Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is presently the most important topic worldwide. However, no vaccine or specific anti-viral treatment for the disease has been shown to be effective. In this emergency, identifying risk factors, preventive measures and estimating challenges which control available drug options for COVID-19 are key to mitigating the severity of the pandemic until specific drugs or vaccines become available. Therefore, this study aims to identify possible factors which affect these drug options. This study searched PubMed database using necessary Boolean operators from December 31st to March 31st 2020 in order to identify common risk factors, preventive measures, information regarding control challenges & evidence on the available drug options against COVID-19. Risk factors were found to be human-animal interactions, males, aged peopleand people with co-morbidity. Furthermore, protective factors comprised of personal hygiene etiquette maintenance, rapid identification, isolation and informing (3I tools) of the COVID-19 cases and media coverage on COVID-19. Till date, anti-viral drugs like remdesivir, chloroquine, lopinavir/ritonavir and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are available options to fight against COVID-19. More research is needed to determine other how to control the disease until specific treatment options are available as well as risk factors, and preventive measures.

The water-soluble extract is a gummy semi-solid content of Apis cerana indica beehive (WSE-BH). The present study reports the neuropharmacological effects of beehive derived from Apis cerana indica with brine shrimp lethality bioassay. The neuropharmacological results evaluated by modified open field, hole cross, elevated plus maze and hole board (OF-HC-EPM-HBT) test by Swiss Albino mice of both sexes after single oral administration where parameters for sedative and anxiolytic activity was square movements, hole crossing, time spent in open arm and head dipping which is the unpunished or unlearned response. A time-dependent manner activity observed by WSE-BH (200 and 400 mg/kg) and diazepam (1 mg/kg) against negative control normal saline. At low dose (200 mg/kg), the OF and HC possess significant reducing effects in time dependence manner while EPM and HBT exhibited significant anxiolytic activity avoiding sedation, whereas at 400 mg/kg exhibited an irregular effect. The current results were suggesting that WSE-BH might a good source of anxiolytic and sedative effects at low dose concentration. [ J Adv Biotechnol Exp Ther 2020; 3(2.000): 128-134]

The current study aimed to qualitatively and quantitatively determine the phytochemical components of Cycas pectinata methanol extract (MECP), along with its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, thrombolytic, locomotor, anxiolytic, analgesic, and antidiarrheal activities. The in vitro antioxidant activity was evaluated by DPPH scavenging assay and the total phenol and total flavonoid contents, while the anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated by a protein denaturation assay. The in vivo locomotor effects were examined using the open field test and hole-cross test. The anxiolytic effect was examined using the elevated plus maze (EPM) test, hole-board test (HBT), and light-dark test (LDT), while the analgesic activity was investigated using the acetic acid-induced writhing test. The antidiarrheal effect was evaluated by castor oil-induced diarrhea and gastrointestinal motility. Ten bioactive compounds were selected on the basis of their biological activities and further investigated using in silico molecular docking simulation to correlate with the identified pharmacological properties. Additionally, the ADME properties of the compounds were evaluated according to their drug-likeness profile. MECP had a maximum total phenol content of 209.85 ± 3.40 gallic acid equivalents/g extract and a total flavonoid content of 105.17 ± 3.45 quercetin equivalents/g extract, with an IC50 value of 631.44 μg/mL. MECP (62.5-500 μg/mL) elicited 20.96-38.12% decreased protein denaturation compared to diclofenac sodium (65.40-83.50%), while a 35.72% (P < 0.001) clot lysis activity was observed for the 10 mg/mL concentration. MECP induced a dose-dependent reduction in locomotor activity, with a significant anxiolytic effect. In the analgesic test, MECP (200, 400 mg/kg) showed a 45.12% and 58.82% inhibition in analgesia, and the 400 mg/kg dose elicited a 27.5% inhibition in intestinal motility. These findings suggest that MECP might be effective in treating antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and neuropharmacological defects, but this requires further study.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04061.].

Byttneria pilosa is locally known as Harijora, and used by the native hill-tract people of Bangladesh for the treatment of rheumatalgia, snake bite, syphilis, fractured bones, elephantiasis and an antidote for poisoning. The present study was carried out to determine the possible anti-inflammatory, analgesic, neuropharmacological and anti-diarrhoeal activity of the methanol extract of B. pilosa leaves (MEBPL) through in vitro, in vivo and in silico approaches. In the anti-inflammatory study, evaluated by membrane stabilizing and protein denaturation methods, MEBPL showed a significant and dose dependent inhibition. The analgesic effect of MEBPL tested by inducing acetic acid and formalin revealed significant inhibition of pain in both tests. During the anxiolytic evaluation, the extract exhibited a significant and dose-dependent reduction of anxiety-like behaviour in mice. Similarly, mice treated with MEBPL demonstrated dose-dependent reduction in locomotion effect in the open field test and increased sedative effect in the thiopental sodium induced sleeping test. MEBPL also showed good anti-diarrheal activity in both castor oil induced diarrheal and intestinal motility tests. Besides, a previously isolated compound (beta-sitosterol) exhibited good binding affinity in docking and drug-likeliness properties in ADME/T studies. Overall, B. pilosa is a biologically active plant and could be a potential source of drug leads, which warrants further advanced study.

Cycas pectinata Buch.-Ham. is commonly used in folk medicine against various disorders. The present study investigated the antidepressant and cytotoxicity activity of methanol extract of C. pectinata (MECP) along with quantitative phytochemical analysis by GC-MS method. Here, the GC-MS study of MECP presented 41 compounds, among which most were fatty acids, esters, terpenoids and oximes. The antidepressant activity was assessed by the forced swimming test (FST) and tail suspension test (TST) models. In contrast, MECP (200 and 400 mg/kg) exhibited a significant and dose-dependent manner reduction in immobility comparable with fluoxetine (10 mg/kg) and phenelzine (20 mg/kg). MECP showed a weak toxicity level in the brine shrimp lethality bioassay (ED50: 358.65 µg/mL) comparable to the standard drug vincristine sulfate (ED50: 2.39 µg/mL). Three compounds from the GC-MS study were subjected to density functional theory (DFT) calculations, where only cyclopentadecanone oxime showed positive and negative active binding sites. Cyclopentadecanone oxime also showed a good binding interaction in suppressing depression disorders by blocking monoamine oxidase and serotonin receptors with better pharmacokinetic and toxicological properties. Overall, the MECP exhibited a significant antidepressant activity with moderate toxicity, which required further advance studies to identify the mechanism.