Various internal and external factors negatively affect the homeostatic equilibrium of organisms at the molecular to the whole-body level, inducing the so-called state of stress. Stress affects an organism's welfare status and induces energy-consuming mechanisms to combat the subsequent ill effects; thus, the individual may be immunocompromised, making them vulnerable to pathogens. The information presented here has been extensively reviewed, compiled, and analyzed from authenticated published resources available on Medline, PubMed, PubMed Central, Science Direct, and other scientific databases. Stress levels can be monitored by the quantitative and qualitative measurement of biomarkers. Potential markers of stress include thermal stress markers, such as heat shock proteins (HSPs), innate immune markers, such as Acute Phase Proteins (APPs), oxidative stress markers, and chemical secretions in the saliva and urine. In addition, stress biomarkers also play critical roles in the prognosis of stress-related diseases and disorders, and therapy guidance. Moreover, different components have been identified as potent mediators of cardiovascular, central nervous system, hepatic, and nephrological disorders, which can also be employed to evaluate these conditions precisely, but with stringent validation and specificity. Considerable scientific advances have been made in the detection, quantitation, and application of these biomarkers. The present review describes the current progress of identifying biomarkers, their prognostic, and therapeutic values.

Autophagy (self-eating) is a conserved cellular degradation process that plays important roles in maintaining homeostasis and preventing nutritional, metabolic, and infection-mediated stresses. Autophagy dysfunction can have various pathological consequences, including tumor progression, pathogen hyper-virulence, and neurodegeneration. This review describes the mechanisms of autophagy and its associations with other cell death mechanisms, including apoptosis, necrosis, necroptosis, and autosis. Autophagy has both positive and negative roles in infection, cancer, neural development, metabolism, cardiovascular health, immunity, and iron homeostasis. Genetic defects in autophagy can have pathological consequences, such as static childhood encephalopathy with neurodegeneration in adulthood, Crohn’s disease, hereditary spastic paraparesis, Danon disease, X-linked myopathy with excessive autophagy, and sporadic inclusion body myositis. Further studies on the process of autophagy in different microbial infections could help to design and develop novel therapeutic strategies against important pathogenic microbes. This review on the progress and prospects of autophagy research describes various activators and suppressors, which could be used to design novel intervention strategies against numerous diseases and develop therapeutic drugs to protect human and animal health.

In view of the worldwide economic and environmental issues associated with the extensive use of petro-chemicals, there has been increasing research interest during the past decade in the value of residual biomass. Because of its renewable nature and abundant availability, residual biomass has attracted considerable attention as an alternate feedstock and potential energy source. To expand the range of natural bio-resources, significant progress related to the lignocellulose biotechnology has been achieved, and researchers have been re-directing their interests to biomass-based fuels, ligninolytic enzymes, chemicals, and biocompatible materials, which can be obtained from a variety of lignocellulosic waste materials. This review article focuses on the potential applications of lignocellulosic materials in biotechnology, including the production of bio-fuels, enzymes, chemicals, the pulp and paper, animal feed, and composites.

This paper reports the purification and characterization of kinetic parameters of cellulase produced from Trichoderma viride under still culture solid state fermentation technique using cheap and an easily available agricultural waste material, wheat straw as growth supported substrate. Trichoderma viride was cultured in fermentation medium of wheat straw under some previously optimized growth conditions and maximum activity of 398 ± 2.43 U/mL obtained after stipulated fermentation time period. Cellulase was purified 2.33 fold with specific activity of 105 U/mg in comparison to crude enzyme extract using ammonium sulfate precipitation, dialysis and Sephadex-G-100 column chromatography. The enzyme was shown to have a relative low molecular weight of 58 kDa by sodium dodecyl sulphate poly-acrylamide gel electrophoresis. The purified enzyme displayed 6.5 and 55˚C as an optimum pH and temperature respectively. Using carboxymethyl cellulose as substrate, the enzyme showed maximum activity (V max ) of 148 U/mL with its corresponding K M value of 68 µM. Among activators/inhibitors SDS, EDTA, and Hg 2+ showed inhibitory effect on purified cellulase whereas, the enzyme activated by Co 2+ and Mn 2+ at a concentration of 1 mM. The purified cellulase was compatible with four local detergent brands with up to 20 days of shelf life at room temperature suggesting its potential as a detergent additive for improved washing therefore, it is concluded that it may be potentially useful for industrial purposes especially for detergent and laundry industry.

In summary, this review summarizes the current status and future prospects regarding the immunomodulatory potential of various herbs and plants and their promising utility for designing and developing effective drugs and medicines in safeguarding the health of humans, animals, and poultry.