Water samples, sediments, tilapia and cat fishes from each of Epe and Badagry lagoons in Lagos State, Nigeria were analyzed quantitatively for the presence of zinc, nickel and iron using Perking Elmer atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The sediment contains higher concentration of Fe with a value of 13.30 µg/g against 8.400 µg/g in fishes and 7.30 mg/L in water. Studies on the different parts of the fish revealed higher concentrations of 4.00 µg/g Ni on the head of tilapia fish followed by 2.40 µg/g Ni in the intestine of cat fish. The highest concentration of 1.95 µg/g Zn was detected on the head of the cat fish while the lowest concentration with a value of 0.16 µg/g was recorded in tilapia head. The concentration of Zn in the water is within the limits permitted by the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) of 1.0 mg/L Zn set for water. None of the trace metals investigated was above the maximum permissible level set by world health organization ( WHO).

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COVID-19 pandemic has poses urgent health challenge, and this project aims to identify potential inhibitors to combat this virus. We screened 198 bioactive compounds from five selected medicinal plants previously reported to be antiviral against SARS-CoV-2 protease and two coreceptors followed by molecular dynamics simulations. From the screened compounds, Astragalin demonstrated very strong molecular interactions with the molecular docking binding energies −8.5, −8.0, −7.6 kcal/mol for 6LU7, 6LZG, and 6VXX proteins of SARS-CoV-2, respectively. Hydrogen bonding interaction with the active site catalytic residue HIS-41 or CYS-145 of the main protease SARS-CoV-2 was observed. Binding free energies (G bind) from MM-GBSA after 50 ns MD simulations showed that Astragalin has the highest energy of −33.00 and −34.89 kcal/mol in complex with the main protease and spike glycoprotein of SARS-CoV-2, respectively. The study identifies Astragalin as a better inhibitor for the inactivation of COVID-19 and should be pursued as a potential drug candidate for this virus.

The pollution indices and the potential ecological risks of heavy metals contents of the soil affected by municipal waste were investigated in Ondo, southwestern, Nigeria. The heavy metal concentrations were analyzed using Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (AAS).

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