Infectious diseases are one of the most intimidating threats to human race, responsible for an immense burden of disabilities and deaths. Rapid diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases offers a better understanding of their pathogenesis. According to the World Health Organization, the ideal approach for detecting foreign pathogens should be rapid, specific, sensitive, instrument-free, and cost-effective. Nucleic acid pathogen detection methods, typically PCR, have numerous limitations, such as highly sophisticated equipment requirements, reagents, and trained personnel relying on well-established laboratories, besides being time-consuming. Thus, there is a crucial need to develop novel nucleic acid detection tools that are rapid, specific, sensitive, and cost-effective, particularly ones that can be used for versatile point-of-care diagnostic applications. Two new methods exploit unpredicted in vitro properties of CRISPR-Cas effectors, turning activated nucleases into basic amplifiers of a specific nucleic acid binding event. These effectors can be attached to a diversity of reporters and utilized in tandem with isothermal amplification approaches to create sensitive identification in multiple deployable field formats. Although still in their beginning, SHERLOCK and DETECTR technologies are potential methods for rapid detection and identification of infectious diseases, with ultrasensitive tests that do not require complicated processing. This review describes SHERLOCK and DETECTR technologies and assesses their properties, functions, and prospective to become the ultimate diagnostic tools for diagnosing infectious diseases and curbing disease outbreaks.

Background. A new endemic disease has spread across Wuhan City, China, in December 2019. Within few weeks, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced a novel coronavirus designated as coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19). In late January 2020, WHO declared the outbreak of a “public‐health emergency of international concern” due to the rapid and increasing spread of the disease worldwide. Currently, there is no vaccine or approved treatment for this emerging infection; thus, the objective of this study is to design a multiepitope peptide vaccine against COVID‐19 using an immunoinformatics approach. Method. Several techniques facilitating the combination of the immunoinformatics approach and comparative genomic approach were used in order to determine the potential peptides for designing the T‐cell epitope‐based peptide vaccine using the envelope protein of 2019‐nCoV as a target. Results. Extensive mutations, insertion, and deletion were discovered with comparative sequencing in the COVID‐19 strain. Additionally, ten peptides binding to MHC class I and MHC class II were found to be promising candidates for vaccine design with adequate world population coverage of 88.5% and 99.99%, respectively. Conclusion. The T‐cell epitope‐based peptide vaccine was designed for COVID‐19 using the envelope protein as an immunogenic target. Nevertheless, the proposed vaccine rapidly needs to be validated clinically in order to ensure its safety and immunogenic profile to help stop this epidemic before it leads to devastating global outbreaks.

The novel coronavirus is not only causing respiratory problems, but it may also damage the heart, kidneys, liver, and other organs; in Wuhan, 14 to 30% of COVID-19 patients have lost their kidney function and now require either dialysis or kidney transplants. The novel coronavirus gains entry into humans by targeting the ACE2 receptor that found on lung cells, which destroy human lungs through cytokine storms, and this leads to hyperinflammation, forcing the immune cells to destroy healthy cells. This is why some COVID-19 patients need intensive care. The inflammatory chemicals released during COVID-19 infection cause the liver to produce proteins that defend the body from infections. However, these proteins can cause blood clotting, which can clog blood vessels in the heart and other organs; as a result, the organs are deprived of oxygen and nutrients which could ultimately lead to multiorgan failure and consequent progression to acute lung injury, acute respiratory distress syndrome, and often death. However, there are novel protein modification tools called the QTY code, which are similar in their structure to antibodies, which could provide a solution to excess cytokines. These synthetic proteins can be injected into the body to bind the excess cytokines created by the cytokine storm; this will eventually remove the excessive cytokines and inhibit the severe symptoms caused by the COVID-19 infection. In this review, we will focus on cytokine storm in COVID-19 patients, their impact on the body organs, and the potential treatment by QTY code-designed detergent-free chemokine receptors.

Background on the late December 2019, a new endemic has been spread across Wuhan City, China; within a few weeks, a novel coronavirus designated as 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) was announced by the World Health Organization (WHO). In late January 2020, WHO declared the outbreak a “public-health emergency of international concern” due to the rapid spreading and increasing worldwide. There is no vaccine or approved treatment for this emerging infection; therefore, the objective of this paper is to design a multi epitope peptide vaccine against 2019-nCoV using immunoinformatics approach. Method We will highlight a technique facilitating the combination of immunoinformatics approach with comparative genomic approach to determine our potential target for designing the T cell epitopes-based peptide vaccine using the envelope protein of 2019-nCoV as a target. Results Extensive mutations, insertion and deletion were discovered with comparative sequencing in 2019-nCoV strain; in addition, 10 MHC1 and MHC2 related peptides were promising candidates for vaccine design with adequate world population coverage of 88.5% and 99.99% respectively. Conclusion T cell epitopes-based peptide vaccine was designed for 2019-nCoV using envelope protein as an immunogenic target; nevertheless, the proposed T cell epitopes-based peptide vaccine rapidly needs to validates clinically to ensure its safety and immunogenic profile to assist on stopping this epidemic before it leads to devastating global outbreaks.

Recombinant antibodies have emerged as powerful tools in various fields, including therapeutics, diagnostics, and research applications. The selection of high-affinity antibodies with desired specificity is a crucial step in the development of recombinant antibody-based products. In recent years, yeast surface display technology has gained significant attention as a robust and versatile platform for antibody selection. This graphical review provides an overview of the yeast surface display technology and its applications in recombinant antibody selection. We discuss the key components involved in the construction of yeast surface display libraries, including the antibody gene libraries, yeast host strains, and display vectors. Furthermore, we highlight the strategies employed for affinity maturation and optimization of recombinant antibodies using yeast surface display. Finally, we discuss the advantages and limitations of this technology compared to other antibody selection methods. Overall, yeast surface display technology offers a powerful and efficient approach for the selection of recombinant antibodies, enabling the rapid generation of high-affinity antibodies for various applications.

Nanobodies are small, single-domain antibodies that have emerged as a promising tool in cancer immunotherapy. These molecules can target specific antigens on cancer cells and trigger an immune response against them. In this mini-review article, we highlight the potential of nanobodies in cell-mediated immunotherapy for cancer treatment. We discuss the advantages of nanobodies over conventional antibodies, their ability to penetrate solid tumors, and their potential to enhance the efficacy of other immunotherapeutic agents. We also provide an overview of recent preclinical and clinical studies that have demonstrated the effectiveness of nanobody-based immunotherapy in various types of cancer.