Aims and Scope
Recent Articles
ACE2 Shedding and Furin Abundance in Target Organs may Influence the Efficiency of SARS-CoV-2 Entry
Yuanchen Ma, Yinong Huang, Tao Wang, Andy Peng Xiang, Weijun HuangBackground:
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a lineage B coronavirus, causing the worldwide outbreak of Corona Virus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). Despite genetically closed to SARS-CoV, SARS-CoV-2 seems to possess enhanced infectivity and subtle different clinical features, which may hamper the early screening of suspected patients as well as the control of virus transmission. Unfortunately, there are few tools to predict the potential target organ damage and possible clinical manifestations caused by such novel coronavirus.
Methods:
To solve this problem, we use the online single-cell sequence datasets to analyze the expression of the major receptor in host cells that mediates the virus entry, including angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), and its co-expressed membrane endopeptidases.
Results:
The results indicated the differential expression of ADAM10 and ADAM17 might contribute to the ACE2 shedding and affect the membrane ACE2 abundance. We further confirm a putative furin-cleavage site reported recently in the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2, which may facilitate the virus-cell fusion. Based on these findings, we develop an approach that comprehensively analyzed the virus receptor expression, ACE2 shedding, membrane fusion activity, virus uptake and virus replication to evaluate the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 to different human organs.
Conclusion:
Our results indicate that, in addition to airway epithelia, cardiac tissue and enteric canals are susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 as well.
March 22, 2021
Articles
Editor's Choice
Network Biology Approaches to Identify the Drug Lead Molecule for Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Human
Archana Verma, Shweta Singh Chauhan, Vaishali Pankaj, Neha Srivastva, Prachi Srivastava
Aims:
To identify most novel drug target and lead molecule for neurodevelopmental disorder Autism, Intellectual Disability (ID) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diseases through system biology approaches
Background:
Neurodevelopmental disorders (NNDs) are disabilities associated chiefly with the functioning of the neurological system and brain. Children with neurodevelopmental disorders have difficulties with speech, behaviour, learning and other neurological functions. Systems biology is a holistic approach to enciphering the complexity of biological systems and their interactions. It opens the way to a more successful discovery of novel therapeutics.
Objective:
To identify most novel drug target and lead molecule for neurodevelopmental disorder Autism, Intellectual Disability (ID) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diseases through system biology approaches.
Methods:
A list of genes was collected from NCBI database for Autism, Intellectual Disability (ID) and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) diseases. STRING database and Cytoscape software was used for construction and interpreting molecular interaction in the network. 3D structure of target protein, was build and validated.The phytochemicals were identified through various research articles and filtered out by virtual screening through Molinspiration. Molecular docking analyses of known phytochemical with target proteins were performed usingAutoDock tool.
Result:
AKT1 for Autism, SNAP25 for Intellectual Disability (ID) and DRD4 for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) were identified as most potential drug target through network study. further the modelled structure of obtained target were undergo molecular docking study with kown phytochemicals. Based on lowest binding energy, Huperzine A for Autism and ID, Valerenic acid for ADHD found to be the most potential therapeutic molecules.
Conclusion:
Huperzine A against Autism and ID, Valerenic acid against ADHD found to be the most potential therapeutic molecules and expected to be effective in the treatment of NNDs. Phytochemicals do not have side effects so extract of these can be taken in preventive form too as these disorders occur during developmental stages of the child. Further the obtained molecule if experimentally validated would play promising role for the treatment of NDDs in human.
March 20, 2020
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Data Mining Approach to Identify Disease Cohorts from Primary Care Electronic Medical Records: A Case of Diabetes Mellitus
January 23, 2015
Protein-Protein Interaction Prediction using PCA and SVR-PHCS
December 31, 2014
Performances of Bioinformatics Pipelines for the Identification of Pathogens in Clinical Samples with the De Novo Assembly Approaches: Focus on 2009 Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1)
December 31, 2014
Identification of the Factors Responsible for the Interaction of Hsp90α and its Client Proteins
January 31, 2013
Comparison of Sequencing Utility Programs
July 26, 2013
Community Annotation and the Evolution of Cooperation: How Patience Matters
