Background: COVID-19 is a highly transmissible and pathogenic viral infection caused by SARS-CoV-2, which emerged in Wuhan, China and became a global pandemic. The aim of our study was to ascertain knowledge, attitudes and practices of pharmacists who are among the Frontline Healthcare Workers involved in infection control and prevention of COVID-19; employing a pre-designed semi-structured questionnaire.Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study employing a pre-designed semi-structured questionnaire was carried out among 200 pharmacists in Goa, using simple random sampling method. The study period was 1 month during March-April 2020.Results: Out of 200 pharmacists, the name of the disease was known by 87%, mode of transmission by 94.5% and major symptoms of the disease by 61%. Very few (28.5%) participants knew that quarantine is for asymptomatic contacts of the disease. Majority (69%) were aware that persons at risk should be placed under observation for 2 weeks. Only 18% knew that 6 feet constitutes close contact. A large number (93%) were aware of the preventive measures for the disease. Most participants possessed the right attitudes and followed correct practices- 96% were willing to avoid foreign travel, 90% preferred to avoid shaking hands during the ongoing disease transmission, 93% cover their face while coughing/sneezing and 98% maintain good hand hygiene.Conclusions: The knowledge among pharmacists of Goa though limited, was adequate in terms of epidemiology and clinical presentation of the novel disease. They possessed the right attitudes and followed appropriate preventive practices.

Glutamine is under scrutiny regarding its metabolic deregulation linked to energetic reprogramming in cancer cells. Many analytical techniques have been used to better understand the impact of the metabolism of amino acids on biological processes, however only a few are suited to work with complex samples. Here, we report the use of a general dissolution dynamic nuclear polarization (D‐DNP) formulation using an unexpensive radical as a multipurpose tool to study glutamine, with insights from enzymatic modelling to complex metabolic networks and fast imaging. First, hyperpolarized [5‐13C] glutamine is used as molecular probe to study the kinetic action of two enzymes: L‐asparaginase that has been used as an anti‐metabolic treatment for cancer, and glutaminase. These results are also compared with those acquired with another hyperpolarized amino acid, [1,4‐13C] asparagine. Second, we explored the use of hyperpolarized (HP) substrates to probe metabolic pathways by monitoring metabolic profiles arising from hyperpolarized glutamine in E. coli extracts. Finally, a highly concentrated sample formulation is proposed for the purpose of fast imaging applications. We think that this approach can be extended to formulate other amino acids as well as other metabolites and provide complementary insights into the analysis of metabolic networks.