Jawad Alzeer

Cannabis has been used and misused to treat many disorders. Δ ⁹ -Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are the most important components of cannabis and could be used for recreational and medical purposes. The permissibility (Halal) status of cannabis is controversial, and its rational use is ambiguous. Global awareness and interest in cannabis use are increasing and its permissibility status, especially for recreational and medical purposes, needs to be addressed. Rationalizing the scientific value and Halal status of cannabis is useful for the rational use and maintenance of the compatible system. It is rare in Muslim countries to discuss the permissibility status of cannabis from the perspective of its value and composition. Using the analogy concept, the CBD component extracted from a cannabis plant in a clean and pure form is permissible to use in industry, particularly in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. If THC component is present in 99%, the mixture is considered permissible as long as THC is not intentionally added or intentionally left, but is mainly present due to the limited capabilities and efficiency of the purification methods. However, any amount of THC prepared with the intention to be used as an intoxicant is considered non-Halal.

The COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and is mainly considered a respiratory tract illness, even though it may influence other body functions. The virus spreads primarily through droplets of saliva or discharge from the nose when an infected person coughs or sneezes. The number of infected people and deaths associated with COVID-19 is increasing on a daily basis and the current third wave of the pandemic appears to be worse than the one that swept several countries over the summer. The only aspect that can be reasonably managed in this pandemic is the environmental stress, which is important to boost the patient’s immune system and the patient’s ability to recover. Here we propose a potential integrative method to prevent and or attempting to cure coronavirus patients using safe and available resources that can be administered easily by most patients. This treatment is taking advantage of the equilibrium Law as explained by Le Chatelier principle and implemented through the use of antiseptics/disinfectants that can be administered by inhalation without harming the patient’s health. This proposed method is expected to reduce the COVID-19 virus load to a threshold that could boost the patient’s immune system and speed recovery.

Significance: The pharmacophore of a clinically important prodrug, cytarabine (ara-C), was directly modified with an azide group that had little or no impact on its potency or mode of action. This “clickable” anticancer drug mimic unexpectedly revealed that the efficient incorporation of ara-C into DNA was associated with drug resistance rather than drug sensitivity. Our results therefore challenge a long-standing perception regarding the cell-type selectivity of nucleoside-based drugs. The mediators of ara-C resistance, DNA replication foci, were characterized using superresolution microscopy. In addition to providing detailed glimpses of individual replication forks in cells, these results suggest that new theranostic candidates for blood-cell analysis can be generated by introducing a bioorthogonal functional group directly into the pharmacophore of a Food and Drug Administration-approved drug.

A new method for the post‐synthetic modification of nucleic acids was developed that involves mixing a phenyl triazolinedione (PTAD) derivative with DNA containing a vinyl nucleobase. The resulting reactions proceeded through step‐wise mechanisms, giving either a formal [4+2] cycloaddition product, or, depending on the context of nucleobase, PTAD addition along with solvent trapping to give a secondary alcohol in water. Catalyst‐free addition between PTAD and the terminal alkene of 5‐vinyl‐2′‐deoxyuridine (VdU) was exceptionally fast, with a second‐order rate constant of 2×10³ m⁻¹ s⁻¹. PTAD derivatives selectively reacted with VdU‐containing oligonucleotides in a conformation‐selective manner, with higher yields observed for G‐quadruplex versus duplex DNA. These results demonstrate a new strategy for copper‐free bioconjugation of DNA that can potentially be used to probe nucleic acid conformations in cells.