Docking-Based Screening of Cell-Penetrating Peptides with Antiviral Features and Ebola Virus Proteins as a Drug Discovery Approach to Develop a Treatment for Ebola Virus Disease

Ebola drug discovery continues to be challenging as yet. Proteins of the virus should be targeted at the relevant biologically active site for drug or inhibitor binding to be effective. In this regard, by considering the important role of Ebola virus proteins in the viral mechanisms of this viral disease, the Ebola proteins are selected as our drug targets in this study. The discovery of novel therapeutic molecules or peptides will be highly expensive; therefore, we attempted to identify possible antigens of EBOV proteins by conducting docking-based screening of cell penetrating peptides (CPPs) that have antiviral potential features utilizing Hex software version 8.0.0. The E-value scores obtained in this research were very much higher than the previously reported docking studies. CPPs that possess suitable interaction with the targets would be specified as promising candidates for further in vitro and in vivo examination aimed at developing new drugs for Ebola infection treatment

Synergetic dual antibiotics-loaded chitosan/poly (vinyl alcohol) nanofibers with sustained antibacterial delivery for treatment of XDR bacteria-infected wounds

Available online 29 November 2022Resistance of bacterial pathogens to conventional antibiotics has remained a significant challenge in managing post-wound infections, especially in developing countries. Here, a nanofibrous chitosan/poly (vinyl alcohol) (CS/PVA) mat was designed for controlled delivery of three different concentrations of two antibiotics (colistin/meropenem ratio of 32/64 μg/ml (AB1), 64/128 μg/ml (AB2), and 128/256 (AB3) μg/ml) with synergistic antibacterial activity against ATCC and extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Acinetobacter baumannii clinical isolates. The scaffolds showed a uniform fibrous structure with no bead formation with a sustained release of the antibiotics for one week. The elongation at break, wettability, porosity, and average fiber diameter decreased with increased antibiotics concentrations. Young's modulus and tensile strength showed a significant increase after adding antibiotics. All the constructs showed excellent in vitro cytocompatibility for fibroblasts and biocompatibility in an animal model. The antibacterial assays confirmed the dose-dependent antibacterial activity of the CS/PVA. The scaffolds loaded with AB2 and AB3 showed biocidal properties against ATCC, while only CS/PVA/AB3 had antibacterial activity against XDR clinical isolates. This study suggests the CS/PVA/AB3 nanofibrous scaffold contained 128/256 μg/ml colistin/meropenem as an excellent antibacterial wound dressing for protection of skin wounds from XDR clinical isolates and now promises to proceed with pre-clinical investigations.The current study was financially supported by the Ministry of Health & Medical Education with grant no. Pr986001 and Iran University of Medical Sciences (grant No. 16813). SCK has been the European Research Area Chair in the European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation Horizon 2020 (no 668983 — FoReCaST) and BREAST-IT (PTDC/BTM-ORG/28168/2017) of FCT, Portugal supported SCK