Shyamapada Mandal

University of Gour Banga, India

Title: The plant-based active ingredients of some homeopathic medicines in the development of therapeutics effective against snakebite envenomation: bioinformatics approaches

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Biography

Shyamapada Mandal is Professor and Head of the Department of Zoology, and Dean (Science), University of Gour Banga, India. He is interested on infectious diseases, probiotics, and genomics and bioinformatics research. He did pre-PhD, PhD, and post-PhD research under the guidance of Professor Nishith Kumar Pal at Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine, India. He has published 118 articles with eight book chapters. He is life member of IAMM and IASR, India, and fellow member of SASS, India. Eight national academic and research awards have been conferred to him. He has guided 52 post graduate students; supervised three MPhil and three PhD students, and supervising 6 PhD and one MPhil students. Professor Mandal is among the world’s top 2% scientists as per the survey of the Stanford University, published in PLOS (Public Library of Science) Biology (October, 2020). He is featured in the top 2% world scientists list for second consecutive time as published by the Stanford University-Elsevier BV (October, 2021).

Abstract

Snakebite envenomation causes several critical, acute as well as chronic, public health problem particularly in rural areas of tropical developing countries, with tens of thousands of deaths. Phospholipase A2 (PLA2) activity of snake venoms are myotoxic or neurotoxic leading to inflammation, and thus, this enzyme (PLA2) has been regarded as an important target of modern drug development for snakebite treatment. The current study aims to determine the inhibition capacity of some plant-based homeopathic active ingredients against PLA2 in in silico systems. Molecular docking study revealed good binding affinity of homeopathic medicine active ingredients (ligands): Andrographis paniculata (Andrographis extract; ANP), alkaloid C, from Gelsemium sempervirens (GLS), melandrin (MLD), hypericin (from Hypericum perforatum; HYP) and cedron to PLA2 (target protein from Daboia russelii pulchella) with binding energy ranging from -9.1 kcal/mol to -6.9 kcal/mol, through different hydrogen bond formation and hydrophobic interactions. The 3-dimensional structures of the ligands, which were obtained from PubChem, obeyed Lipinski’s rule of five (RO5) and displayed good bioavailability score (0.55 – 0.56). Compared to the above plicatic acid (Thuja plicata extract; TPE) had lower affinity to PLA2 (binding energy: -6.3 kcal/mol) with low bioavailability score (0.11) and one violation of Lipinski’s RO5. Thus, plant-based active ingredients are effective against PLA2, and might be useful in the development of biotherapeutics, alternative and/or complementary to antivenom treatment, for snakebite envenomation.