Objective: This study was undertaken to determine the knowledge, attitude and practice of self-medication among first-year medical students of the Arabian Gulf University, Bahrain. Subjects and Methods: This was an anonymous, questionnaire-based, descriptive study. A prevalidated questionnaire, containing open-ended and close-ended questions, was administered to the subjects. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 12 and the results expressed as counts and percentages. Results: Out of the 134 respondents, 43 (32.1%) were males and 91 (67.9%) were females; their mean age in years ± SD was 18.01 ± 0.78. The respondents’ knowledge about appropriate self-medication was poor, but knowledge of the benefits and risks of self-medication was adequate. The respondents found self-medication to be time-saving, economical, convenient and providing quick relief in common illnesses. Important disadvantages of self-medication mentioned were the risk of making a wrong diagnosis, inappropriate drug use and adverse effects. The majority (76.9%) of the respondents had a positive attitude favoring self-medication. Self-medication was practiced by 44.8% of the subjects. The most common indications for self-medication were to relieve the symptoms of headache (70.9%), cough, cold and sore throat (53.7%), stomachache (32.8%) and fever (29.9%). Analgesics (81.3%) were the most common drugs used for self-medication. The practice of self-medication was appropriate in only 14.2% of cases. Conclusion: Knowledge about appropriate self-medication was poor, attitude towards self-medication was positive, and the practice of self-medication was common and often inappropriate.

Coronavirus belongs to the family of Coronaviridae, comprising single-stranded, positive-sense RNA genome (+ ssRNA) of around 26 to 32 kilobases, and has been known to cause infection to a myriad of mammalian hosts, such as humans, cats, bats, civets, dogs, and camels with varied consequences in terms of death and debilitation. Strikingly, novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), later renamed as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), and found to be the causative agent of coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), shows 88% of sequence identity with bat-SL-CoVZC45 and bat-SL-CoVZXC21, 79% with SARS-CoV and 50% with MERS-CoV, respectively. Despite key amino acid residual variability, there is an incredible structural similarity between the receptor binding domain (RBD) of spike protein (S) of SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV. During infection, spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 compared to SARS-CoV displays 10–20 times greater affinity for its cognate host cell receptor, angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2), leading proteolytic cleavage of S protein by transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2). Following cellular entry, the ORF-1a and ORF-1ab, located downstream to 5′ end of + ssRNA genome, undergo translation, thereby forming two large polyproteins, pp1a and pp1ab. These polyproteins, following protease-induced cleavage and molecular assembly, form functional viral RNA polymerase, also referred to as replicase. Thereafter, uninterrupted orchestrated replication-transcription molecular events lead to the synthesis of multiple nested sets of subgenomic mRNAs (sgRNAs), which are finally translated to several structural and accessory proteins participating in structure formation and various molecular functions of virus, respectively. These multiple structural proteins assemble and encapsulate genomic RNA (gRNA), resulting in numerous viral progenies, which eventually exit the host cell, and spread infection to rest of the body. In this review, we primarily focus on genomic organization, structural and non-structural protein components, and potential prospective molecular targets for development of therapeutic drugs, convalescent plasm therapy, and a myriad of potential vaccines to tackle SARS-CoV-2 infection.

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Primary insomnia is mainly treated with drugs acting on benzodiazepine receptors and a few other classes of drugs used for different co-morbidities. A novel approach to treat insomnia has been introduced recently, with the approval of suvorexant, the first in a new class of orexin receptor antagonists. Orexin receptors in the brain have been found to play an important role in the regulation of various aspects of arousal and motivation. The drugs commonly used for insomnia therapy to date, have often been associated with adverse effects, such as, day-time somnolence, amnesia, confusion, and gait disturbance, apart from the risk of dependence on chronic use. Suvorexant has not shown these adverse effects because of its unique mechanism of action. It also appears to be suitable as a chronic therapy for insomnia, because of minimal physical dependence. The availability of this new drug as an effective and safe alternative is an important and welcome development in insomnia management.

The emergence of the coronavirus disease-2019 pandemic has led to an outbreak in the world. The SARS-CoV-2 is seventh and latest in coronavirus family with unique exonucleases for repairing any mismatches in newly transcribed genetic material. Therefore, drugs with novel additional mechanisms are required to simultaneously target and eliminate the virus. Thus, a newly deciphered N protein is taken as a target that belongs to SARS-CoV-2. They play a vital role in RNA transcription, viral replication and new virion formation. This study used virtual screening, molecular modeling and docking of the 8987 ligands from Asinex and PubChem databases against this novel target protein. Three hotspot sites having DScore !1 (Site 1, Site 2 and Site 3) for ligand binding were selected. Subsequently, high throughput screening, standard precision and extra precision docking process and molecular dynamics concluded three best drugs from two libraries. Two antiviral moieties from Asinex databases (5817 and 6799) have docking scores of À10.29 and À10.156; along with their respective free binding energies (DG bind) of À51.96 and À64.36 on Site 3. The third drug, Zidovudine, is from PubChem database with docking scores of À9.75 with its binding free energies (DG bind) of À59.43 on Site 3. The RMSD and RMSF were calculated for all the three drugs through molecular dynamics simulation studies for 50 ns. Zidovudine shows a very stable interaction with fluctuation starting at 2.4 Å on 2 ns and remained stable at 3 Å from 13 to 50 ns. Thus, paving the way for further biological validation as a potential treatment.