Worldwide, sugarcane industries produce tons of sugarcane bagasse as residual/waste material. This residual material is rich in complex lignocellulosic substances and may be used as a low cost carbon and energy source for the growth of fungal species. The present work was aimed at designing a sugarcane waste-based medium as a substitute for expensive commercial media for growing fungal cultures. Eight species of fungi, namely, Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Fusarium sp., and four unidentified species F1, F2, F3, and F5, were grown on the sugarcane bagasse medium which produced remarkable results and competed with standard media like potato dextrose agar, Sabouraud dextrose agar, and cornmeal agar. The designed medium was able to provide nourishment to the fungi as well as prevent the growth of any bacterial or fungal contaminant. The production of spores was more in the sugarcane medium as compared with standard media. Hence, this study led to the discovery of a new and efficient medium for fungal cultures as well as decrease in the waste disposal expenses and efforts.

Plasmodium falciparum erythrocyte membrane protein-1 (Pfemp-1), a variant adhesion molecule, can act as a key component of immunity against malaria. In the current selection of malaria vaccines, no efficient vaccines are available that can be employed for its proper treatment. Unfortunately, resistance to post-infection treatments is increasing and therefore there is a pressing need to develop an efficient vaccine. Peptide-based vaccines can be effective tools against malaria but HLA restriction is a major hindrance which can be conquered by using promiscuous peptides. In this work, we employed a combined in silico and experimental approach to identify promiscuous peptides for the treatment of malaria. At first, using the immunoinformatics approach, promiscuous peptides were predicted from two conserved domains, CIDR-1 and DBL-3γ, of the Pfemp-1 antigen. These peptides were selected on the basis of their predicted binding affinity with different HLA class-I & class-II alleles. A total of 13 peptides were selected based on their predicted IFN-γ and IL-4 induction ability as well as their hydrophobicity. Out of these 13, the peptide C6 was synthesised and experimentally evaluated for further rationalization, HLA–peptide complex modelling and binding interaction analysis. Interestingly, the peptide C6 (SFIHIYLYRNIRIQL) showed an encouraging immunological response and T-cell proliferation in the immunological assay. This valuable content can aid the better design of more potent and selective vaccine candidates against infectious diseases.

Background: Cystic echinococcosis (CE), caused by Echinococcus granulosus, is a major zoonotic disease that causes significant human morbidity and mortality. This cosmopolitan disease is difficult to diagnose, treat, and control. So far, crude extracts of hydatid cyst fluid containing antigen B or antigen 5 have been used as the primary antigenic source for its immunodiagnosis. The main issue is that it reacts with sera from people infected with other helminths. There is currently no standard, specific, or sensitive test for disease diagnosis, and no human vaccine has been reported. Aims and Objectives: Considering the need for efficient immunization and/or immunodiagnosis, six E. granulosus antigens, antigen 5, antigen B, heat shock proteins such as Hsp-8 and Hsp-90, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, and tetraspanin-1, were chosen. Materials and Methods: Using various in silico tools, T cell and B cell epitopes (promiscuous peptides) were predicted by targeting antigen 5, antigen B, heat shock proteins such as Hsp-8 and Hsp-90, phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase, and tetraspanin-1. Results: There are twelve promiscuous peptides with overlapping human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class-I, class-II, and conformational B cell epitopes. Such immunodominant peptides could be useful as subunit vaccines. Furthermore, six peptides specific for E. granulosus were also discovered, which may prove to be important markers in the diagnosis of CE, potentially preventing misdiagnosis and mismanagement. Conclusion: These epitopes may be the most important vaccine targets in E. granulosus because they have the most promiscuous peptides and B cell epitopes, as well as the highest affinity for different alleles, as determined by docking scores. However, additional research using in vitro and in vivo models is undertaken.

Typhoid has become the most neglected and majorly affecting disease of tropical and subtropical countries, including India, and is among the most important global health problems, as the emergence of multidrug resistance has shut down the effect of antimicrobial agents and makes it difficult to control the bacteria inside the host. Hence, there is a great need to develop some natural-based drugs, which will be new promising natural therapeutic interventions with high efficacy and lesser side effects in comparison to synthetic drugs already available for typhoid treatment. The present study completely focused on the synergistic effect of bioactive constituents of medicinal plants in combination to synthetic drugs for enhancing the bacterial eradication mechanism. The methanolic extracts of 25 medicinal plants were screened for their antisalmonella effect and out of which only 2 plants were studied further on the basis of their high effectiveness against 17 MDR isolates using well diffusion assay and MIC/MBC determination. The synergistic activity was assessed with two nonantibiotics (ibuprofen and paracetamol) and 3 antibiotics (ceftazidime chloramphenicol, and trimethoprim) using methods of growth inhibitory indices (GIIs) and fractional inhibitory concentration index (FICI). The highly effective methanolic extracts were of W. somnifera and C. roseus, and the synergism was obtained in terms of GIIs and FICI values of 0.9 and 0.3 and 0.9 and 0.5, respectively, fulfilling the criteria for both extracts, respectively. The results for combinations of plant extracts and antibiotics ceftazidime, trimethoprim, and chloramphenicol and nonantibiotics (analgesic drugs) ibuprofen and paracetamol showed good synergistic activity (100, 88, 50, 45, and 35, respectively) against the MDR isolates of S. Typhi. The present study also suggests that in the future, combined treatment with the antibiotics and the bioactive compounds can enhance the immune system to perform better action against the external pathogens as well as in the treatment of internal pathogens, and the combinations will be the successful immune modulators.