Lassa fever (LF) is a rodent-borne disease that threatens human health in the sub-region of West Africa where the zoonotic host of Lassa virus (LASV) is predominant. Currently, treatment options for LF are limited and since no preventive vaccine is approved for its infectivity, there is a high mortality rate in endemic areas. This narrative review explores the transmission, pathogenicity of LASV, advances, and challenges of different treatment options. Our findings indicate that genetic diversity among the different strains of LASV and their ability to circumvent the immune system poses a critical challenge to the development of LASV vaccines/therapeutics. Thus, understanding the biochemistry, physiology and genetic polymorphism of LASV, mechanism of evading host immunity are essential for development of effective LASV vaccines/therapeutics to combat this lethal viral disease. The LASV nucleoprotein (NP) is a novel target for therapeutics as it functions significantly in several aspects of the viral life cycle. Consequently, LASV NP inhibitors could be employed as effective therapeutics as they will potentially inhibit LASV replication. Effective preventive control measures, vaccine development, target validation, and repurposing of existing drugs, such as ribavirin, using activity or in silico-based and computational bioinformatics, would aid in the development of novel drugs for LF management.

The fight against malaria is a continuum as the epidemic is not abating. For proper deployment of tools in the fight against malaria, an assessment of the situation is necessary. This work assessed the level of antimalarial drug treatment failure in Ebonyi State, Nigeria. Both survey and in vitro analyses were adopted. The survey was used to obtain qualitative information from both the malaria subjects and the pharmacies where antimalarial drugs are sourced. The results from the survey were complemented by an in vitro assay of the level of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) in the commonly used artemisinin combination in Nigeria; artemether/lumefantrine. Results from the survey revealed that artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) remain the mainstay in the treatment of malaria, even though other non-artemisinin drugs are still used. It also revealed that many patients still self-medicate, although, this may not be connected to the treatment failure seen among some malaria subjects. The in vitro assay showed that ACT contains the right quantity of APIs. Further surveillance is, therefore, necessary to understand the real cause of treatment failure among malaria subjects in Nigeria.

Glutathione transferases (GSTs) are the main detoxification enzymes in schistosomes. These parasitic enzymes tend to be upregulated during drug treatment, with Schistosoma haematobium being one of the species that mainly affect humans. There is a lack of complete sequence information on the closely related bovis and haematobium 26-kDa GST isoforms in any database. Consequently, we engineered a pseudo-26-kDa S. bovis/haematobium GST (Sbh26GST) to understand structure–function relations and ligandin activity towards selected potential ligands. Sbh26GST was overexpressed in Escherichia coli as an MBP-fusion protein, purified to homogeneity and catalyzed 1-chloro-2,4-dinitrobenzene-glutathione (CDNB-GSH) conjugation activity, with a specific activity of 13 μmol/min/mg. This activity decreased by ~95% in the presence of bromosulfophthalein (BSP), which showed an IC₅₀ of 27 µM. Additionally, enzyme kinetics revealed that BSP acts as a non-competitive inhibitor relative to GSH. Spectroscopic studies affirmed that Sbh26GST adopts the canonical GST structure, which is predominantly α-helical. Further extrinsic 8-anilino-1-naphthalenesulfonate (ANS) spectroscopy illustrated that BSP, praziquantel (PZQ), and artemisinin (ART) might preferentially bind at the dimer interface or in proximity to the hydrophobic substrate-binding site of the enzyme. The Sbh26GST-BSP interaction is both enthalpically and entropically driven, with a stoichiometry of one BSP molecule per Sbh26GST dimer. Enzyme stability appeared enhanced in the presence of BSP and GSH. Induced fit ligand docking affirmed the spectroscopic, thermodynamic, and molecular modelling results. In conclusion, BSP is a potent inhibitor of Sbh26GST and could potentially be rationalized as a treatment for schistosomiasis.

The rising burden of Diabetes mellitus (DM) globally and particularly in sub-Sahara Africa calls for alternative treatment solutions. This is because the currently available drugs for its management are limited due to undesirable adverse effects and high cost. Thus, this review explores diabetes and summarizes its treatment options, focusing mainly on medicinal plants therapy. Information on twenty-five selected medicinal plants from sub-Sahara Africa having hypoglycemic and anti-diabetic potentials was obtained via electronic search of major databases, such as Pubmed/Medline, Scopus, Google Scholar and web of science. Predominant bioactive compounds found in these plants include tannins, carpaine, terpenoids, hexadecenoic acid, luteolin, saponins, glycosides, rutin, quercetin, vindoline and kaempferol. Robust evidence indicates that these medicinal plants and their bioactive components exert their antidiabetic potentials via different mechanisms, including: regeneration of pancreatic β-cell and insulin secretion; inhibition of α-amylase, inhibition of intestinal glucose absorption and liver glucose production; antioxidative stress; limitation of glycogen degradation and gluconeogenesis; anti-inflammatory, immunoregulatory. DM imposes a tremendous burden in the region, and its prevalence is not abating; thus the rich flora of the region with known hypoglycemic and antidiabetic efficacy could be explored as a complementary therapy in its management.