The novel zoonotic Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic: Health perspective on the outbreak.

During late 2019, the first cases of the Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) were observed in a Seafood Market in Wuhan. As the first cases took place in a seafood market that consumed live animals, it has been identified as a zoonotic disease. Some reports suggested snakes were the animal host, while others reported bat and pangolin were the sources of infection because coronavirus-origin of these two animals had similar genomic sequences to COVID-19. The common diagnosis method for detection COVID-19 was according to clinical manifestation, epidemiological histories, and ancillary tests, like CT scan, nucleic acid detection, immune identification technology, blood culture, Radiology, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). This review presented a perspective about current knowledge about COVID-19 in different aspects including probable zoonotic origins, and Coronaviruses classification was discussed in this context. In addition, epidemiology, clinical signs, treatment, and management strategies for controlling COVID-19 were also highlighted.

Optimization of culture medium to increase the production of desferrioxamine B (Desferal) in Streptomyces pilosus.

The aim of this study was optimization of culture medium in direction of increasing the production rate of desferrioxamine B. Streptomycetes are the most widely studied and well known genus of the actinomycete family. Streptomycetes usually inhabit soil and are important decomposers. The genus Streptomyces are Gram-positive and GC rich bacteria that are important for production of many antibiotics and secondary metabolites. These metabolites are important in industrial and medical fields. Deferoxamines (also known as desferrioxamine B, desferoxamine B, DFO-B, DFOA, DFB or desferal) are low-molecular-weight, iron-chelating compounds (siderophores) produced and secreted by many actinomycetes, including species of Streptomyces, Nocardia and Micromonospora. Streptomyces pilosus synthesizes the siderofore desferrioxamine B. Desferrioxamine B is used clinically to treat disorders related to iron overload and pathological iron deposition in human. Our results revealed that the use of soybean as a base medium plus additives such as Na2HPO4.12H2O, NaH2PO4, MgSO4.7H2O, ZnSO4.7H2O, FeSO4.7H2O, CaCl2.2H2O, NaCl, MnSO4, NH4Cl, KH2PO4, K2HPO4, some of the amino acids and vitamins increased the production of desferrioxamine B about 8 times in comparison with the control.