Green synthesis of metalloid nanoparticles and its biological applications: A review.

Synthesis of metalloid nanoparticles using biological-based fabrication has become an efficient alternative surpassing the existing physical and chemical approaches because there is a need for developing safer, more reliable, cleaner, and more eco-friendly methods for their preparation. Over the last few years, the biosynthesis of metalloid nanoparticles using biological materials has received increased attention due to its pharmaceutical, biomedical, and environmental applications. Biosynthesis using bacterial, fungal, and plant agents has appeared as a faster developing domain in bio-based nanotechnology globally along with other biological entities, thus posing as an option for conventional physical as well as chemical methods. These agents can efficiently produce environment-friendly nanoparticles with the desired composition, morphology (shape as well as size), and stability, along with homogeneity. Besides this, metalloid nanoparticles possess various applications like antibacterial by damaging bacterial cell membranes, anticancer due to damaging tumour sites, targeted drug delivery, drug testing, and diagnostic roles. This review summarizes the various studies associated with the biosynthesis of metalloid particles, namely, tellurium, arsenic, silicon, boron, and antimony, along with their therapeutic, pharmaceutical and environmental applications.

Herd Immunity Against Coronavirus: A Review.

The severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has spread exponentially, leading to an alarming number of deaths worldwide. A devastating effect has been observed in susceptible populations. Our body's immune system plays a very important role in fighting against diseases. The principle of herd immunity (also known as population immunity), which has found its way into science and has been in the limelight, is the most widely recognised among all. It is an indirect defence against infectious diseases when a community gained immunity, either through vaccines or through prior infection. Herd immunity against COVID-19 must be achieved to reduce the transmission of disease and save lives. Therefore, this review provides a comprehension of the role of immunity, with a special emphasis on herd immunity against COVID-19, and the ways to attain herd immunity in India have also been discussed.

Medicinal Plants for Glioblastoma Treatment.

Glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, demonstrates the least life expectancy among all brain cancers. Because of the regulation of diverse signaling pathways in cancers, the chemotherapeutic approaches used to suppress their multiplication and spread are restricted. Sensitivity towards chemotherapeutic agents has been developed because of the pathological and drug-evading abilities of these diverse mechanisms. As a result, the identification and exploration of strategies or treatments, which can overcome such refractory obstacles to improve glioblastoma response to treatment as well as recovery, is essential. Medicinal herbs contain a wide variety of bioactive compounds, which could trigger aggressive brain cancers, regulate their anti-cancer mechanisms and immune responses to assist in cancer elimination, and cause cell death. Numerous tumor-causing proteins, which facilitate invasion as well as metastasis of cancer, tolerance of chemotherapies, and angiogenesis, are also inhibited by these phytochemicals. Such herbs remain valuable for glioblastoma prevention and its incidence by effectively being used as anti-glioma therapies. This review thus presents the latest findings on medicinal plants using which the extracts or bioactive components are being used against glioblastoma, their mechanism of functioning, pharmacological description, and recent clinical studies conducted on them.

Role of bioactive compounds in the treatment of hepatitis: A review.

Hepatitis causes liver infection leading to inflammation that is swelling of the liver. They are of various types and detrimental to human beings. Natural products have recently been used to develop antiviral drugs against severe viral infections like viral hepatitis. They are usually extracted from herbs or plants and animals. The naturally derived compounds have demonstrated significant antiviral effects against the hepatitis virus and they interfere with different stages of the life cycle of the virus, viral release, replication, and its host-specific interactions. Antiviral activities have been demonstrated by natural products such as phenylpropanoids, flavonoids, xanthones, anthraquinones, terpenoids, alkaloids, aromatics, etc., against hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses. The recent studies conducted to understand the viral hepatitis life cycle, more effective naturally derived drugs are being produced with a promising future for the treatment of the infection. This review emphasizes the current strategies for treating hepatitis, their shortcomings, the properties of natural products and their numerous types, clinical trials, and future prospects as potential drugs.

Medicinal Plants against Ischemic Stroke.

Ischemic stroke is one of the major causes of deaths around the world. Prominent changes, including emotional, cognitive, and behavioral, in the Central Nervous System (CNS) are observable during the recovery phase of a stroke. Brain ischemia affects a large portion of patients across the world with permanent disability or death. During the ischemic stroke onset, apart from inducing brain damage, existing microglial cells, immune cells, inflammatory factors such as chemokines and cytokines affect the process of brain repair. For the reduction of this damage, there is a need to understand the basic mechanisms involved in ischemic stroke and how to repair it with the help of efficient therapeutic strategies. At present, anti-inflammatory therapeutic measures are the most potent alternatives for its prevention. Due to the existence of various drawbacks in this therapy, newer remedial measures are required to overcome this situation. The most economically efficient treatment option, with lesser side effects, is the utilization of medicinal plants. Worldwide, plants are utilized for the treatment of various diseases such as bacterial infections, skin disorders, cancer, asthma, respiratory problems, etc. Various medicinal plants have been administered over a long period, and they have been proven to cure ischemic strokes. Therefore, in this review, an overview of various plants and their phytocompounds, which are responsible for the treatment of ischemic stroke, has been discussed.