No abstract

COVID-19, caused by a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, contributes significantly to the morbidity and mortality in humans worldwide. In the absence of specific vaccines or therapeutics available, COVID-19 cases are managed empirically with the passive immunity approach and repurposing of drugs used for other conditions. Recently, a concept that bacilli Calmette–Guerin (BCG) vaccination could confer protection against COVID-19 has emerged. The foundation for this widespread attention came from several recent articles, including the one by Miller et al. submitted to MedRxiv, a pre-print server. The authors of this article suggest that a correlation exists between countries with a prolonged national BCG vaccination program and the morbidity/mortality due to COVID-19. Further, clinical BCG vaccination trials are currently ongoing in the Netherlands, Australia, the UK, and Germany with the hope of reducing mortality due to COVID-19. Although BCG vaccination helps protect children against tuberculosis, experimental studies have shown that BCG can also elicit a non-specific immune response against viral and non-mycobacterial infections. Here, we summarize the pros and cons of BCG vaccination and critically analyze the evidence provided for the protective effect of BCG against COVID-19 and highlight the confounding factors in these studies.

Moths are the important component of terrestrial ecosystems due to their role as food resources for birds and small mammals, night pollinators, nutrient recyclers and potential indicators. The current study will be the first report on moth species identification, population, species composition, abundance, and their status based on IUCN category of moth fauna in Chemancheri panchayath, Kozhikode, Kerala. In this study period, totally 104 specimen moths were collected from the 4 sampling sites. Out of these, 61 specimens were identified, 37 specimens are consolidated in to 11 families and 22 specimens are consolidated in to 18 species. Based on the result shows the highest number of moth species, the Erebidae family was the most dominant, representing 36 species and followed by Crambidae representing 7 species, Noctuidae and Limacodidae with 4 species each, Notodontidae representing 3 species, Dripanidae representing 2 species, Eupterotidae, Zygaenidae, Geometridae, Bombycidae, Saturnidae with 1 species each. So from this we can conclude that species in the family Erebidae and Crambidae are dominant in the sites when compared to other families. The present study was designed to find the diversity and species composition of moths existing at different trophic level in food chain for sustainable ecological process in Chemancheri panchayath, Kozhikode, Kerala.

In Orange balloon Molly, Poecilia sphenops, the development of chronic stress due to continuous exposure to artificial LED lighting irrespective to photoperiod causes deterioration in the body colour even in the presence of carotenoid rich green water and artificial feed with added additives in the experimental fish tank setup. In the present study, the effects of continuous exposure to lighting and its consecutive development of chronic stress causes the body colouration to fade off in the freshwater ornamental live bearer, Poecilia sphenops, though the fishes were provided with colour enhancing as well as stress relieving factors. Several trials showed that, whatever may be the colour enhancing agents provided, artificial lighting for long exposure irrelevant to the normal photoperiod remains as a strong anti-colouration as well as stress inducing factor and remains unaffected to any antagonistic factors. To conclude photoperiod is an essential factor to be concerned for colour enhancement in Poecilia sphenops.

A study was carried out to reveal the growth inhibitory effect of methanol crude extract (MCE) and methanol supernatant extract (MSE) of sea weeds: 1) Gracillaria corticata, 2) Hypnea musciforms, 3) Gelidium micropterum and 4) Hypnea valentiae  against six bacterial pathogens, 1) Pseudomonas aeruginosa, 2) Bacillus licheniformis, 3) Serratia marcescens, 4) Aeromonas hydrophila, 5) Acinetobacter baumanii, 6) Escherichia coli and two fungal strains, 1) Aspergillus niger and 2) Candida albicans respectively. Well diffusion method using zone of inhibition as indicator for growth inhibition was adopted. The results showed that methanol extracts of seaweeds viz., Gracillaria corticata, Hypnea musciforms, and Hypnea valentiae prevented the growth of pathogenic bacteria and fungi. The effect on growth was observed as zone of inhibition, the diameter of which was indicated in the units of a millimeter. The growth of the bacterium, Serratia marcescens was affected by methanol supernatant extract of the three types of seaweeds, Gracillaria corticata, Hypnea musciforms, and Hypnea valentiae, and by the methanolic crude extract of Hypnea musciforms and Hypnea valentiae. However, the growths of other species of bacteria were not controlled by either of the extracts of the seaweeds except, Bacillus licheniformis which was controlled by only Gracillaria corticata. The growth of fungi: Aspergillus niger and Candida albicans were inhibited by the methanol extracts of Gracillaria corticata. Between the two forms of methanolic extracts i.e., supernatant and crude, the efficiency of the supernatant extract was greater than that of crude one. Further, among the three types of seaweeds which showed an effect on the growth of microbes, the level of the zone of inhibition caused by Gracillaria corticata was statistically higher than that of the other two, Hypnea musciforms, and Hypnea valentiae.