Developmental Landscape of Potential Vaccine Candidates Based on Viral Vector for Prophylaxis of COVID-19.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, SARS-CoV-2, arose at the end of 2019 as a zoonotic virus, which is the causative agent of the novel coronavirus outbreak COVID-19. Without any clear indications of abatement, the disease has become a major healthcare threat across the globe, owing to prolonged incubation period, high prevalence, and absence of existing drugs or vaccines. Development of COVID-19 vaccine is being considered as the most efficient strategy to curtail the ongoing pandemic.

Identification of novel human renin inhibitors through a combined approach of pharmacophore modelling, molecular DFT analysis and in silico screening.

Renin is an aspartyl protease of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) and the first enzyme of the biochemical pathway for the generation of angiotensin II - a potent vasoconstrictor involved in the maintenance of cardiovascular homeostasis and the regulation of blood pressure. High enzymatic specificity of renin and its involvement in the catalysis of the rate-limiting step of the RAS hormone system qualify it as a good target for inhibition of hypertension and other associated diseases. Ligand-based pharmacophore model (Hypo1) was generated from a training set of 24 compounds with renin inhibitory activity.

Network pharmacology-based virtual screening of natural products from Clerodendrum species for identification of novel anti-cancer therapeutics.

Plant-derived natural products (NPs) play a vital role in the discovery of new drug molecules and these are used for development of novel therapeutic drugs for a specific disease target. Literature review suggests that natural products possess strong inhibitory efficacy against various types of cancer cells. Clerodendrum indicum and Clerodendrum serratum are reported to have anticancer activity; therefore a study was carried out to identify selective anticancer agents from these plants species.

3D pharmacophore-based virtual screening, docking and density functional theory approach towards the discovery of novel human epidermal growth factor receptor-2 (HER2) inhibitors.

Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2) is one of the four members of the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) family and is expressed to facilitate cellular proliferation across various tissue types. Therapies targeting HER2, which is a transmembrane glycoprotein with tyrosine kinase activity, offer promising prospects especially in breast and gastric/gastroesophageal cancer patients. Persistence of both primary and acquired resistance to various routine drugs/antibodies is a disappointing outcome in the treatment of many HER2 positive cancer patients and is a challenge that requires formulation of new and improved strategies to overcome the same.