respectively, as confirmed by LC-MS/MS analysis. According to DNA sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA gene, these two isolates belong to the species S. avermitilis. The acaricidal activity of either culture suspensions of S. avermitilis strains WE8 and T2, or their extracts containing abamectin, against the mobile stages and egg hatchability of T. urticae was evaluated in the laboratory and the greenhouse. Data on the mortality among the examined female mites and the reduction in their number of eggs point out a potential acaricidal activity of the examined strains of S. avermitilis and their extracts containing abamectin against T. urticaes. Furthermore, the extracts containing abamectin from these two S. avermitilis strains induced oxidative stress in the infested cucumber plants by T. urticaes, as indicated by increased levels of malondialdehyde (MDA). However, the levels of MDA in T. urticae-infested cucumber plants varied depending on the strain and the specific abamectin crude extract used.

S. avermitilis strains T2 or WE8, or their crude extract could be applied in greenhouse cucumber plantations to combat red mite infestation.