The newly identified 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has become a public health concern globally posing a significant threat to human health and economy and creating an unprecedented crisis in all spheres of the global life. Emergence of new genotypes of SARS-CoV during the last few years has pointed out the limited efficacy of available vaccines and antivirals, constraining the global response to the COVID-19 outburst to largely monitoring/containment. There is high priority for treatment regimes and new potential therapeutic and vaccine strategies. Several candidates have shown promising outcomes in various in vitro and in vivo models. In addition, clinical trials are in progress to test conceivable therapies showing promising outcomes in various in vivo studies. Unfortunately, very little information is available in the scientific scope which offers details to the diverse strategies being targeted to fight the pandemic, particularly with respect to the molecular targets. This review article summarizes and highlights the ongoing advances and approaches that are being carried out across the globe in designing vaccines and novel therapeutics, with particular reference to the previous knowledge gained from other viral infections like with the earlier SARS and MERS-CoV. A detailed knowledge may pave the way to combat this pandemic COVID-19 as well as prevent similar deadly epidemics in future.
West Bengal has several leather industries and as such huge amount of leather are processed every year. The tannery effluents are discharged into the land and open water causing soil and water pollution respectively. Chromium is one of the most toxic inorganic contaminants which is well known for its carcinogenicity. Thus, our study focuses on investigating the bioremediation potential of common microflora isolated from tannery wastewater. In our study, Isolate 1 has the highest ability to reduce chromium (Cr6+) as compared to others. Isolate 4 has the highest protease, lipase and leather degradation activities. Isolate 1 shows the maximum keratinase activity making it an effective strain for keratinase production. Also, it has been found that pH 8 and temperature 40 °C was most suitable for keratinase production. Owing to the multidimensional ability of these two isolates, they were identified by 16S rRNA sequencing and it reveals that Isolate 1 and Isolate 4 belong to Bacillus cereus F4810/72 and Brevibacillus brevis F4810/72 respectively. Thus, this study establishes the role and efficiencies of these microorganisms in combatting pollution, particularly in the water bodies in which harmful chemicals leak regularly owing to improper waste management by various industries.
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