4- Thursday Pharmacotherapy News – 2nd December

1 – Role of microRNAs in COVID-19 with implications for therapeutics

• COVID-19 is a pneumonia-like disease with highly transmittable and pathogenic properties caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which infects both animals and humans.
• Although many efforts are currently underway to test possible therapies, there is no specific FDA approved drug against SARS-CoV-2 yet. miRNA-directed gene regulation controls the majority of biological processes.
• It has been shown that changes in miRNAs are linked to severity of COVID-19 especially in patients with respiratory diseases, diabetes, heart failure or kidney problems.
• Therefore, targeting these small noncoding-RNAs could potentially alleviate complications from COVID-19.
• Here, they review the roles and importance of host and RNA virus encoded miRNAs in COVID-19 pathogenicity and immune response.
• Then, they focus on potential miRNA therapeutics in the patients who are at increased risk for severe disease.

Source: ScienceDirect

2 – Targeting protein arginine methyltransferase 5 in cancers: Roles, inhibitors and mechanisms

• The protein arginine methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) as the major type II arginine methyltransferase catalyzes the mono- and symmetric dimethylation of arginine residues in both histone and non-histone proteins.
• Recently, increasing evidence has demonstrated that PRMT5 plays an indispensable role in the occurrence and development of various human cancers by promoting the cell proliferation, invasion, and migration.
• This review is to summarize the clinical significance of PRMT5 in the cancers such as lung cancer, breast cancer and colorectal cancer, and the drug discovery targeting PRMT5.

Source: ScienceDirect

3 – Clinical drug therapies and biologicals currently used or in clinical trial to treat COVID-19

• The potential emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants capable of escaping vaccine-generated immune responses poses a looming threat to vaccination efforts and will likely prolong the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Additionally, the prevalence of beta coronaviruses circulating in animals and the precedent they have set in jumping into human populations indicates that they pose a continuous threat for future pandemics.
• Currently, only one therapeutic is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in treating COVID-19, remdesivir, although other therapies are authorized for emergency use due to this pandemic being a public health emergency.
• In this review, twenty-four different treatments are discussed regarding their use against COVID-19 and any potential future coronavirus-associated illnesses.

Source: ScienceDirect

4- Potential role of herbal medicines as a novel approach in sepsis treatment

• The growing number of deaths related to sepsis has become a major concern for past few years.
• The resulted systemic reactions are manifested by early appearance of proinflammatory cytokines leading to hyperinflammatory phase which is followed by septic shock and death of the patient.
• The present study has revealed that antibiotics are not self-sufficient to control the complex mechanism of sepsis.
• Moreover prolonged and unnecessary administration of antibiotics may lead to antibiotic resistance to pathogens.
• Drugs from herbal origin have shown to possess a mammoth of immunomodulatory potential by suppressing proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines exhibiting no or minimal unwanted secondary responses.
• Natural compounds have gained much attention for the treatment of several clinical complications.
• Considering the promising responses of medicinal plants with less/no side effects and easy procurement, comprehensive research on herbal plants to treat sepsis should be contemplated.

Source: ScienceDirect

5 – Safety and efficacy of alpha-lipoic acid oral supplementation in the reduction of pain with unknown etiology: A monocentric, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial

• Extensive evidence suggests that alpha-lipoic acid (ALA) is effective in diabetic neuropathy pain management.
• However, little is known on its safety and efficacy in reducing idiopathic pain in normoglycemic subjects.
• The aim of this study was to evaluate ALA food supplement safety and efficacy in the reduction of different forms of idiopathic pain.
• Since the management of idiopathic pain is challenging for physicians, the use of ALA food supplements could be a feasible option, based on its safety and efficacy compared to commonly-used analgesic drugs.

Source: ScienceDirect

6 – Anti-inflammatory action of astaxanthin and its use in the treatment of various diseases

• Astaxanthin (AST) is a red pigmented carotenoid with significant antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative, and anti-apoptotic properties.
• In this study, they summarize the available literature on the anti-inflammatory efficacy of AST in various chronic and acute disorders, such as neurodegenerative, renal-, hepato-, skin- and eye-related diseases, as well as gastrointestinal disorders.
• This review suggests that AST with its demonstrated anti-inflammatory property may be a suitable candidate for drug design with novel technology.

Source: ScienceDirect

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