SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of COVID-19, has imposed a major public health threat, which needs effective therapeutics and vaccination strategies. Several potential candidate vaccines being rapidly developed are in clinical evaluation. Considering the crucial role of SARS-CoV-2 spike (S) glycoprotein in virus attachment, entry, and induction of neutralizing antibodies, S protein is being widely used as a target for vaccine development. Based on advances in techniques for vaccine design, inactivated, live-vectored, nucleic acid, and recombinant COVID-19 vaccines are being developed and tested for their efficacy. Phase3 clinical trials are underway or will soon begin for several of these vaccines. Assuming that clinical efficacy is shown for one or more vaccines, safety is a major aspect to be considered before deploying such vaccines to the public. The current review focuses on the recent advances in recombinant COVID-19 vaccine research and development and associated issues.

One of the most serious viral outbreaks of the decade, infecting humans, originated from the city of Wuhan, China, by the end of December 2019, has left the world shaken up. It is the successor infection of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) named as SARS-CoV-2 causing a disease called as . Being one of the most severe diseases in terms of transmission, this disease agitates the immune system of an individual quite disturbingly which at times leads to death, which is why it has become the need of the hour to step forward to extensively involve in understanding the genetics, pathogenesis, and immunopathology of SARS-CoV-2 in order to design drugs to treat or to design a vaccine to prevent. In this chapter, we have tried to review and summarize the studies done so far to understand the host-pathogen relationship and the host immune response during COVID-19 infection. One of the recent developments regarding the understanding of SARS-CoV-2 infection is the mechanism of immune evasion involved during the pathogenesis and cytokine storm syndrome during infection in the patient against which a drug called as Hydroxychloroquine has been designed. Comprehensively, we have tried to give an immunological insight into the SARS-CoV-2 infection in order to understand the possible outcome for any therapeutic advancement.

The novel Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus‐2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) variant, Omicron (PANGO lineage B.1.1.529) is being reported from all around the world. The WHO has categorized Omicron as a Variant of Concern (VOC) considering its higher transmissibility and infectivity, vaccine breakthrough cases. As of January 6, 2022, Omicron has been reported in at least 149 countries. Therefore, this study was planned to investigate the transmission dynamics and mutational prevalence of the novel SARS‐CoV‐2 Omicron variant. The transmission dynamics and Omicron SARS‐CoV‐2 divergence was studied using GISAID and Nextstrain which provides information about the genetic sequences, epidemiological, geographical, and species‐specific data of human, avian, and animal viruses. Further, the mutation prevalence in spike glycoprotein of Omicron was studied, and the frequency of the crucial mutations was compared with the other prevalent VOCs. The transmission dynamics suggest that the Omicron was first identified in South Africa and then it was reported in the United Kingdom followed by the United States and Australia. Further, our phylogenetic analysis suggests that Omicron (BA.1) was clustered distinctly from the other VOCs. In the Spike glycoprotein, the Omicron (B.1.1.529) demonstrates critical 32 amino acid changes. This study may help us to understand mutational hotspots, transmission dynamics, phylogenetic divergence, effect on testing and immunity, which shall promote the progress of the clinical application and basic research.

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Background and Aims: Oral cancer has been ranked as the sixth most common cancer globally. It has been reported to be increasing in incidence especially, in the southern parts of Asia which chiefly includes, India. Diagnosis of oral cancer is followed by a vigorous and highly morbid treatment protocol which drastically impacts the patient's quality of life. This in turn can cause extreme stress in a person. This study aimed to assess the impact of the practice of Yoga on stress levels in cancer patients. Materials and Methods: A total of 200 subjects diagnosed with oral cancer were selected for this study. Their stress levels were scored both before and after initiating the practice of Yogic exercises in a one-month interval using a questionnaire. Obtained scores were entered in Microsoft Excel 2007 worksheet and an unpaired t -test was applied. P values of less than 0.05 and 0.001 were considered statistically significant and extremely significant, respectively. Results: Study results showed a reduction in stress level scores (48 ± 0.99 to 37 ± 5.2) after adopting yoga for one month. An extremely significant P value of less than 0.001 was obtained. Conclusion: It can be concluded from this study that yoga is an effective method in reducing stress levels in individuals diagnosed with oral cancer.

We report a case of an anomalous origin of a right coronary artery from the left coronary sinus with an inter-arterial course, between the aorta and the main pulmonary artery. This variant has been called malignant because of its association with sudden death, especially in young asymptomatic athletes. Although these variants are rare, knowledge of cross sectional anatomy of the coronary arteries and their variants is critical, especially because some variants are associated with sudden death.

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) causing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is a serious global threat until we identify the effective preventive and therapeutic strategies. SARS-CoV-2 infection is characterized by various immunopathological consequences including lymphocyte activation and dysfunction, lymphopenia, cytokine storm, increased level of neutrophils, and depletion and exhaustion of lymphocytes. Considering the low level of antibody-mediated protection during coronavirus infection, understanding the role of T cell for long-term protection is decisive. Both CD4+ and CD8+ T cell response is imperative for cell-mediated immune response during COVID-19. However, the level of CD8+ T cell response reduced to almost half as compared to CD4+ after 6 months of infection. The long-term protection is mediated via generation of immunological memory response during COVID-19. The presence of memory CD4+ T cells in all the severely infected and recovered individuals shows that the memory response is predominated by CD4+ T cells. Prominently, the antigen-specific CD4+ and CD8+ T cells are specifically observed during day 0 to day 28 in COVID-19-vaccinated individuals. However, level of antigen-specific T memory cells in COVID-19-vaccinated individuals defines the long-term protection against forthcoming outbreaks of SARS-CoV-2.

An ongoing pandemic Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by a newly emerged Coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 has affected millions of people globally. One of the most crucial structural proteins of SARS-CoV-2 is the Spike glycoprotein (S-glycoprotein), for which the first de novo modelling was envisaged by our group in early 2020, and was superimposed to its predecessor SARS-CoV S-glycoprotein, to determine structural divergence, glycosylation and antigenic variation between SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV. S-glycoprotein is involved in binding with the cellular receptor, membrane fusion, internalization via angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor, and tissue tropism. Upon internalization into the target host cells, the viral genome encodes two precursor polypeptides which get processed into 16 mature nonstructural proteins that play a crucial role in replication and transcription of SARS-CoV-2. Currently S-glycoprotein is one of the most vital targets for vaccine and therapeutics development for COVID-19.