AUTHOR=Li Jun , Peng Peng , Lai Keng Po 

TITLE=Therapeutic targets and functions of curcumol against COVID-19 and colon adenocarcinoma

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Nutrition

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/nutrition/articles/10.3389/fnut.2022.961697

DOI=10.3389/fnut.2022.961697

ISSN=2296-861X

ABSTRACT=Since 2019, the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has caused 6,319,395 deaths worldwide. Although the COVID-19 vaccine is now available, the latest variant of the virus, Omicron, spreads more easily than earlier strains, and its mortality rate is still high in patients with chronic diseases, especially cancer patients. So, identifying a novel compound for COVID-19 treatment could help reduce the lethal rate of the viral infection in cancer patients. This current report applied network pharmacology and systematic bioinformatics analysis to determine the possible use of curcumol for treating colon adenocarcinoma (COAD) patients infected with COVID-19. Our result showed that COVID-19 and COAD patients shared a cluster of genes commonly deregulated by curcumol. The clinic-pathological analyses demonstrated that the expression of gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor subunit delta (GABRD) was associated with the patients’ hazard ratio. More importantly, the high expression of GABRD was associated with poor survival rates and the later stage of COAD patients. The network pharmacology result identified seven-core targets, including solute carrier family 6 member 3, gamma-aminobutyric acid receptor subunit pi, butyrylcholinesterase, cytochrome P450 3A4, 17-beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2, progesterone receptor, and GABRD of curcumol for treating patients with COVID-19 and COAD. The bioinformatic analysis further highlighted their importance in the biological processes and molecular functions in gland development, inflammation, retinol and steroid metabolism. The findings of this study suggested that curcumol could be an alternative compound for treating patients with COVID-19 and COAD. 
Keywords: colon adenocarcinoma; COVID-19; curcumol; bioinformatics; biological functions; pharmacological targets