Unravelling the secrets of soil microbiome and climate change for sustainable agroecosystems.

The soil microbiota exhibits an important function in the ecosystem, and its response to climate change is of paramount importance for sustainable agroecosystems. The macronutrients, micronutrients, and additional constituents vital for the growth of plants are cycled biogeochemically under the regulation of the soil microbiome. Identifying and forecasting the effect of climate change on soil microbiomes and ecosystem services is the need of the hour to address one of the biggest global challenges of the present time. The impact of climate change on the structure and function of the soil microbiota is a major concern, explained by one or more sustainability factors around resilience, reluctance, and rework. However, the past research has revealed that microbial interventions have the potential to regenerate soils and improve crop resilience to climate change factors. The methods used therein include using soil microbes' innate capacity for carbon sequestration, rhizomediation, bio-fertilization, enzyme-mediated breakdown, phyto-stimulation, biocontrol of plant pathogens, antibiosis, inducing the antioxidative defense pathways, induced systemic resistance response (ISR), and releasing volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the host plant. Microbial phytohormones have a major role in altering root shape in response to exposure to drought, salt, severe temperatures, and heavy metal toxicity and also have an impact on the metabolism of endogenous growth regulators in plant tissue. However, shelf life due to the short lifespan and storage time of microbial formulations is still a major challenge, and efforts should be made to evaluate their effectiveness in crop growth based on climate change. This review focuses on the influence of climate change on soil physico-chemical status, climate change adaptation by the soil microbiome, and its future implications.

Harnessing the power of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) based microfluidics for next-generation molecular diagnostics.

CRISPR-based (Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-based) technologies have revolutionized molecular biology and diagnostics, offering unprecedented precision and versatility. However, challenges remain, such as high costs, demanding technical expertise, and limited quantification capabilities. To overcome these limitations, innovative microfluidic platforms are emerging as powerful tools for enhancing CRISPR diagnostics. This review explores the exciting intersection of CRISPR and microfluidics, highlighting their potential to revolutionize healthcare diagnostics. By integrating CRISPR's specificity with microfluidics' miniaturization and automation, researchers are developing more sensitive and portable diagnostic tools for a range of diseases. These microfluidic devices streamline sample processing, improve diagnostic performance, and enable point-of-care applications, allowing for rapid and accurate detection of pathogens, genetic disorders, and other health conditions. The review discusses various CRISPR/Cas systems, including Cas9, Cas12, and Cas13, and their integration with microfluidic platforms. It also examines the advantages and limitations of these systems, highlighting their potential for detecting DNA and RNA biomarkers. The review also explores the key challenges in developing and implementing CRISPR-driven microfluidic diagnostics, such as ensuring robustness, minimizing cross-contamination, and achieving robust quantification. Finally, it highlights potential future directions for this rapidly evolving field, emphasizing the transformative potential of these technologies for personalized medicine and global health.

Countering Zoonotic Diseases: Current Scenario and Advances in Diagnostics, Monitoring, Prophylaxis and Therapeutic Strategies.

Human life and health have interacted reciprocally with the surrounding environment and animal fauna for ages. This relationship is evident in developing nations, where human life depends more on the animal population for food, transportation, clothing, draft power, and fuel sources, among others. This inseparable link is a potent source of public health issues, especially in outbreaks of zoonotic diseases transmitted from animals to humans. Zoonotic diseases are referred to as diseases that are naturally transmitted between vertebrate animals and humans. Among the globally emerging diseases in the last decade, 75% are of animal origin, most of which are life-threatening. Since most of them are caused by potent new pathogens capable of long-distance transmission, the impact is widespread and has serious public health and economic consequences. Various other factors also contribute to the transmission, spread, and outbreak of zoonotic diseases, among which industrialization-led globalization followed by ecological disruption and climate change play a critical role. In this regard, all the possible strategies, including advances in rapid and confirmatory disease diagnosis and surveillance/monitoring, immunization/vaccination, therapeutic approaches, appropriate prevention and control measures to be adapted, and awareness programs, need to be adopted collaboratively among different health sectors in medical, veterinary, and concerned departments to implement the necessary interventions for the effective restriction, minimization, and timely control of zoonotic threats. The present review focuses on the current scenario of zoonotic diseases and their counteracting approaches to safeguard their health impact on humans.

Insights on the nuclear shuttling of H2A-H2B histone chaperones.

All cellular processes that involve the unwinding of DNA also lead to the systematic shuttling of histones. Histone shuttling across the nuclear membrane is facilitated by a class of proteins known as - histone chaperones. Histone chaperones are classified based on their binding to H3/H4 histones or H2A/H2B histones. During the shuttling process, two types of signals - NLS and NES are recognized by the nuclear transport proteins. However, this is the nuclear transport protein and the mechanism of signal recognition by the protein is still unknown. Thus, in this piece of work, the NLS and NES signals are predicted on important H2A/H2B binding histone chaperones. In addition, cellular localization and potential DNA binding regions of histone chaperones are predicted. Mapping of predicted regions on the histone chaperone's structure suggested that the critical binding regions mainly lie on the disordered region of the histone chaperones. NLS and NES are present in the N- and C-terminal of the histone chaperones. Most histone chaperones contain bipartiate NLS signals. This article sheds light on the crucial aspect that in addition of being directly engaged in nucleosome synthesis and disassembly in vivo, histone chaperone also performs various specific roles via histone binding activity.

Cancer treatment therapies: traditional to modern approaches to combat cancers.

As far as health issues are concerned, cancer causes one out of every six deaths around the globe. As potent therapeutics are still awaited for the successful treatment of cancer, some unconventional treatments like radiotherapy, surgery, and chemotherapy and some advanced technologies like gene therapy, stem cell therapy, natural antioxidants, targeted therapy, photodynamic therapy, nanoparticles, and precision medicine are available to diagnose and treat cancer. In the present scenario, the prime focus is on developing efficient nanomedicines to treat cancer. Although stem cell therapy has the capability to target primary as well as metastatic cancer foci, it also has the ability to repair and regenerate injured tissues. However, nanoparticles are designed to have such novel therapeutic capabilities. Targeted therapy is also now available to arrest the growth and development of cancer cells without damaging healthy tissues. Another alternative approach in this direction is photodynamic therapy (PDT), which has more potential to treat cancer as it does minimal damage and does not limit other technologies, as in the case of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The best possible way to treat cancer is by developing novel therapeutics through translational research. In the present scenario, an important event in modern oncology therapy is the shift from an organ-centric paradigm guiding therapy to complete molecular investigations. The lacunae in anticancer therapy may be addressed through the creation of contemporary and pertinent cancer therapeutic techniques. In the meantime, the growth of nanotechnology, material sciences, and biomedical sciences has revealed a wide range of contemporary therapies with intelligent features, adaptable functions, and modification potential. The development of numerous therapeutic techniques for the treatment of cancer is summarized in this article. Additionally, it can serve as a resource for oncology and immunology researchers.

Microbiome based approaches for the degradation of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs): A current perception.

Globally, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) pollution is primarily driven by their release into the air through various combustion processes, including burning fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and gas in motor vehicles, power plants, and industries, as well as burning organic matter like wood, tobacco, and food in fireplaces, cigarettes, and grills. Apart from anthropogenic pollution sources, PAHs also occur naturally in crude oil, and their potential release during oil extraction, refining processes, and combustion further contributes to contamination and pollution concerns. PAHs are resistant and persistent in the environment because of their inherent features, viz., heterocyclic aromatic ring configurations, hydrophobicity, and thermostability. A wide range of microorganisms have been found to be effective degraders of these recalcitrant contaminants. The presence of hydrocarbons as a result of numerous anthropogenic activities is one of the primary environmental concerns. PAHs are found in soil, water, and the air, making them ubiquitous in nature. The presence of PAHs in the environment creates a problem, as their presence has a detrimental effect on humans and animals. For a variety of life forms, PAH pollutants are reported to be toxic, carcinogenic, mutation-inducing, teratogenic, and immune toxicogenics. Degradation of PAHs via biological activity is an extensively used approach in which diverse microorganisms (fungal, algal, clitellate, and protozoan) and plant species and their derived composites are utilized as biocatalysts and biosurfactants. Some microbes have the ability to transform and degrade these PAHs, allowing them to be removed from the environment. The goal of this review is to provide a critical overview of the existing understanding of PAH biodegradation. It also examines current advances in diverse methodologies for PAH degradation in order to shed light on fundamental challenges and future potential.

Emerging treatment approaches for COVID-19 infection: A Critical Review.

In the present scenario, the SARS-CoV-2 virus has imposed enormous damage on human survival and the global financial system. It has been estimated that around 111 million people all around the world have been infected, and about 2.47 million people died due to this pandemic. The major symptoms were sneezing, coughing, cold, difficulty breathing, pneumonia, and multi-organ failure associated 1with SARS-CoV-2. Currently, two key problems, namely insufficient attempts to develop drugs against SARSCoV-2 and the lack of any biological regulating process, are mostly responsible for the havoc caused by this virus. Henceforth, developing a few novel drugs is urgently required to cure this pandemic. It has been noticed that the pathogenesis of COVID-19 is caused by two main events: infection and immune deficiency, that occur during the pathological process. Antiviral medication can treat both the virus and the host cells. Therefore, in the present review, the major approaches for the treatment have been divided into "target virus" and "target host" groups. These two mechanisms primarily rely on drug repositioning, novel approaches, and possible targets. Initially, we discussed the traditional drugs per the physicians' recommendations. Moreover, such therapeutics have no potential to fight against COVID-19. After that, detailed investigation and analysis were conducted to find some novel vaccines and monoclonal antibodies and conduct a few clinical trials to check their effectiveness against SARSCoV-2 and mutant strains. Additionally, this study presents the most successful methods for its treatment, including combinatorial therapy. Nanotechnology was studied to build efficient nanocarriers to overcome the traditional constraints of antiviral and biological therapies.