Mushroom has been used for consumption as product for a long time due to their flavor and richness in protein. Mushrooms are also known as mycoremediation tool because of their use in remediation of different types of pollutants. Mycoremediation relies on the efficient enzymes, produced by mushroom, for the degradation of various types of substrate and pollutants. Besides waste degradation, mushroom produced a vendible product for consumption. However, sometimes they absorb the pollutant in their mycelium (biosorption process) and cannot be consumed due to absorbed toxicants. This article reviews the achievement and current status of mycoremediation technology based on mushroom cultivation for the remediation of waste and also emphasizes on the importance of mushroom as product. This critical review is also focused on the safety aspects of mushroom cultivation on waste.

Mutations in the protein affect not only the structure of protein, but also its function and stability. Prediction of mutant protein stability with accuracy is desired for uncovering the molecular aspects of diseases and design of novel proteins. Many advanced computational approaches have been developed over the years, to predict the stability and function of a mutated protein. These approaches based on structure, sequence features and combined features (both structure and sequence features) provide reasonably accurate estimation of the impact of amino acid substitution on stability and function of protein. Recently, consensus tools have been developed by incorporating many tools together, which provide single window results for comparison purpose. In this review, a useful guide for the selection of tools that can be employed in predicting mutated proteins' stability and disease causing capability is provided.

BackgroundAcacia catechu (Mimosa family) stem bark extracts have been used traditionally as a dietary supplement as well as a folk medicine given its reported anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, hepatoprotective, antioxidant, anti-microbial and anti-tumor activities. The present study was undertaken to evaluate the anti-HIV-1 activity of the extracts from stem bark of A. catechu.MethodsThe aqueous and 50% ethanolic extracts of A. catechu stem bark were prepared and 50% ethanolic extract was further fractioned by successively partitioning with petroleum ether, chloroform and n-butanol. All the extracts and fractions were evaluated for cytotoxicity and anti-HIV-1 activity using different in vitro assays. The active n-butanol fraction was evaluated for its inhibition against HIV-1 reverse transcriptase, integrase, protease, pro-viral genome integration and viral Tat protein mediated transactivation. The effect of n-butanol fraction on the induction of pro-inflammatory cytokines secretion in Vk2/E6E7 cells and transepithelial resistance in Caco-2 and HEC-1A cells was investigated.ResultsThe aqueous and 50% ethanolic extracts of A. catechu showed IC50 values of 1.8 ± 0.18 μg/ml and 3.6 ± 0.31 μg/ml, respectively in cell-free virus based assay using TZM-bl cells and HIV-1NL4.3 (X-4 tropic). In the above assay, n-butanol fraction exhibited anti-HIV-1 activity with an IC50 of 1.7 ± 0.12 μg/ml. The n-butanol fraction showed a dose-dependent inhibition against HIV-1NL4.3 infection of the peripheral blood lymphocytes and against HIV-1BaL(R-5-tropic) as well as two different primary viral isolates of HIV-1 infection of TZM-bl cells. The n-butanol fraction demonstrates a potent inhibitory activity against the viral protease (IC50 = 12.9 μg/ml), but not reverse transcriptase or integrase. Further, in Alu-PCR no effect on viral integration was observed. The n-butanol fraction interfered with the Tat-mediated Long Terminal Repeat transactivation in TZM-bl cells, mRNA quantitation (qRT-PCR) and electrophoretic mobility shift assay (EMSA). The n-butanol fraction did not cause an enhanced secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines in Vk2/E6E7 cells. Additionally, no adverse effects were observed to the monolayer formed by the Caco-2 and HEC-1A epithelial cells.ConclusionsThe results presented here show a potential anti-HIV-1 activity of A. catechu mediated by the inhibition of the functions of the viral protein and Tat.

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