Covid 19 – Structural proteins and prospective drug candidates (Preprint)

UNSTRUCTURED Covid 19 the causative agent of the current devastating pandemic has turned out to be a notorious virus to all men-irrespective of either common to scientific calibre. Attempts to combat this deadly virus are the need of the hour and quite often the best way to defeat an opponent is to keenly study about its structural and propagation properties. The current paper describes briefly Covid 19 at the genomic, structural and protein level to the best of our knowledge. Furthermore, the prospects of possible drug targets that could aid in the control of this virus are also discussed. </sec

Life Cycle, Bio-ecology and DNA Barcoding of mosquitoes Aedes aegypti (Linnaeus) and Aedes albopictus (Skuse)

Mosquito  borne  diseases  remain  as  the  world’s  most  severe  insect-borne  disease  with  excessive  rate  in  morbidity  and  mortality.    Mosquitoes  transmit  various  severe  diseases,  such  as  dengue,  malaria,  filariasis,  viral  encephalitis,  Japanese  encephalitis,  chickungunya  and  zika  virus  infection  causing  millions  of  deaths  worldwide;  and  no  part  of  the  world  is  liberated  from  mosquito  borne  diseases.    Aedes  aegypti  and  Aedes  albopictus  represent  the  two  important  mosquito  vectors  for  dengue  virus  transmission  in  America  and  Asia.    According  to  the  Integrated  Disease  Surveillance  Project  (ISDP),  8888  confirmed  dengue  infections  were  reported  from January 1st to June 30th  2017  in  Kerala  state,  India.    Of  which 409  confirmed  dengue  infections  were  reported  from  Thrissur  district  of  Kerala  including  Irinjalakuda  Municipality,  the  study  area.    In  addition,  15 confirmed and 56 suspected  dengue fever death were  also  reported  from  Kerala  state,  India .    Current  epidemics  of  dengue  and  severe  mosquito  borne  diseases  from  Kerala  have  exposed  the  need  for  more  comprehensive  understanding  of  the  mosquito  species  types,  their  vectorial  capacity,  and  the  habitat  characteristics  that  offer  them  for  proper  breeding  environment  in  the  study  area.    The  present  study  also  explored  the  applicability  of  COI-based  DNA  bar  coding  as  an  alternative  approach  to  identify  mosquito  species  such  as  A.  aegypti  and  A.  albopictus.