and important epidemic and pandemic diseases, focussing on recent outbreaks of high-mortality coronavirus infections and diseases that disproportionately affect the developing world.

The fight against infectious diseases often focuses on epidemics and pandemics, which demand urgent resources and command attention from the health authorities and media. However, the vast majority of deaths caused by infectious diseases occur in endemic zones, particularly in developing countries, placing a disproportionate burden on underfunded health systems and often requiring international interventions. The provision of vaccines and other biologics is hampered not only by the high cost and limited scalability of traditional manufacturing platforms based on microbial and animal cells, but also by challenges caused by distribution and storage, particularly in regions without a complete cold chain. In this review article, we consider the

Purpose: Dry eye disease (DED) is a leading cause of ocular morbidity worldwide. This study evaluates the effects of combined light therapy [intense pulsed light (IPL) and low-level light therapy (LLLT)] on clinical and molecular outcomes in evaporative DED with meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD).Methods: This prospective study evaluated 94 eyes (47 subjects) with chronic MGD treated with combined light therapy. Patients underwent a detailed evaluation of MGD and DED using the Ocular Surface Disease Index, dry eye tests-tear breakup time and Schirmer test, ocular surface staining, meibomian gland expressibility scoring, and meibography. Patients underwent a single session of combined light therapy (IPL + LLLT treatment) using the Eyelight device. All these tests were repeated at 3 and 6 months after treatment. Tear fluid and ocular surface wash samples were collected from a subset of patients before and after treatment for cellular and secreted immune factor profiling by flow cytometry.Results: Combined light therapy (IPL + LLLT) demonstrated a marked improvement in the clinical metrics studied. Three months after treatment, Ocular Surface Disease Index showed a significant reduction in 95.6% (P , 0.0001), tear breakup time increased in 72.3% (P , 0.0001), and meibomian gland expressibility scoring increased in 80.8% (P , 0.0001) of the eyes. These effects were observed to be sustained during the 6-month follow-up visit. Significant (P , 0.05) reduction in tear fluid levels of interleukin-1b, interleukin-17F, and MMP9; MMP9/TIMP1 ratio; and ocular surface B-cell proportions was observed.Conclusions: Combined light therapy shows promising results in patients with chronic MGD and DED, even in recalcitrant cases. Clinical and molecular factor alterations support the improved symptomatology and reduced inflammation.

Background The banana (Musa sp., AAA) genome is constantly increasing due to high-frequency of somaclonal variations. Due to its large diversity, a conventional numerical and morphological based taxonomic identification of banana cultivars is laborious, difficult and often leads to subject of disagreements. Results Hence, in the present study, we used universal DNA barcode ITS2 region to identify and to find the genetic relationship between the cultivars and varieties of banana. Herein, a total of 16 banana cultivars were PCR amplified using ITS2 primer pair. In addition, 321 sequences which were retrieved from GenBank, USA, were used in this study. The sequences were then aligned using Clustal W and genetic distances were computed using MEGA V5.1. The study showed significant divergence between the intra- and inter-specific genetic distances in ITS2 region. BLAST1 and Distance methods proved that ITS2 DNA barcode region successfully identified and distinguished the cultivar and varieties of banana. Conclusion Thus, from the results of the present study, it is clear that ITS2 is not only an efficient DNA barcode to identify the banana species but also a potential candidate for enumerating the phylogenetic relationships between the subspecies and cultivars. This is the first comprehensive study to categorically distinguish the economically important banana subspecies and varieties using DNA barcodes and to understand its evolutionary relationship.

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