The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a virus that manifests itself in viral infection with fever, cough, shortness of breath, renal failure and severe acute pneumonia, which often result in a fatal outcome. MERS-CoV has been shown to spread between people who are in close contact. Transmission from infected patients to healthcare personnel has also been observed and is irredeemable with present technology. Genetic studies on MERS-CoV have shown that ORF 1ab encodes replicase polyproteins and play a foremost role in viral infection. Therefore, ORF 1ab replicase polyprotein may be used as suitable target for disease control. Viral activity can be controlled by RNA interference (RNAi) technology, a leading method for post transcriptional gene silencing in a sequence specific manner. However, there is a genetic inconsistency in different viral isolates; it is a great challenge to design potential RNAi (miRNA and siRNA) molecules which can silence the respective target genes rather than any other viral gene simultaneously. In current study four effective miRNA and five siRNA molecules for silencing of nine different strains of MERS-CoV were rationally designed and corroborated using computational methods, which might lead to knockdown the activity of virus. siRNA and miRNA molecules were predicted against ORF1ab gene of different strains of MERS-CoV as effective candidate using computational methods. Thus, this method may provide an insight for the chemical synthesis of antiviral RNA molecule for the treatment of MERS-CoV, at genomic level.

The Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a virus that manifests itself in viral infection with fever, cough, shortness of breath, renal failure and severe acute pneumonia, which often result in a fatal outcome. MERS-CoV has been shown to spread between people who are in close contact. Transmission from infected patients to healthcare personnel has also been observed and is irredeemable with present technology. Genetic studies on MERS-CoV have shown that ORF1ab encodes replicase polyproteins and play a foremost role in viral infection. Therefore, ORF1ab replicase polyprotein may be used as a suitable target for disease control. Viral activity can be controlled by RNA interference (RNAi) technology, a leading method for post transcriptional gene silencing in a sequence-specific manner. However, there is a genetic inconsistency in different viral isolates; it is a great challenge to design potential RNAi (miRNA and siRNA) molecules which can silence the respective target genes rather than any other viral gene simultaneously. In the current study, four effective miRNA and five siRNA molecules for silencing of nine different strains of MERS-CoV were rationally designed and corroborated using computational methods, which might lead to knockdown the activity of virus. siRNA and miRNA molecules were predicted against ORF1ab gene of different strains of MERS-CoV as effective candidate using computational methods. Thus, this method may provide an insight for the chemical synthesis of antiviral RNA molecule for the treatment of MERS-CoV, at genomic level.

In the wake of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, staff and students at universities worldwide were forced to swiftly adapt to distance learning in order to continue with tertiary education. One of the main challenges we encountered during this period was a marked disconnect between staff and students, leading to lower motivation and engagement by both parties. To address this issue, we explored the social media platform Instagram as an interactive communication channel to engage first-year pharmacy students during an introductory organic chemistry course. This led to the development of @kemipilot, an open Instagram account where student questions were fielded and answered by creating educational images and videos. Despite being a small-scale study, the overwhelmingly positive student response, as well as comparisons between Instagram and the university student forum, suggest that Instagram may be a useful pedagogical tool to complement existing distance learning platforms, even beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pattern of Electrolyte Imbalance in Hospitalized DiabeticPatients 22% were on oral anti-diabetic agents and 6% were on medical nutrition therapy. Among the co-morbidities, hypertention was the most prevalent (61%), followed by ischaemic heart disease (24%), chronic kidney disease (21%), dyslipidaemia (8%) and fatty liver (4%). Diabetic peripheral neuropathy was present in 41% cases, nephropathy in 13% cases and retinopathy in 12% cases. Over all 78% (100 patients had electrolyte imbalance out of 128 patients) of patients had some sort of electrolyte imbalance, irrespective of cause of admission. Hyponatraemia was the most common electrolyte imbalance in this study (80%), followed by hypomagnaesemia (38%), hypokalaemia (36%) and hyperkalaemia (14%). In 11% cases there were hyponatraemia, hypokalaemia and hypomagnaesemia. Regarding the precipitating factors, vomiting was most common (51%). In 28% cases electrolyte imbalance was precipitated by various drugs. Diarrhea and renal failure were responsible in a minority of cases. In 4% cases no cause could be identified. No death occurred.Conclusion: From this cross-sectional study it can be concluded that, electrolyte imbalance is common in hospitalized diabetic patients. Serum electrolytes should be checked routinely in hospitalized diabetic patients irrespective of their purpose of admission.

Plague is a major health concern and Yersinia pestis plays the central causal role in this disease. Yersinia pestis has developed resistance against the commonly available drugs. So, it is now a key concern to find a new drug target. Cysteine protease YopT enzyme is an important factor used by Yersinia pestis for pathogenesis in its host and it has the anti-phagocytic function of removal of C-termini lipid modification. The 3D structure of cysteine protease YopT of Yersinia pestis was determined by means of homology modeling through multiple alignments followed by intensive optimization and validation. The modeling was done by Phyre 2 and refined by ModRefiner. The obtained model was verified with structure validation programs such as PROCHECK, verify 3D and ERRAT for reliability. Interacting partners and active sites were also determined. PROCHECK analysis showed that 93% of the residues are in the most favored region, 5.9% are in the additional allowed region and 1.1% are in the generously allowed region of the Ramachandran plot. The verify 3D value of 0.78 indicates that the environmental profile of the model is good. SOPMA is employed for calculation of the secondary structural features of cysteine protease YopT. Active site determination through CASTp proposes that this protein can be utilized as a potential drug target. However, these findings should further be confirmed by wet lab studies for a targeted therapeutic agent design against Yersinia pestis.

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a b s t r a c tBackground: The herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) is a virus that manifests itself in viral infection with painful, watery blisters in the skin or on the genitals as well as mucous membrane such as the mouth or lips. During an outbreak, the disease is contagious particularly and is irredeemable with present technology. Genetic studies of HSV-1 have shown that ICP22 (US1) gene is an immediate early gene and is responsible for genome replication and also has contribution in viral infection. Method: For disease diagnosis, ICP22 (US1) gene may be suitable target. Viral activity can be controlled through RNA interference technology, a significant method for the post-transcriptional gene silencing. However, in different viral isolates there is a genetic variability; it is very challenging to design possible siRNA molecules which can silence the respective target genes. The work was done by using various computational tools as similarity search, target alignment, secondary structure prediction and RNA interaction evaluation. Result: In our study two effective siRNA molecules for ICP22 (US1) gene silencing of seven different strains of HSV-1 were rationally designed and authenticated using computational methods, which might lead to knockdown the viral activity. Conclusion: siRNA molecules were foreseen against ICP22 (US1) gene of different strains of HSV-1 as effective aspirant using computational methods. Thus, the approach may deliver a vision for the chemical synthesis of antiviral RNA molecule for treatment of HSV-1, at genomic level.

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