Malaria has been responsible for the highest mortality in most malaria endemic countries. Even after decades of malaria control campaigns, it still persists as a disease of high mortality due to improper diagnosis and rapidly evolving drug resistant malarial parasites. For efficient and economical malaria management, WHO recommends that all malaria suspected patients should receive proper diagnosis before administering drugs. It is thus imperative to develop fast, economical, and accurate techniques for diagnosis of malaria. In this regard an in-depth knowledge on malaria biomarkers is important to identify an appropriate biorecognition element and utilize it prudently to develop a reliable detection technique for diagnosis of the disease. Among the various biomarkers, plasmodial lactate dehydrogenase and histidine-rich protein II (HRP II) have received increasing attention for developing rapid and reliable detection techniques for malaria. The widely used rapid detection tests (RDTs) for malaria succumb to many drawbacks which promotes exploration of more efficient economical detection techniques. This paper provides an overview on the current status of malaria biomarkers, along with their potential utilization for developing different malaria diagnostic techniques and advanced biosensors.

Medicinal plants have been the basis for discovery of various important marketed drugs. Xanthine is one such lead molecule. Xanthines in various forms (caffeine, theophylline, theobromine, etc) are abode in tea, coffee, cocoa, chocolate etc. giving them popular recognition. These compounds are best known for their diverse pharmaceutical applications as cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterase inhibition, antagonization of adenosine receptor, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, anti-oxidant and anti-tumor activities. These properties incentivize to use xanthine as scaffold to develop new derivatives. Chemical synthesis contributes greater diversity in xanthine based derivatisation. With highlighting the existing challenges in chemical synthesis, the present review focuses the probable solution to fill existing lacuna. The review summarizes the available knowledge of xanthine based drugs development along with exploring new xanthine led chemical synthesis path for bringing diversification in xanthine based research. The main objective of this review is to explore the immense potential of xanthine as scaffold in drug development.

Wheat seedlings were grown in presence of CdCl2 (0-200 µM) and Pb(NO3)2 (0-2000 µM) separately. The growth of metal-treated seedlings was significantly depressed. The activities of antioxidative enzymes namely superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT) and guaiacol peroxidase (POX) were altered both in root and shoot tissues of 7-d-old seedlings. Under Cd stress, SOD activity in roots was undetectable even at the lowest Cd concentration (50 µM) whereas in shoots it declined sharply with increasing Cd levels. The activity of CAT declined to a greater extent in roots than in shoots. Even though the POX activity increased nine times in shoots, a decreasing trend was observed in root tissues due to Cd stress. Under Pb stress, the induction in SOD activity and decline in CAT activity were sharper in root tissues than in their shoot counterparts. The POX activity increased both in roots and shoots under Pb stress. Malondialdehyde concentration increased in both roots and shoots of Cd- and Pb-treated seedlings. The results suggest that metal toxicity was associated with oxidative stress. The decline in CAT activity may be the probable reason behind the Cd- and Pb-induced oxidative stress, since the alterations in SOD and POX activities showed different trends under these metal stresses.

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Trypanothione reductase (TryR) is a validated drug target against Leishmaniasis. Using integrated computational and experimental approaches, the authors report doxorubicin and mitomycin C, known antitumor agents, as novel inhibitors of TryR of leishmania parasite. Interestingly, these compounds also act as subversive substrates and subvert the physiological function of enzyme by converting it from an anti-oxidant to a pro-oxidant. Possible mechanism of subversive substrate is discussed. Both doxorubicin and mitomycin C show significant effect on redox homeostasis of the parasite and high-leishmanicidal activity. The toxicity studies as well as available toxicity data in literature indicate these compounds to have acceptable toxicity in limited dose.