The advent of COVID-19 has infected millions of people causing healthcare emergencies worldwide. Biologists and environmentalists have always stressed on the impact of habitat fragmentation, deforestation, and animal poaching on human health. The outbreak of various zoonotic scourges has incremented the levels of risk in human population because of direct and indirect interaction with human chain. Human health is directly associated with animal health and is one of the important part of an ecosystem, the balance of which is disrupted due to anthropogenic activities which has disrupted an ecological balance due to which biodiversity is greatly affected and is reducing at a faster pace promoting a spread of diseases through animals to humans. COVID-19 is a serious concern that puts human life to risk, however, strategies like Global Lockdown which is referred as the period of "Great Pause" has helped to recover rare species of Flora and Fauna with reduced pollution levels, cleaner air and water. In order to quell the further on-spread of pandemic or any other avant-guarded health emergency, biodiversity shall be preserved. This chapter highlights the vitality of conserving biodiversity to renounce the healthcare challenges addressing the scenario of novel coronavirus.
Background Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder in which amyloid-beta (Aβ) and tau tangles are vital in causing neurodegeneration. Only five FDA-approved drugs are available in the market which manages the symptoms. In this study, 52 novel phytochemicals were selected from the medicinal plant Bacopa monnieri, a medicinal plant with neuroprotective compounds.Objective The main aim of this study is to find the most promising compound inhibiting microtubule affinity regulation kinase 4 (MARK 4), which is involved in AD.Methods First, an ADMET analysis was conducted, and the selected compounds were molecularly docked against the MARK4-associated protein (5ES1). Based on the top five binding affinities, a molecular dynamics simulation was performed.Results Cucurbitacin E, oroxindin, ebelin lactone, cucurbitacin B, and bacosine showed binding affinity of more than − 10.0 kcal/mol, and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of these molecules in complex with MARK4 was performed. Subsequent trajectory analysis for structural changes and end-state MMGBSA binding energy were performed for Cucurbitacin E, oroxindin, ebelin lactone, cucurbitacin B and bacosine. The MD simulation and MMGBSA calculations showed stable interactions between the screened molecules and MARK4.Conclusion This computational study predicted ebelin lactone to be the most promising compound from Bacopa monnieri that can be further developed as a drug to treat AD after pre-clinical and clinical studies.
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