Background Quarantine often is an unpleasant experience. The aim of this study is to explore the degree of psychological distress in terms of-Depression, Anxiety and Stress among the adult population in India during the strict 21 days mandatory lockdown. We hypothesize that quantification of psychological impact of current situation will help us to modify the policies and implementation strategies. This assessment might also help in future to keep targeted services in place, to cope up with the psychological distress of the quarantined population. Method A cross sectional survey design was adopted to assess the psychological state of general population in India, during the COVID-19 mandatory lockdown period, with the help of a validated questionnaire. Findings The reported prevalence of depression was around 30.5%, which was the highest among the variables of psychological health. Anxiety was reported by 22.4%, followed by stress which was seen in 10.8% of respondents. In the third week the incidence of depression (37.8% versus 23.4%; p<0.001), anxiety (26.6% versus 18.2%; p<0.001) and stress (12.2% versus 9.3%; p<0.045) was reported to be significantly higher as compared to second week. Interpretation Our results suggest a progressively detrimental impact of lockdown on various aspects of psychological health. We noticed around eight to ten fold increase in the prevalence of depression (30.5%) and anxiety (22.4%) during lockdown, as compared to baseline

Novel Coronavirus or SARS-CoV-2 outbreak has developed a pandemic condition all over the world. The virus is highly infectious and spreads by human to human local transmission mode. Till date, there is no vaccination or drugs been approved for the treatment by the World Health Organisation. Henceforth, the discovery of the potential drugs is an urgent and utmost requirement for the medical fraternity. Since, the side effects of plant-derived compounds will be lower compared to synthetic/ chemical drugs. The Main protease (3CL pro or NSP5) and endoribonuclease (NSP15) proteins are necessity for viral replication and its survival in the host cell. In the present study, in-silico approach of drug development was used to search for potential antiviral plant-derived compounds as inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 replication proteins. Eight plant-derived compounds of which the antiviral activity was known and available, and two reported drugs against SARS-CoV-2 selected for the molecular docking analysis. The docking results suggested that bisdemethoxycurcumin, demethoxycurcumin, scutellarin, quercetin and myricetin showed least binding energy, i.e., greater than À6.5 Kcal/mol against 3CL pro and endoribonuclease of SARS-CoV-2. Further studies of ADME-Tox and bioavailability of drugs were also performed that exhibited efficient parameters of drug likeness. Molecular dynamics simulation calculations were performed for the most negative binding affinity of the compound to evaluate the dynamic behavior,and stability of protein-ligand complex. Our findings suggest that these compounds could be potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 main protease and endoribonuclease. However, further invitro and pre-clinical experiments would validate the potential inhibitors of SARS-CoV-2 proteins.

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Burkholderia mallei is the causative agent of glanders which is a highly contagious and fatal disease of equines. Considering the nature and severity of the disease in equines, and potential of transmission to human beings, glanders is recognised as a ‘notifiable’ disease in many countries. An increasing number of glanders outbreaks throughout the Asian continents, including India, have been noticed recently. In view of the recent re-emergence of the disease, the present study was undertaken to estimate the prevalence of glanders among indigenous equines from different parts of India. Serum samples were analysed by complement fixation test (CFT) and ELISA for the detection of B mallei specific antibodies. A total of 7794 equines, which included 4720 horses, 1881 donkeys and 1193 mules were sampled from April 2011 to December 2014 from 10 states of India. Serologically, 36 equines (pony=7, mules=10, horses=19) were found to be positive for glanders by CFT and indirect-ELISA. The highest number of cases were detected in Uttar Pradesh (n=31) followed by Himachal Pradesh (n=4) and Chhattisgarh (n=1). Isolation of B mallei was attempted from nasal and abscess swabs collected from seropositive equines. Four isolates of B mallei were cultured from nasal swabs of two mules and two ponies. Identity of the isolates was confirmed by PCR and sequencing of fliP gene fragment. The study revealed circulation of B mallei in northern India and the need for continued surveillance to support the eradication.

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Objective. To express truncated TssB protein of Burkholderia mallei and to evaluate its diagnostic efficacy for serological detection of glanders among equines. Materials and Methods. In an attempt to develop recombinant protein based enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), N-terminal 200 amino acid sequences of B. mallei TssB protein—a type 6 secretory effector protein—were expressed in prokaryotic expression system. Diagnostic potential of recombinant TssB protein was evaluated in indirect ELISA using a panel of glanders positive (n = 49), negative (n = 30), and field serum samples (n = 1811). Cross-reactivity of the assay was assessed with equine disease control serum and human melioidosis positive serum. Results. In comparison to CFT, diagnostic sensitivity and specificity of ELISA were 99.7% and 100%, respectively. Conclusions. The indirect ELISA method using the truncated TssB offered safer and more rapid and efficient means of serodiagnosis of glanders in equines. These data highlight the use of TssB as potential diagnostic antigen for serological diagnosis of glanders.

Malaria is a major public health problem all over the world, particularly in tropical and subtropical countries due to the development of resistance and most deadly infection is caused by Plasmodium falciparum. There is a direct need for the discovery of new drugs with unique structures and mechanism of action to treat sensitive and drug-resistant strains of various plasmodia for radical cure of this disease. Traditional compounds such as quinine and related derivatives represent a major source for the development of new drugs. This review presents recent modifications of 4-aminoquinoline and 8-aminoquinolone rings as leads to novel active molecules which are under clinical trials. The review also encompasses the other heterocyclic compounds emerged as potential antimalarial agents with promising results such as acridinediones and acridinone analogues, pyridines and quinolones as antimalarials. Miscellaneous heterocyclics such as tetroxane derivatives, indole derivatives, imidazolopiperazine derivatives, biscationic choline-based compounds and polymer-linked combined antimalarial drugs are also discussed. At last brief introduction to heterocyclics in natural products is also reviewed. Most of them have been under clinical trials and found to be promising in the treatment of drug-resistant strains of Plasmodium and others can be explored for the same purpose.

The Drug Induced Liver Injury Network reports dietary supplements as one of the most important causes of drug induced hepatotoxicity, yet millions of people use these supplements without being aware of their potential life-threatening side effects. Garcinia cambogia (GC) extract is an herbal weight loss supplement, reported to cause fulminant hepatic failure. We present a case of a 57-year-old female with no previous history of liver disease, who presented with acute hepatitis due to GC extract taken for weight loss, which resolved after stopping it and got reaggravated on retaking it. Obtaining a history of herbal supplement use is critical in the evaluation of acute hepatitis.