Promising Antimycobacterial Activities of Flavonoids against Mycobacterium sp. Drug Targets: A Comprehensive Review.

Tuberculosis (TB) caused by the bacterial pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) remains a threat to mankind, with over a billion of deaths in the last two centuries. Recent advancements in science have contributed to an understanding of Mtb pathogenesis and developed effective control tools, including effective drugs to control the global pandemic. However, the emergence of drug resistant Mtb strains has seriously affected the TB eradication program around the world. There is, therefore, an urgent need to develop new drugs for TB treatment, which has grown researchers' interest in small molecule-based drug designing and development. The small molecules-based treatments hold significant potential to overcome drug resistance and even provide opportunities for multimodal therapy. In this context, various natural and synthetic flavonoids were reported for the effective treatment of TB. In this review, we have summarized the recent advancement in the understanding of Mtb pathogenesis and the importance of both natural and synthetic flavonoids against Mtb infection studied using in vitro and in silico methods. We have also included flavonoids that are able to inhibit the growth of non-tubercular mycobacterial organisms. Hence, understanding the therapeutic properties of flavonoids can be useful for the future treatment of TB.

The prevalence of MERS-CoV among military personnel and their families: A single-center study.

Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is a Betacoronavirus that results in a severe fatal respiratory disease; however, it is also associated with mild inapparent infections. The western part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) contains the holy places where millions of Muslims gathered from all over the world, all year round, with a high probability of mass disease transmission. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of MERS-CoV among military personnel and their families during the period 2014-2019, in the western part of the KSA. A total of 35,203 sputum samples collected from patients with respiratory distress were screened for the presence of MERS-CoV using real-time reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction in the examined patients. MERS-CoV infections were detected at a very low percentage in the examined patients. Only 42 of the examined subjects (0.12%) were found positive for MERS-CoV. Most infected cases (32/42) cases were detected in 2014, and the rest of the cases were reported in 2015-2019. The cases with fatal consequences (n = 20) were only detected in 2014. It was concluded that there is a very low prevalence of MERS-CoV infections among the military personnel and their families.