Mosquito salivary glands are well known to facilitate meal acquisition, however the fundamental question on how adult female salivary gland manages molecular responses during sugar versus blood meal uptake remains unanswered. To investigate these responses, we analyzed a total of 58.5 million raw reads generated from two independent RNAseq libraries of the salivary glands collected from 3–4 day-old sugar and blood fed Anopheles culicifacies mosquitoes. Comprehensive functional annotation analysis of 10,931 contigs unraveled that salivary glands may encode diverse nature of proteins in response to distinct physiological feeding status. Digital gene expression analysis and PCR validation indicated that first blood meal significantly alters the molecular architecture of the salivary glands. Comparative microscopic analysis also revealed that first blood meal uptake not only causes an alteration of at least 12–22% of morphological features of the salivary glands but also results in cellular changes e.g. apoptosis, confirming together that adult female salivary glands are specialized organs to manage meal specific responses. Unraveling the underlying mechanism of mosquito salivary gene expression, controlling dual feeding associated responses may provide a new opportunity to control vector borne diseases.
A highly contagious coronavirus disease COVID‐19 caused by a recently identified severe acute respiratory syndrome CoV‐2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) initially detected in Wuhan, China has spread worldwide and become a major health crisis in the absence of specific vaccine or antiviral drugs. SARS‐CoV‐2 infection has resulted in overwhelming number of reported deaths. Unfortunately it is still spreading uncontrollably despite implementing stringent protective measures. Rapid development of effective therapeutic strategies for treatment and prevention of infection is crucially required. Although genomic characterization has assisted in unfolding various aspects of SARS‐CoV‐2 but development of specific antiviral drugs and vaccine against COVID‐19 is still a worldwide challenge. Understanding the disease pathological course underlying the clinical manifestations of COVID‐19 is imperative to identify the vital targets for drug development. SARS‐CoV‐2 uses angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor to enter the host cell and primarily target type II alveolar cells. COVID‐19 disease progression is associated with distressed immune functions and hyper active inflammatory system leading to development of cytokine storm which is a vital factor involved in disease advancement. The current review elucidates the disease pathology and summarizes the possible therapeutic options to battle against COVID‐19 on the basis of current state of understanding about SARS‐CoV‐2 pathogenic pathways and knowledge gained from previous SARS and MERS‐CoV epidemics. Therapeutic strategies to treat and prevent infection as well as to suppress the disease progression to reduce severity and mortality rate is discussed. Drug candidates currently under consideration and undergoing clinical trials for COVID‐19 treatment are highlighted.
Heterocycles and their derivatives hold an important place in medicinal chemistry due to
their vast therapeutic and pharmacological significance and wider implications in drug design and
development. Piperidine is a nitrogen-containing heterocyclic moiety that exhibits an array of
pharmacological properties. This review discusses the potential of piperidine derivatives against the
neurodegenerative disease Alzheimer’s. The incidences of Alzheimer’s disease are increasing nowadays, and constant efforts are being made to develop a medicinal agent for this disease. We have
highlighted the advancement in developing piperidine-based anti-neuronal disease compounds and
the profound activities of some major piperidine-bearing drug molecules with their important target site.
This review focuses on advancements in the field of natural and synthetic occurring piperidines active against Alzheimer’s disease, with emphasis on the past 6 years. The discussion also includes
the structure-activity relationship, the structures of the most promising molecules, and their biological activities against Alzheimer’s disease. The promising activities revealed by these piperidinebased scaffolds undoubtedly place them at the forefront of discovering prospective drug candidates.
Thus, it would be of great interest to researchers working on synthesizing neuroprotective drug candidates.
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