Study on the molecular mechanism of Osmanthus fragrans Lour.on boosting immunity based on network pharmacology and molecular docking

Objective:To explore the molecular mechanism of Osmanthus Fragrans Lour.(OFL)in enhancing immunity.Methods:The compounds and action targets of OFL were collected from the Traditional Chinese Medicine Systematic Pharmacology Database and Analysis Platform.Protein targets of compounds were obtained from the UniProt database and relevant targets of boosting immunity were retrieved from the Genecards database.The Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway enrichment analysis and Gene Ontology function enrichment analysis were performed through the DAVID analysis website,Visualization and Integrated Discovery.Finally,the results of the network analysis were validated by performing molecular docking using AutoDock vina.Results:A total of 7 active compounds and 167 potential active targets were identified in OFL.A total of 1549 genes with a correlation score of≥1 were retrieved from the Genecards website with the keyword“boost immunity”,and 107 genes were obtained by crossing the 167 genes of OFL with the 1549 genes of boosting immunity.A total of 4802 entries were obtained from Gene Ontology functional enrichment(P<0.05).A total of 234 signaling pathways were obtained through a Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway analysis(P<0.05).Tumor necrosis factor(TNF)and interleukin 17(IL-17)signaling pathways were closely related to body immunity.The molecular docking results showed that all the core compounds in OFL the characteristics including low energy,a stable structure and high binding activity when bound to IL-17 and TNF-αprotein.Kaempferol showed the highest affinity with IL-17,and fucosterol showed the highest affinity with TNF-α.Conclusions:Through studies on network pharmacology and molecular docking,we have further demonstrated that OFL could enhance the immunity of the body through multi-component,multi-target and multi-pathway actions,and that IL-17/TNF-αsignalling pathway is the key molecular mechanism.

Anthraquinone Derivatives as an Immune Booster and their Therapeutic Option Against COVID-19

Anthraquinone derivatives are identified for their immune-boosting,anti-inflammatory,and anti-viral efficacy.Hence,the pre-sent study aimed to investigate the reported anthraquinone derivatives as immune booster molecules in COVID-19 infection and evaluate their binding affinity with three reported targets of novel coronavirus i.e.3C-like protease,papain-like protease,and spike protein.The reported anthraquinone derivatives were retrieved from an open-source database and filtered based on a positive druglikeness score.Compounds with positive druglikeness scores were predicted for their targets using DIGEP-Pred and the interaction among modulated proteins was evaluated using STRING.Further,the associated pathways were recorded concerning the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes pathway database.Finally,the docking was performed using autodock4 to identify the binding efficacy of anthraquinone derivatives with 3C-like protease,papain-like protease,and spike protein.After docking the pose of ligand scoring minimum binding energy was chosen to visualize the ligand-protein interaction.Among 101 bioactives,36 scored positive druglikeness score and regulated multiple pathways concerned with immune modulation and(non-)infectious diseases.Similarly,docking study revealed torososide B to possess the highest binding affinity with papain-like protease and 3C-like protease and 1,3,6-trihydroxy-2-methyl-9,10-anthraquinone-3-O-(6′-O-acetyl)-β-d-xylopyranosyl-(1→2)-β-d-glucopyranoside with spike protein.

An immuno-epidemiological model for transient immune protection:A case study for viral respiratory infections

The dynamics of infectious disease in a population critically involves both within-host pathogen replication and between host pathogen transmission.While modeling efforts have recently explored how within-host dynamics contribute to shaping population transmission,fewer have explored how ongoing circulation of an epidemic infectious disease can impact within-host immunological dynamics.We present a simple,influenza-inspired model that explores the potential for re-exposure during a single,ongoing outbreak to shape individual immune response and epidemiological potential in non-trivial ways.We show how even a simplified system can exhibit complex ongoing dy-namics and sensitive thresholds in behavior.We also find epidemiological stochasticity likely plays a critical role in reinfection or in the maintenance of individual immunological protection over time.

Infection-acquired versus vaccine-acquired immunity in an SIRWS model

In some disease systems,the process of waning immunity can be subtle,involving a complex relationship between the duration of immunitydacquired either through natural infection or vaccinationdand subsequent boosting of immunity through asymptomatic reexposure.We present and analyse a model of infectious disease transmission where primary and secondary infections are distinguished to examine the interplay between infection and immunity.Additionally we allow the duration of infection-acquired immunity to differ from that of vaccine-acquired immunity to explore the impact on long-term disease patterns and prevalence of infection in the presence of immune boosting.Our model demonstrates that vaccination may induce cyclic behaviour,and the ability of vaccinations to reduce primary infections may not lead to decreased transmission.Where the boosting of vaccine-acquired immunity delays a primary infection,the driver of transmission largely remains primary infections.In contrast,if the immune boosting bypasses a primary infection,secondary infections become the main driver of transmission under a sufficiently long duration of immunity.Our results show that the epidemiological patterns of an infectious disease may change considerably when the duration of vaccine-acquired immunity differs from that of infection-acquired immunity.Our study highlights that for any particular disease and associated vaccine,a detailed understanding of the waning and boosting of immunity and how the duration of protection is influenced by infection prevalence are important as we seek to optimise vaccination strategies.