Basanti Brar

Nanotherapeutics: An insight into healthcare and multi-dimensional applications in medical sector of the modern world

In recent years nanotechnology has revolutionized the healthcare strategies and envisioned to have a tremendous impact to offer better health facilities. In this context, medical nanotechnology involves design, fabrication, regulation, and application of therapeutic drugs and devices having a size in nano-range (1-100 nm). Owing to the revolutionary implications in drug delivery and gene therapy, nanotherapeutics has gained increasing research interest in the current medical sector of the modern world. The areas which anticipate benefits from nano-based drug delivery systems are cancer, diabetes, infectious diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, blood disorders and orthopedic problems. The development of nanotherapeutics with multi-functionalities has considerable potential to fill the lacunae existing in the present therapeutic domain. Nanomedicines in the field of cancer management have enhanced permeability and retention of drugs thereby effectively targeting the affected tissues. Polymeric conjugates of asparaginase, polymeric micelles of paclitaxel have been recmended for various types of cancer treatment .The advancement of nano therapeutics and diagnostics can provide the improved effectiveness of the drug with less or no toxicity concerns. Similarly, diagnostic imaging is having potential future applications with newer imaging elements at nano level. The newly emerging field of nanorobotics can provide new directions in the field of healthcare. In this article, an attempt has been made to highlight the novel nanotherapeutic potentialities of polymeric nanoparticles, nanoemulsion, solid lipid nanoparticle, nanostructured lipid carriers, dendrimers, nanocapsules and nanosponges based approaches. The useful applications of these nano-medicines in the field of cancer, nutrition, and health have been discussed in details. Regulatory and safety concerns along with the commercial status of nanosystems have also been presented. In summary, a successful translation of emerging nanotherapeutics into commercial products may lead to an expansion of biomedical science. Towards the end of the review, future perspectives of this important field have been introduced briefly.

Nanodiagnostics: a new frontier for veterinary and medical sciences.

Infectious diseases are one of the greatest threats to animal and human population living in the developing world. These diseases have capacity to instigate in a small area and then open out very fast to the rest of the world and causing a heavy pandemic situation, for example; avian influenza pandemic. Such diseases infect large masses of population and may lead to loss of lives and also incur huge economic losses. Therefore, the best way to control these diseases is by diagnosing it at a very primary level and taking necessary precautionary measures so as to avoid the spread. Since last few years, the diagnostic approach has changed from tedious molecular biological techniques, to easy and rapid diagnostic techniques. Nanotechnology has extended the molecular diagnostics limit to nanoscale. These developed techniques do not require sophisticated laboratories and expert personnel, and hence are a cheap diagnostic approach. These assays can also be performed at the field level where the patient is present and get the results there itself. Hence, they are also called as pen side test or lab on chip diagnostic assays. The biological tests using nanotechnology become quicker, more flexible and more sensitive. These techniques have greatly influenced the diagnostic approach in the veterinary as well as medical field. Especially in the developing countries such as India, where the laboratory services are not Upendra Lambe 1 , Minakshi P 1, *, Basanti Brar 1 , Madhusudan Guray 1 , Ikbal 1 , Koushlesh Ranjan 2 , Nitish Bansal 1 , Sandip Kumar Khurana 3 and Manimegalai J 1

CANINE PARVOVIRUS- AN INSIGHT INTO DIAGNOSTIC ASPECT

Canine parvovirus (CPV) leads to an acute disease, characterized by hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, vomiting and myocarditis in dogs. The disease can affect dogs of any age but is fatal in pups. CPV has undergone genetic variations that have led to emergence of various CPV-2 antigenic variants such as 2a, 2b and 2c with replacement of the original CPV-2 circulating in the dog population. CPV genome is made up of 5.2 Kb nucleotides. Viral protein VP2 plays a very important role in determining antigenicity and host range specificity of CPV. The antigenicity as well as host range of CPV is determined by virus specific VP2 protein. That’s why the mutations that affect the VP2 gene are the main source of different antigenic variants. It spreads rapidly in the wild population of canines as well as domestic animals, infected feces serve as a main source of infection because the virus is shed in large quantity in the feces particularly 4 - 7 days post infection. The present review is focused on various

Occurrence of Neglected Picobirna Virus in Buffalo Calves Associated with Diarrhoea

Picobirna viruses (PBVs) thought to be neglected viruses, are emerging as causative agents of viral gastrointestinal infections in human and other animal species with enteritis. In the present study, a total of 408 fecal samples of diarrheic buffalo calves of under age of 2 months were collected from different locations in Haryana. These samples were preliminarily screened for PBV by RNApolyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (RNA-PAGE). The RNA-PAGE positive samples were further confirmed by RT-PCR using RdRp gene specific primer pair PicoB25 (+) and PicoB43 (-) for amplification of genogroup I PBV that generated an amplicon of 201 bp. Out of 408 buffalo calves fecal samples, 52 (13%) samples were found positive for genogroup 1(GGI) PBV using RT-PCR. Genogroup II (GGII) specific primer generating 369 bp product size did not show amplification in any of the samples. The results suggested occurrence of PBV in Haryana State with predominance of GGI PBV. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of detection as well as occurrence of GGI picobirna virus among diarrheic buffalo calves in Haryana State.

Virus-Host Interactions: New Insights and Advances in Drug Development Against Viral Pathogens

BACKGROUND Viruses are the most devastating pathogens of almost all life forms including humans and animals. Viruses can replicate very fast and may affect any metabolic and physiological function of the host cell. Therefore, it has been a challenge to develop a universal and common treatment against viral pathogens, in contrast to bacterial pathogens. Virus-host interaction is a complex phenomenon and often is virus- and host cell-specific. Exciting new insights into the molecular pathogenesis and host-virus interactions have been gained over the past few decades. These advances have enabled researchers to design better antiviral drugs. METHODS The literature related to various aspects of virus-host interactions: new insights and advances in drug development was collected from several scientific research related databases such as Science Direct, Google Scholar, Scopus, PubMed, AGRICOLA, and Medline, etc. Total number of 319 research papers was used to compile the information regarding drug development against viral pathogens. RESULTS Clinical adequacy of antiviral drugs and their bioavailability are important parameters for effective treatment of viral infections. The problems associated with effective delivery of a drug in a safe and desired quantity have led to the search for (and design of) better drug delivery systems. In recent past, several new antiviral drugs have been developed, which have high therapeutic effectiveness against life-threatening viral diseases such as HIV, hepatitis B virus, herpes virus, dengue virus and influenza virus infections. The majority of recent advances in antiviral drug discovery were possible due to the developments in allied fields such as in vitro virus cultivation technology, molecular biology of viral-genome-encoded enzymes, complete-genome-sequence-based studies of viruses and identification of suitable targets for antiviral drugs in viral genomes. Recently, several novel drug delivery approaches including small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) have emerged to aid antiviral therapy. CONCLUSION The present review is aimed at providing an update on research and development efforts being made to create effective antiviral chemotherapeutic agents and approaches to their delivery to appropriate targeted cells or tissues.