Microglia, a type of innate immune cell of the brain, regulates neurogenesis, immunological surveillance, redox imbalance, cognitive and behavioral changes under normal and pathological conditions like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Multiple sclerosis and traumatic brain injury. Microglia produces a wide variety of cytokines to maintain homeostasis. It also participates in synaptic pruning and regulation of neurons overproduction by phagocytosis of neural precursor cells. The phenotypes of microglia are regulated by the local microenvironment of neurons and astrocytes via interaction with both soluble and membrane-bound mediators. In case of neuron degeneration as observed in acute or chronic neurodegenerative diseases, microglia gets released from the inhibitory effect of neurons and astrocytes, showing activated phenotype either of its dual function. Microglia shows neuroprotective effect by secreting growths factors to heal neurons and clears cell debris through phagocytosis in case of a moderate stimulus. But the same microglia starts releasing pro-inflammatory cytokines like TNF-α, IFN-γ, reactive oxygen species (ROS), and nitric oxide (NO), increasing neuroinflammation and redox imbalance in the brain under chronic signals. Therefore, pharmacological targeting of microglia would be a promising strategy in the regulation of neuroinflammation, redox imbalance and oxidative stress in neurodegenerative diseases. Some studies present potentials of natural products like curcumin, resveratrol, cannabidiol, ginsenosides, flavonoids and sulforaphane to suppress activation of microglia. These natural products have also been proposed as effective therapeutics to regulate the progression of neurodegenerative diseases. The present review article intends to explain the molecular mechanisms and functions of microglia and molecular dynamics of microglia specific genes and proteins like Iba1 and Tmem119 in neurodegeneration. The possible interventions by curcumin, resveratrol, cannabidiol, ginsenosides, flavonoids and sulforaphane on microglia specific protein Iba1 suggest possibility of natural products mediated regulation of microglia phenotypes and its functions to control redox imbalance and neuroinflammation in management of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Multiple Sclerosis for microglia-mediated therapeutics.
Malaria, a mosquito-borne, protozoan disease is caused by a protozoan parasite of genus Plasmodium (Phylum: Apicomplexan). Four species of malaria parasites are recognized to infect humans. However, a fifth species, Plasmodium knowlesi, has been reported to show potential zoonotic infection in humans as several cases have been testified throughout South East Asia and on the Nicobar and Andaman Islands of India. The most widespread species of macaque in Southeast Asia i.e. long-tailed macaque (Macaca fascicularis) is the natural host for this zoonotic malaria species. Recent case reports have suggested knowlesi malaria are associated with comorbidities which leads to poor treatment outcome. In this review, we have searched the literature from PubMed and Google Scholar and tried to highlight the epidemiology, parasite biology and future challenges regarding this emerging zoonotic infection.
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Novel coronavirus pandemic has created a massive public health emergency causing around 1.85 million deaths world-wide till 5th January, 2021. New SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) coronavirus strain known as SARS-CoV-2 is the causative agent which infected more than 84 million people across the globe. Current epicentre of the pandemic has shifted to Europe and United States and Indian subcontinent from its place of origin-Wuhan City, Hubei province in China. Due to limited availability of vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 or its related β-coronavirus (SARS-CoV or MERS-CoV), mass immunization is currently not possible. Thus, use of curative therapies could be the only choice of intervention. Therefore, rapid treatment of millions of COVID-19 patients in limited time can only be achieved by repurposing pre-approved and existing drugs. Network-based high-throughput computational approach has also predicted several repurposable drugs. Cheaper, less toxic and well tolerated drugs such as antimalarial drugs: Chloroquine (CQ) & Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ); antiviral drugs: Remdesivir, Lopinavir and Ritonavir are among many others that have been proposed for the COVID-19 treatment. Presently limited controlled clinical trials are underway to assess the therapeutic outcome of these repurposed drugs along with novel candidate vaccines and medicines. Beside these, convalescent plasma therapy has also emerged as potential therapeutic approach being tested in several countries. This review focuses on few of the promising repurposed drugs and their outcomes that are presently under evaluation for their safety and efficacy against the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
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