In silico analysis and preclinical findings uncover potential targets of anti-cervical carcinoma and COVID-19 in laminarin, a promising nutraceutical

Abstract

Until today, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused 6,043,094 deaths worldwide, and most of the mortality cases have been related to patients with long-term diseases, especially cancer. Autophagy is a cellular process for material degradation. Recently, studies demonstrated the association of autophagy with cancer development and immune disorder, suggesting autophagy as a possible target for cancer and immune therapy. Laminarin is a polysaccharide commonly found in brown algae and has been reported to have pharmaceutic roles in treating human diseases, including cancers. In the present report, we applied network pharmacology with systematic bioinformatic analysis, including gene ontology (GO) enrichment, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) enrichment analysis, reactome pathway analysis, and molecular docking to determine the pharmaceutic targets of laminarin against COVID-19 and cervical cancer via the autophagic process. Our results showed that the laminarin would target ten genes: CASP8, CFTR, DNMT1, HPSE, KCNH2, PIK3CA, PIK3R1, SERPINE1, TLR4, and VEGFA. The enrichment analysis suggested their involvement in cell death, immune responses, apoptosis, and viral infection. In addition, molecular docking further demonstrated the direct binding of laminarin to its target proteins, VEGFA, TLR4, CASP8, and PIK3R1. The present findings provide evidence that laminarin could be used as a combined therapy for treating patients with COVID-19 and cervical cancer.