Highlights Insights into different diagnostic techniques of SARS-CoV-2 infection have been provided. We highlighted the importance of different diagnosis methods of COVID-19. Emerging drugs used in the treatment of COVID-19 are also discussed.

No abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is one such disease that has become a nuisance in the world scenario and one of the most deadly diseases of the current times. The etiological agent of tuberculosis, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb) kills millions of people each year. Not only 1.7 million people worldwide are estimated to harbor M. tb in the latent form but also 5 to 15 percent of which are expected to acquire an infection during a lifetime. Though curable, a long duration of drug regimen and expense leads to low patient adherence. The emergence of multi-, extensive- and total- drug-resistant strains of M. tb further complicates the situation. Owing to high TB burden, scientists worldwide are trying to design novel therapeutics to combat this disease. Therefore, to identify new drug targets, there is a growing interest in targeting DNA repair pathways to fight this infection. Thus, this review aims to explore DNA repair and damage tolerance as an efficient target for drug development by understanding M. tb DNA repair and tolerance machinery and its regulation, its role in pathogenesis and survival, mutagenesis, and consequently, in the development of drug resistance.

Nutrition plays significant role in the survival, growth and physiology of fish. Snow trout Schizothorax richardsonii larvae were cultured under three feeding regimes: control diet (diet D1) and test diets, supplemented with vitamin C (800 mg/kg diet, diet D2) and Achyranthes aspera seeds (5 g/kg diet, diet D3). There was no significant (P > 0.05) difference in the survival rate of larvae cultured under three different feeding regimes. Significantly (P < 0.05) higher average weight and specific growth rate and lower food conversion ratio were found in D3 diet fed larvae compared to others. Amylase, total protease, trypsin and lipase activities were significantly (P < 0.05) higher in D3 diet fed larvae and chymotrypsin activity was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in D2 diet fed larvae compared to others. Dietary supplementation of vitamin C and Achyranthes aspera seeds improved immune system as myeloperoxidase and nitric oxide synthase levels were significantly (P < 0.05) higher in enriched diets fed larvae compared to the control one. Reduced lipid peroxidation was recorded in enriched diets fed larvae as thiobarbituric acid reactive substances level was significantly (P < 0.05) lower in D2 and D3 diets fed larvae compared to the control diet fed larvae.

The present investigation was carried out to study gut content and accompanying digestive enzyme profiles of the three carp species, golden mahseer Tor putitora, snow trout Schizothorax richardsonii and hill trout Barilius barila. The fishes were captured from the River Ladhiya, Champawat district, Uttarakhand, northern India. The digestive tract length was on average 1.8 and 2.3 times longer than the body, while members of Bacillariophyceae, Chlorophyceae, Cyanophyceae and Zygnematophyceae made up 95.15% and 99.63% of gut content in the golden mahseer and snow trout, respectively. In hill trout, the digestive tract being only half the body length, gut content was insects (72.73%), eggs of aquatic organisms (22.73%) and nematodes (4.55%). Estimated gut enzyme activities demonstrated that amylase activity was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in golden mahseer and snow trout compared to hill trout, while total protease, trypsin and chymotrypsin activities were all significantly (P < 0.05) higher in the hill trout compared to other species. A strong co-relation was found among relative gut length, food composition and digestive enzyme activities of each species. This may guide the future formulation of feed to these important species of carps kept in farm.