Rakhi Saxena

Targeting Strategies for Human Immunodeficiency Virus: A Combinatorial Approach

The battle between human and the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is on, with both of them rapidly improving their attacking and defense strategies. Many therapeutic agents for HIV infection have been designed and developed, However there are various aspects, like novel targets against HIV, which are yet to be unfolded with a goal of designing and developing novel drug molecules against HIV. This article reviews the current status and innovative new options for antiretroviral therapy for HIV and also discusses the various mechanisms of action for each class of drugs, and the problems yet to be solved with respect to HIV as a target for improvised treatment against AIDS.

Japanese Encephalitis: An Emerging and Spreading Arbovirosis

Shailendra K. Saxena1, Sneham Tiwari1, Rakhi Saxena1, Asha Mathur2 and Madhavan P.N. Nair3 1Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB−CSIR), Hyderabad (AP), 2Department of General Pathology & Microbiology, Saraswati Medical & Dental College, Lucknow, 3Department of Immunology, Institute of NeuroImmune Pharmacology, Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University, Miami, FL, 1,2India 3USA

Japanese Encephalitis Virus: The Complex Biology of an Emerging Pathogen

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV) is a flavivirus, which is an emerging threat globally, major‐ ly being southern and Southeast Asia and Australia. Even though most JEV infections are asymptomatic, it is estimated that only 0.3% leads to disease causing and results in over 35,000 cases including 10,000 deaths annually worldwide, and remaining cases which some‐ how escape death produce permanent sequelae, proving to be as a persistent threat (Singh et al., 2012). The human infections caused by encephalitic flaviviruses are more often asympto‐ matic or they cause mild febrile illness but sometimes this low percentage of mild infection turns into a dangerous and life-threatening encephalitis. The conditions which support viral survival are concerned to both viral and host factors that allow virus entry from the blood into the central nervous system (CNS). Host factors play important role in disease suscepti‐ bility. Japanese encephalitis, caused by JEV which belongs to arthropod-borne virus family and transmitted through Culex mosquito, is centrally a pediatric disease which causes acute infection and inflammation of the brain. Historically, in 1817 JE was first identified in Japan, but the causative agent (JEV) was later isolated from a fetal human case in 1934 (Erlanger et al., 2009). First report of JE in India was in 1955, and since then this deadly virus has en‐ gulfed thousands of lives and has shaken several economies. The total numbers of cases re‐ ported annually are about 35,000-50,000 (Zheng et al., 2012). Out of these reported cases ~30-50 % patients suffer from neurological sequelae and ~20-40 % cases turn to be fatal (Nett et al., 2009). The actual counts are still higher than reported due to lack of reach of technolo‐ gy and surveillance towards extreme rural areas, which contain more vulnerable and needy population. The natural cycle of JEV consists of pig-mosquito-pig or bird-mosquito-bird (van den Hurk et al., 2009) circulation of virus. When an infected mosquito bites a healthy

The Latitude Wise Prevalence of the CCR5-Δ32-HIV Resistance Allele in India

The Latitude Wise Prevalence of the CCR5-Δ32-HIV Resistance Allele in India The chemokine receptor CCR5 plays a crucial role during CD4-mediated entry of HIV-1 in macrophages and a 32 bp deletion in the CCR5 gene (CCR5-Δ32) confers protection against HIV infection and AIDS progression. To evaluate the contribution of this host genetic factor in aggravating Indias HIV/AIDS problem, we exclusively examined the frequency of CCR5-Δ32 in 43 different ethnic endogamous Indian populations comprising 1,882 individuals and its latitude-wise distribution in India. This is the first report of prevalence and latitude-wise distribution of CCR5-Δ32 in such large scale in India, which indicates that most of the Indian populations lack the CCR5-Δ32 mutation. This mutation was exhibited in only 13 out of the 43 ethnic populations of India studied with allelic frequency 0.62 - 5%. Southward decreasing cline was observed for frequencies of CCR5-Δ32 (0.79% to 5.0% in North vs. 0.62% to 1.4% South). These results are in accordance with HIV/AIDS prevalence in India, and suggest that absence of CCR5-Δ32 mutation may be one of the important factors for HIV/AIDS incidence in India.