In silico Screening of Forty Antiviral Phytochemicals as Inhibitors to the Envelope Protein of Dengue Virus Serotype 2 (DENV-2)
Infections by the Dengue virus (DENV) cause a disease amonghumansreferred to as Dengue fever, which causes thousands of fatalities globally. There is no existing treatment as of yet that successfully targets DENV. Among the factors thatdeterminetheentry of the virus and severity of the disease is the envelope(E) protein of DENV. This study aimed to examine forty antiviral phytochemicals enumeratedinpaststudiesaspossibleinhibitorstotheEprotein of DENV to provide candidates to aid in drug discovery against DENV. The phytochemicals were screened for their likelihood of inhibition of the E protein using AutoDock Suite and LigPlot+. Seven phytochemicals produced favorable binding affinities to the E protein, which are based on the interactions between the phytochemicals and amino acidsintheactivesiteoftheEprotein.Lipinski’s rule of 5 was then used to screen the seven phytochemicals for oral bioavailability. Glabridin has a binding affinity of -7.6 kcal/mol and was predicted to be orally bioavailable. This phytochemical interacts with amino acids in the E protein active site through hydrogen bonds to Asn355, andPhe337, as well as ten hydrophobic interactions. These interactions ensure that glabridin is able to specifically target and fit intotheactivesiteoftheEprotein, preventing its binding to the host cell and activating its viral proliferation. Glabridin is known to be found in the roots of licorice plants, providing anatural source for a possible cure for Dengue fever.
EIPCA : Electrocardiogram Interpretation Pattern for Cardiovascular Abnormalities Prediction
Cardiac Arrhythmia is one of the conditions in the group of heart and blood vessel diseases that can lead to sudden cardiac arrest (sudden death) and other conditions if not diagnosed quickly and accurately. According to research, heart and blood vessel diseases are the most common diseases and have a mortality rate of one-half of all non-communicable diseases. According to WHO statistics in 2012, it was found that there were 7.4 million deaths from heart and blood vessel diseases, and in 2017, the number of deaths increased to 177 million people, or about 94,444 people per day. Diagnosis of heart and blood vessel diseases can be done by measuring the electrical activity of the heart, and after the examination, a specialized physician will read and analyze the graph to find abnormal patterns. Currently, the shortage of qualified heart specialists to read the graph and screen for heart disease is a medical position shortage, which requires transferring data to hospitals with specialists, resulting in delays in diagnosis and treatment and even death. The project "EIPCA: Electrocardiogram Interpretation Pattern for Cardiovascular Abnormalities prediction" is an application program that assists in screening for fatal diseases that arise from abnormal heart rhythm. It employs artificial intelligence to aid in the screening and analysis of the electrical waveforms generated by an ECG machine, thus reducing diagnosis time and addressing the shortage of cardiology experts. EIPCA is comprised of two systems: (1) a system for screening and analyzing ECG waveforms using artificial intelligence to solve the problem of a shortage of specialized cardiology physicians, and (2) a system for risk assessment of fatal diseases by analyzing the ECG waveform data. The target group of the project is Rural hospitals, as well as health-related agencies. The project team hopes that the development of this project will significantly improve the efficiency and speed of screening for heart-related diseases, ultimately reducing the mortality rate from these diseases in the future.