Harnessing abiotic elicitors to bolster plant's resistance against bacterial pathogens

Bacterial pathogens have been of considerable interest in the field of plant pathology as they are known to cause serious constraints in crop production once infected. When environmental conditions favor disease development, the well-known bacterial pathogens including Pseudomonas syringae, Ralstonia spp., and Xanthomonas spp. exert severe harmful impacts across a variety of crop plants. The bacterial pathogens are known to infect plant tissues' extracellular spaces and release virulence factors directly into the cytosol or apoplast of the host plant. In this context, developing long-lasting and effective methods for controlling bacterial infections becomes essential for maintaining sustainable agricultural production. However, conventional methods such as copper-based bactericides and antibiotics are often proven to be ineffective and also adversely affect human health and the environment. Therefore, the immense challenges offered by bacterial diseases in global agriculture have encouraged interest in developing environment-friendly and sustainable alternatives for chemical pesticides. Abiotic elicitors are chemicals with non-biological origins that activate plant defense mechanisms and can potentially help in agriculture and crop protection. Numerous abiotic elicitors have shown impressive effectiveness in boosting plant defenses against bacterial infections, employing multiple mechanisms of induced resistance in various crops. The present review explores the rapidly developing field of abiotic elicitors and discusses their role in strengthening plant defenses through induction of resistance, understanding their role in boosting plant immunity, and highlighting both the potential benefits and current challenges to strengthen global food security

Computational probing of Nigella sativa bioactive metabolites against chickungunya nsP2 cysteine protease

Background and Aim: Instances of chikungunya reported throughout the world in the past two decades of the present century. There is a lack of effective medicine or vaccine for chikungunya treatment. Non-structural protein, the nsP2 cysteine protease (nsP2pro) is an attractive target for inhibitors. It is a key enzyme for proteolytic cleavage of polyprotein precursors and produces functional proteins for replication and multiplication of the virus. Bioactive metabolites from Nigella sativa L; a popular spice and well-known medicinal plant, were selected for the current study against nsP2pro to search for potent non-toxic natural inhibitors of nsP2pro. Experimental procedure: Out of 54 bioactive metabolites from N. sativa 27 qualified drug likeliness properties. Virtual screening of 27 selected molecules was performed using AutoDock Vina. Top four molecules Kaempferol, (-)-Epicatechin, (+)-Catechin, and Apigenin with the least binding energy were taken for molecular docking employing AUTODOCK4. These metabolites were subjected to molecular dynamics simulation and MMPBSA, and the resilience of protein–ligand complexes had been assessed in terms of RMSD, RMSF, Rg, SASA, and hydrogen bonding. Results and Conclusions: Drug likeliness, molecular docking, molecular dynamics simulation properties, and MMPBSA analyses made clear that Kaempferol, (-)- Epicatechin, (+)- Catechin, and Apigenin all seem to be potential nsP2pro potent inhibitors and strong candidates for chikungunya virus drug development

A network pharmacology approach with experimental validation to discover protective mechanism of poly herbal extract on diabetes mellitus

Objective: Polyherbal extracts (PHE) contain six traditional medicinal plants, and the efficacy of the medicinal plants used in the preparation of this PHE has been confirmed for the treatment of diseases like diabetes mellitus (DM). The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficacy and therapeutic mechanism of PHE through a network pharmacology approach to reveal the protective mechanism of Alpha-Tocospiro A (ATA) present in PHE on DM with experimental validation. Methods: In this study, Lipinski's rule (Swiss ADME) and drug-likeness score (MolSoft's) web pages were used to confirm the drug-likeness of identified constituents in PHE. Swiss Target Prediction (STP) genes were found for ATA-related genes. The DisGeNet database was used to screen genes associated with DM. String created a network diagram of the interactions between the ATA and DM genes. Top-scoring genes from the string network through CytoNCA plugged into Cytoscape 3.8.2 were selected as hub genes. In addition, the ShinyGO database is used to predict GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses. Results: A total of 675 and 105 therapeutic genes (STP) were associated with all bioactive compounds and ATA in the PHE screen, respectively. Additionally, a maximum of 2,803 DM-related genes (DisGeNet) were observed. Further, in the analysis, 331, 57 potential (intersecting) genes were identified in the correlation between the target genes of all compounds and ATA, respectively, of PHE and the target genes of DM. The identified hub gene “TNF” for both ATA and PHE was found to be precisely strengthened in 49 pathways, along with 14 signaling pathways out of more than 100 enriched KEGG pathways. This study predicted that ATA activates PI3K/Akt and MAPK pathways enriched with TNF by phosphorylating the insulin receptor (IR) β-subunit. The anti-diabetic activity of PHE was found to be good and primarily confirmed by in vitro α-glucosidase enzyme inhibition activity. Conclusion: The anti-diabetic activity of PHE was found to be effective and was confirmed by the enzyme inhibition activity in the primary study. This study predicted that ATA is a novel drug molecule in PHE that has a targeted mechanism of action and therapeutic effect on DM