African swine fever virus (ASFV) adversely affects pig farming owing to its 100% mortality rate. The condition is marked by elevated body temperature, bleeding, and ataxia in domestic pigs, whereas warthogs and ticks remain asymptomatic despite being natural reservoirs for the virus. Breeding ASFV-resistant pigs is a promising solution for eradicating this disease. ASFV employs several mechanisms to deplete the host antiviral response. This review explores the interaction of ASFV proteins with innate host immunity and the various types of machinery encompassed by viral proteins that inhibit and induce different signaling pathways, such as cGAS-STING, NF-κB, Tumor growth factor-beta (TGF-β), ubiquitination, viral inhibition of apoptosis, and resistance to ASFV infection. Prospects for developing a domestic pig that is resistant to ASFV are also discussed.
The reemergence of monkeypoxvirus (MPXV) in 2017 after about 39 years of no reported cases in Nigeria, and the recent incidence in countries such as the United States of America, United Kingdom, Singapore, and Israel which have been reportedly linked with travelers from Africa, have heightened concern that MPXV may have emerged to occupy the vacant ecological and immunological niche created by the extinct smallpox virus. This study was carried out to identify environmental conditions and areas that are environmentally suitable (risky areas) for MPXV in southern Nigeria. One hundred and sixteen (116) spatially unique MPXV occurrence data from 2017–2021 and corresponding environmental variables were spatially modeled by a maximum entropy algorithm to evaluate the contribution of the variables to the distribution of the viral disease. A variance inflation analysis was adopted to limit the number of environmental variables and minimize multicollinearity. The five variables that contributed to the suitability model for MPXV disease are precipitation of driest quarter (47%), elevation (26%), human population density (17%), minimum temperature in December (7%), and maximum temperature in March (3%). For validation, our model had a high AUC value of 0.92 and standard deviation of 0.009 indicating that it had excellent ability to predict the suitable areas for monkeypox disease. Categorized risk classes across southern states was also identified. A total of eight states were predicted to be at high risk of monkeypox outbreak occurrence. These findings can guide policymakers in resources allocation and distribution to effectively implement targeted control measures for MPXV outbreaks in southern Nigeria.
The ceaseless quest for economical cellulase, an enzyme that hydrolyzes cellulose, has led to exploring diverse environments, such as insect guts. In this study, we report the optimization of cellulase production and isolation, purification, and characterization of cellulose-degrading enzymes from Aspergillus awamori AFE1. Aspergillus awamori AFE1 was screened for its cellulase-degrading ability, and molecular and phylogenetic analyses of the isolate were performed. Two activity peaks were observed during ion exchange chromatography. A final purification fold of 0.86 and 1.86 with a recovery of 0.18% and 0.44% were achieved for cellulase A and B, respectively; molecular weight of 48.5 KDa and 36.5 KDa for A and B, respectively. The optimum pH of 5.0 was observed for both purified cellulases, and both were stable at an acidic pH of 4.0. An optimum temperature of 60 oC for CA and dual optimum temperatures of 60 and 70 oC were obtained for CB, while both were stable at 30 oC with 63 and 61% residual activity after 2 h, respectively. Fe2+ stimulated both cellulase activity, whereas Zn2+, Cu2+, Mn2+, K+, and Na+ inhibited cellulase activity. Similarly, urea, ascorbic acid, and EDTA inhibited the enzyme. The enzymes were stable in the presence of some organic solvents. The Km and Vmax values were found to be 3.86 mM and 0.3159 mg/ml/min, 4.12 mM, and 0.223 mg/ml/min for the enzyme. The remarkable and unique physicochemical properties of cellulases from Aspergillus awamori AFE1 could be exploited for industrial and biotechnological applications.
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