Structural insights into Leishmania donovani mevalonate kinase and its interaction with toll-like receptors during early infection.

Leishmania donovani mevalonate kinase (LdMVK) is crucial for isoprenoid and sterol biosynthesis, making it a potential target for both drugs and vaccines. Structural and immunological studies revealed its stability (pI 9.22, aliphatic index 89.

Phenotypic and molecular insights into a isolated from Helfer () and modelling of its polyhedrin protein structure.

Helfer () or Muga silkworm is popularly known for producing golden silk and endemic to the region of Northeast India. The present work characterizes a variant infecting larvae, exhibiting characteristic symptoms of flacherie disease. Scanning electron microscope and transmission electron microscope imaging revealed the presence of polyhedral occlusion bodies (OBs) and virion particles measuring 40-50 nm in size.

Insights from Shigella bacteriophage genomes analysis.

Shigella species, a major cause of shigellosis, remain a substantial global health issue and the emergence of antibiotic-resistant Shigella strains has aggravated the situation. Hence, four Shigella phages were investigated to provide insights into the evolutionary trajectories and genomic properties of Shigella-infecting bacteriophages using comparative genome analysis. Analysis shows that these four phages belong to the Tequatrovirus genus and include a considerable number of proteins for 'Tail' and "DNA, RNA and Nucleotide Metabolism," indicating their aptitude for specialized host interaction and replication efficiency.

Quercetin combined with ciprofloxacin and gentamicin inhibits biofilm formation and virulence in Staphylococcus aureus.

Biofilm formation, extracellular substance synthesis, and virulence factor production all have a major impact on drug tolerance and infection propagation caused by Staphylococcus aureus. Flavonoid compounds have been explored as potential solutions to enhance antibiotic efficacy against the biofilm formation of pathogenic microbes. Quercetin (QER) has previously demonstrated antibacterial and antibiofilm properties.

Exploring northeast India's culturable soil Actinomycetia for potent antibacterial agents against gram-positive bacterial pathogens of clinical importance.

This study investigated the isolation and bioactivity of Actinomycetia from the soil of Northeast India, a region rich in microbial diversity. A total of 187 presumptive Actinomycetia isolates were obtained and 53 were found to exhibit antimicrobial properties. Phylogenetic analysis based on 16 S rRNA gene sequencing revealed that the isolates were predominantly from the genus Streptomyces.

Emerging resistome diversity in clinical Vibrio cholerae strains revealing their role as potential reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance.

Background: This is a unique and novel study delineating the genotyping and subsequent prediction of AMR determinants of Vibrio cholerae revealing the potential of contemporary strains to serve as precursors of severe AMR crisis in cholera.

Methods And Results: Genotyping of representative strains, VC1 and VC2 was undertaken to characterize antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) against chloramphenicol, SXT, nalidixic acid and streptomycin against which they were found to be resistant by antibiogram analysis in our previous investigation. strAB, sxt, sul2, qace∆1-sul1 were detected by PCR.

Evolutionary divergence of TLR9 through ancestral sequence reconstruction.

The transmembrane pattern recognition receptor, Toll-like receptor (TLR), are best known for their roles in innate immunity via recognition of pathogen and initiation of signaling response. Mammalian TLRs recognize molecular patterns associated with pathogens and initiate innate immune response. We have studied the evolutionary diversity of mammalian TLR genes for differences in immunological response.

Emergence of Genomic Diversity in the Spike Protein of the "Omicron" Variant.

SARS-CoV-2 (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus) has constantly been evolving into different forms throughout its spread in the population. Emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants, predominantly the variants of concern (VOCs), could have an impact on the virus spread, pathogenicity, and diagnosis. The recently emerged "Omicron" variant has exhibited rapid transmission and divergence.

sp. MNP32, a forest-dwelling endowed with potent antibacterial metabolites.

The isolate, MNP32 was isolated from the Manas National Park of Assam, India, located in the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot region of Northeast India. Morphological observations and molecular characterization revealed its identity to be sp. with a 99.

Phylogeny and structural insights of lipase from Halopseudomonas maritima sp. nov., isolated from sea sand.

A Gram-negative, aerobic bacterial strain RR6 was isolated from the sea sand to produce lipase and proposed as a novel species of Halopseudomonas. The optimum growth occurred at 28-37 °C, and the pH was 6.0-8.

Theoretical Study of Dynamical and Electronic Properties of Noncentrosymmetric Superconductor NbReSi.

The noncentrosymmetric NbReSi superconductor with Tc≃6.5 K is characterized by the relatively large upper critical magnetic field. Its multigap features were observed experimentally.

Enablers and barriers towards ensuring routine immunization services during the COVID-19 pandemic: findings from a qualitative study across five different states in India.

Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to disruption in delivering routine healthcare services including routine immunization (RI) worldwide. Understanding the enablers and barriers for RI services during a pandemic is critically important to develop context-appropriate strategies to ensure uninterrupted routine services.

Methods: A community-based, cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in five different states of India, nested within an ongoing multicentric study on RI.

Natural selection shaped the evolution of amino acid usage in mammalian toll like receptor genes.

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are important as they are able to sense diverse set of pathogens associated molecular patterns (PAMPs) as ligands. These receptors are involved in functions such as immune response, development of signaling process and cell adhesion. In the present study we are interested to analyze the influence of evolutionary selection pressure on the mutational diversity of mammalian TLR genes.

Underlying selection for the diversity of spike protein sequences of SARS-CoV-2.

The global spread of SARS-CoV-2 is fast moving and has caused a worldwide public health crisis. In the present article, we analyzed spike protein sequences of SARS-CoV-2 genomes to assess the impact of mutational diversity. We observed from amino acid usage patterns that spike proteins are associated with a diversity of mutational changes and most important underlying cause of variation of amino acid usage is the changes in hydrophobicity of spike proteins.

Barley beta-Glucan and Zymosan induce Dectin-1 and Toll-like receptor 2 co-localization and anti-leishmanial immune response in Leishmania donovani-infected BALB/c mice.

Toll-like receptors (TLRs), TLR2 in particular, are shown to recognize various glycans and glycolipid ligands resulting in various immune effector functions. As barley β-glucan and zymosan are the glycans implicated in immunomodulation, we examined whether these ligands interact with Dectin-1, a lectin-type receptor for glycans, and TLR2 and induce immune responses that can be used against Leishmania infection in a susceptible host. The binding affinity of barley β-glucan and zymosan with Dectin-1 and TLR2 was studied in silico.

HIV long-term non-progressors share similar features with simian immunodeficiency virus infection of chimpanzees.

HIV-1 infection in human beings has been an outcome of cross-species transmission event of simian immunodeficiency virus from chimpanzees (SIVcpz). Present study reveals differential features of envelope genes representing different categories of HIV-1 disease progression in human beings, namely, rapid progressors (RP), slow progressors (SP) and long-term non-progressors (LTNP) with respect to SIVcpz, based on their amino acid usage patterns. It was evident that SP, LTNP and SIVcpz envelope genes displayed similar patterns of amino acid usage which strongly contrasted with the features exhibited by the envelope genes representing RP category.

HIV Progression Depends on Codon and Amino Acid Usage Profile of Envelope Protein and Associated Host-Genetic Influence.

Acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Two types of HIV have been characterized: HIV-1 and HIV-2. The present study investigated whether evolutionary selection pressure differs between rapid progressor (RP), slow progressor (SP), and long-term non-progressor (LTNP) of HIV-I infected individuals.

Systematic Analyses and Prediction of Human Drug Side Effect Associated Proteins from the Perspective of Protein Evolution.

Identification of various factors involved in adverse drug reactions in target proteins to develop therapeutic drugs with minimal/no side effect is very important. In this context, we have performed a comparative evolutionary rate analyses between the genes exhibiting drug side-effect(s) (SET) and genes showing no side effect (NSET) with an aim to increase the prediction accuracy of SET/NSET proteins using evolutionary rate determinants. We found that SET proteins are more conserved than the NSET proteins.

Similarity of currently circulating H1N1 virus with the 2009 pandemic clone: viability of an imminent pandemic.

The first influenza pandemic in the 21st century commenced in March, 2009 causing nearly 300,000 deaths globally within the first year of the pandemic. In late 2013 and in early 2014, there was gradual increase in the reported case of H1N1 infection and according to World Health Organization (WHO) report, influenza activity increased in several areas of the Southern Hemisphere and was dominated by the H1N1 pandemic strain of 2009. In the present study, a comprehensive comparison of the global amino acid composition and the structural features of all HA gene sequences of H1N1, available in the Flu Database (NCBI), from 1918 to December, 2014 has been performed to trace out the possibility of a further H1N1 pandemic in near future.

Dynamics in genome evolution of Vibrio cholerae.

Vibrio cholerae, the etiological agent of the acute secretary diarrheal disease cholera, is still a major public health concern in developing countries. In former centuries cholera was a permanent threat even to the highly developed populations of Europe, North America, and the northern part of Asia. Extensive studies on the cholera bug over more than a century have made significant advances in our understanding of the disease and ways of treating patients.