No abstract

Newly emerged SARS-CoV-2 made recent pandemic situations across the globe is accountable for countless unwanted death and insufferable panic associated with co-morbidities among mass people. The scarcity of appropriate medical treatment and no effective vaccine or medicine against SARS-CoV-2 has turned the situation worst. Therefore, in this study, we made a deep literature review to enlist plant-derived natural compounds and considered their binding mechanism with the main protease of SARS-CoV-2 through combinatorial bioinformatics approaches. Among all, a total of 14 compounds were filtered where Carinol, Albanin, Myricetin were had better binding profile than the rest of the compounds with having binding energy of-8.476,-8.036,-8.439 kcal/mol, respectively. Furthermore, MM-GBSA calculations were also considered in this selection process to support docking studies. Besides, 100 ns molecular dynamics simulation endorsed the rigid nature, less conformational variation and binding stiffness. As this study, represents a perfect model for SARS-CoV-2 main protease inhibition through bioinformatics study, these potential drug candidates may assist the researchers to find a superior and effective solution against COVID-19 after future experiments.

No abstract

Shigellosis caused by Shigella dysenteriae is a major public health concern worldwide, particularly in developing countries. The bacterial genome is known, but there are many hypothetical proteins whose functions are yet to be discovered. A hypothetical protein (accession no. WP_128879999.1, 161 residues) of S. dysenteriae ATCC 12039 strain was selected in this study for comprehensive structural and functional analysis. Subcellular localization and different physicochemical properties of this hypothetical protein were estimated indicating it as a stable, soluble, and extracellular protein. Functional annotation tools, such as NCBI-CD Search, Pfam, and InterProScan, predicted our target protein to be an amidase effector protein 4 (Tae4) of type-VI secretion system (T6SS). Multiple sequence alignment of the homologous sequences coincided with previous findings. Random coil was found to be predominant in secondary structure. Three-dimensional (3D) structure of the protein was obtained using homology modeling method by SWISS-MODEL server using a template protein (PDB ID: 4J30) of 80.12% sequence identity. The 3D structure became more stable after YASARA energy minimization and was validated by several quality assessment tools like PROCHECK, QMEAN, Verify3D, and ERRAT. Superimposition of the target with the template protein by UCSF Chimera generated RMSD value of 0.115 Å, suggesting a reliable 3D structure. The active site of the modeled structure was predicted and visualized by CASTp server and PyMOL. Interestingly, similar binding affinity and key interacting residues were found for the target protein and a Salmonella enterica Tae4 protein with the ligand L-Ala D-Glu-mDAP by molecular docking analysis. Protein-protein docking was also performed between the target protein and hemolysin coregulated protein 1 of T6SS. Finally, the protein was found to be a unique protein of S. dysenteriae nonhomologous to human by comparative genomics approach indicating a potential therapeutic target. Most pathogens harboring T6SS in their system pose a significant threat to the human health. Many T6SSs and their effectors are associated with interbacterial competition, pathogenesis, and virulency; however, relationships between these effectors and pathogenicity of S. dysenteriae are yet to be determined. The study findings provide a lucrative platform for future antibacterial treatment.

Designing multi‐resonance (MR) emitters that can simultaneously achieve narrowband emission and suppressed intermolecular interactions is challenging for realizing high color purity and stable blue organic light‐emitting diodes (OLEDs). Herein, a sterically shielded yet extremely rigid emitter based on a triptycene‐fused B,N core (Tp‐DABNA) is proposed to address the issue. Tp‐DABNA exhibits intense deep blue emissions with a narrow full width at half maximum (FWHM) and a high horizontal transition dipole ratio, superior to the well‐known bulky emitter, t‐DABNA. The rigid MR skeleton of Tp‐DABNA suppresses structural relaxation in the excited state, with reduced contributions from the medium‐ and high‐frequency vibrational modes to spectral broadening. The hyperfluorescence (HF) film composed of a sensitizer and Tp‐DABNA shows reduced Dexter energy transfer compared to those of t‐DABNA and DABNA‐1. Notably, deep blue TADF‐OLEDs with the Tp‐DABNA emitter display higher external quantum efficiencies (EQEmax=24.8 %) and narrower FWHMs (≤26 nm) than t‐DABNA‐based OLEDs (EQEmax=19.8 %). The HF‐OLEDs based on the Tp‐DABNA emitter further demonstrate improved performance with an EQEmax of 28.7 % and mitigated efficiency roll‐offs.