Rajneesh Rana

Medicinal and Therapeutic Potential of Herbs and Plant Metabolites / Extracts Countering Viral Pathogens - Current Knowledge and Future Prospects

BACKGROUND Recently, there has been a remarkable progress in the field of antiviral herbal therapy owing to increasing concerns about the development of drug resistance and limited advances in the field of antiviral drug discovery. In almost all countries, medicinal plants have been used widely throughout history for the treatment of diseases and infections as traditional healing remedies due to their broad therapeutic spectrum and minimal or no side effects. As synthetic antiviral drugs are not available against most of the viral agents, hence all possible efforts have been focused on the search for new drugs and complementary/alternative medicines from different herbal formulations. METHODS We have retrieved the related information from the online published resources (Medline, PubMed, Pub- Med Central, Science Direct and other scientific databases); which were further analyzed and compiled. RESULTS Medicinal plants contain extractable biochemical and bioactive compounds, which can target certain viruses or can cure or prevent several viral diseases and infections. Despite their long history of use, the research and scientific evidences regarding the use of medicinal plants and natural products as prophylactics, therapeutics, and their health multiple beneficial applications have only gained momentum in past few decades. Many scientific studies have been undertaken, which range from the separation of active substances to the comprehension of the therapeutic mechanisms of antiviral herbs, their potent applications in the neutralization of viral pathogens and clinical trials. Consequently, hundreds of herbs and plant metabolites have been screened, identified, and tested for their antiviral activities; fortunately, some have shown significant medicinal activity in the amelioration or prevention of various viral diseases in both preclinical and clinical studies. CONCLUSION This review addresses the scientific significance of various herbal formulations of different medicinal plants and their extracts, which have shown promise or been proven effective for the treatment of diseases caused by various viral pathogens, including emerging and re-emerging viruses that infect humans, animals, poultry and fish.

Prevalence, diagnosis, management and control of important diseases of ruminants with special reference to Indian scenario.

India possess huge livestock population, which is endangered by different endemic infectious diseases (bacterial, viral, protozoan and parasitic), which collectively causes significant economic losses to the landless poor farming community. Infectious diseases impose economic losses by causing morbidity, mortality, decreased production (milk, meat, wool etc.), decreased feed conversion ratio which results in reduced weight gain, decreased draught power and fertility. Furthermore, economic burden is also due to the cost of treatment, abortion, consequences on internal livestock movement, germplasm and international trade. In addition, some of the diseases are zoonotic and inflicts considerable impact on public health. Uncertain agrarian climate, unpredictable weather, drought, floods, migration of livestock, scarcity of fodders, and unhygienic zoo-sanitary and healthcare practices together resulted in endemicity of diseases ultimately leads to more incidence and prevalence of livestock and poultry diseases throughout the year. Synchronized monitoring and surveillance of disease throughout the country is a fundamental requirement for sustainable livestock production. With fairly developed telecommunication in India, following technologies like interactive voice response system, SMS through mobile/cell phones and toll-free landline phones (voice mail) are required for enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of

Isolation and Characterization of Mycoplasma mycoides Subspecies capri from Milk of Natural Goat Mastitis Cases

Association of Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies capri (Mmc) with natural goat mastitis has been studied earlier largely by detecting the Mmc DNA using molecular methods. However, report on detection of cultivable Mmc isolates from natural goat-mastitis milk is still very rare. In this study, Mmc was isolated from milk samples (n = 171) of goats with or without clinical signs of mastitis. Mmc isolates were further characterized by biochemical and species-specific PCR methods. Intra species strain variation was also studied by 16S amplified rDNA restriction analysis (16S ARDRA). The study recovered a total of 6 Mmc isolates (3.5%). Three types of intraspecies variants among the recovered Mmc isolates were found by 16S ARDRA. The study concluded that Mmc may be an etiological agent of mycoplasmal mastitis in Indian goat herds.

Cloning and expression of P67 protein of Mycoplasma leachii

Aim: The present study was undertaken to clone, express and study the immunogenicity of P67 protein of Mycoplasma leachii. Materials and Methods: P67 gene was amplified from genomic DNA of M. leachii. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) product was inserted in pRham N-His SUMO Kan vector and was used to transform competent Escherichia cloni 10G cells. Recombinant protein expression was done by inducing cells with 0.2% Rhamnose. Purification was done using nickel nitrilotriacetic acid affinity chromatography. Western blot and dot blot analysis were performed to assess the immunoreactivity of P67 protein. Results: PCR amplicon size of P67 gene was found to be 1500 base pair. The size of the fusion protein with SUMO tag was 79 kDa in sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis analysis. The recombinant P67 fusion protein expressed in pRham N-His SUMO Kan vector was found to be immunogenic in both western blot and dot blot analysis. Conclusion: Western blot and dot blot analysis of P67 protein of M. leachii revealed that the protein is immunogenic. Further work is needed to evaluate the role of P67 antigen of M. leachii as an immunodiagnostic agent.

MYCOPLASMOSIS IN SMALL RUMINANTS IN INDIA: A REVIEW

Mycoplasmosis, the diseases caused by mycoplasma, are one of the challenging and continuous threats to small ruminant farming. They cause heavy morbidity (upto 100%), mortality (10-100%) and huge economic loss. Common diseases caused by mycoplasma organisms are contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (mostly in goats), contagious agalactia (both sheep and goats), atypical pneumonia (usually sheep), besides arthritis, mastitis, seminal vesiculitis, ampullitis, epididymitis, orchitis, urethritis, conjunctivitis and meningitis either alone or as classical syndromes. The common mycoplasma includes Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies mycoides, M. mycoides subsp. capri, M. capricolum subsp. capripneumoniae, M. capricolum subsp. capricolum, M. agalactiae, M. bovis and M. conjunctivae etc. Most of the mycoplasmas produce a conglomerate of clinical signs hampering diagnosis. The other main challenge posed by mycoplasma is the difficulty in isolation due to lack of * Corresponding author KEYWORDS

In Silico Identification of Diagnostic Candidates from Predicted Lipoproteome of Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. capri

| Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies capri (Mmc), the causative agent of caprine pleuro pneumonia/contagious agalactia is a major pathogen affecting goats worldwide. Development of specific immunodiagnostic assays for Mmc is often hampered by interspecies cross-reactivity with other caprine mycoplasmas and the intra species antigenic variability. The study presents a comparative and subtractive proteomic analysis to identify specific, conserved and immunogenic lipoproteins from Mmc proteome. Analysis of 896 proteins of Mmc strain 95010 predicted 72 lipoproteins by lipoP1.0 server. BLAST analysis revealed 17 putative non cross-reactive lipoproteins out of which seven were found to be conserved within the species. Further computational workflow employing ExPASy protein analysis tools and B cell epitope prediction softwares identified five lipoproteins suitable for development of immunodiagnostics.