Microbes are ubiquitous in the biosphere, and their therapeutic and ecological potential is not much more explored and still needs to be explored more. The bacilli are a heterogeneous group of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. Lysinibacillus are dominantly found as motile, spore-forming, Gram-positive bacilli belonging to phylum Firmicutes and the family Bacillaceae. Lysinibacillus species initially came into light due to their insecticidal and larvicidal properties. Bacillus thuringiensis, a well-known insecticidal Lysinibacillus, can control many insect vectors, including a malarial vector and another, a Plasmodium vector that transmits infectious microbes in humans. Now its potential in the environment as a piece of green machinery for remediation of heavy metal is used. Moreover, some species of Lysinibacillus have antimicrobial potential due to the bacteriocin, peptide antibiotics, and other therapeutic molecules. Thus, this review will explore the biological disease control abilities, food preservative, therapeutic, plant growth-promoting, bioremediation, and entomopathogenic potentials of the genus Lysinibacillus.

The removal of sulfur by deep hydrodesulfurization is expensive and environmentally unfriendly. Additionally, sulfur is not separated completely from heterocyclic poly-aromatic compounds. In nature, several microorganisms (Rhodococcus erythropolis IGTS8, Gordonia sp., Bacillus sp., Mycobacterium sp., Paenibacillus sp. A11-2 etc.) have been reported to remove sulfur from petroleum fractions. All these microbes remove sulfur from recalcitrant organosulfur compounds via the 4S pathway, showing potential for some organosulfur compounds only. Activity up to 100 µM/g dry cell weights is needed to meet the current demand for desulfurization. The present review describes the desulfurization capability of various microorganisms acting on several kinds of sulfur sources. Genetic engineering approaches on Gordonia sp. and other species have revealed a variety of good substrate ranges of desulfurization, both for aliphatic and aromatic organosulfur compounds. Whole genome sequence analysis and 4S pathway inhibition by a pTeR group inhibitor have also been discussed. Now, emphasis is being placed on how to commercialize the microbes for industrial-level applications by incorporating biodesulfurization into hydrodesulfurization systems. Thus, this review summarizes the potentialities of microbes for desulfurization of petroleum. The information included in this review could be useful for researchers as well as the economical commercialization of bacteria in petroleum industries.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the most common type of dementia in older people, causes neurological problems associated with memory and thinking. The key enzymes involved in Alzheimer’s disease pathways are acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BuChE). Because of this, there is a lot of interest in finding new AChE inhibitors. Among compounds that are not alkaloids, flavonoids have stood out as good candidates. The apple fruit, Malus domestica (Rosaceae), is second only to cranberries regarding total phenolic compound concentration. Computational tools and biological databases were used to investigate enzymes and natural compounds. Molecular docking techniques were used to analyze the interactions of natural compounds of the apple with enzymes involved in the central nervous system (CNS), acetylcholinesterase, and butyrylcholinesterase, followed by binding affinity calculations using the AutoDock tool. The molecular docking results revealed that CID: 107905 exhibited the best interactions with AChE, with a binding affinity of −12.2 kcal/mol, and CID: 163103561 showed the highest binding affinity with BuChE, i.e., −11.2 kcal/mol. Importantly, it was observed that amino acid residue Trp286 of AChE was involved in hydrogen bond formation, Van Der Walls interactions, and Pi–Sigma/Pi–Pi interactions in the studied complexes. Moreover, the results of the Molecular Dynamics Simulation (MDS) analysis indicated interaction stability. This study shows that CID: 12000657 could be used as an AChE inhibitor and CID: 135398658 as a BuChE inhibitor to treat Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders.

Graphene (GN)-related nanomaterials such as graphene oxide, reduced graphene oxide, quantum dots, etc., and their composites have attracted significant interest owing to their efficient antimicrobial properties and thus newer GN-based composites are being readily developed, characterized, and explored for clinical applications by scientists worldwide. The GN offers excellent surface properties, i.e., a large surface area, pH sensitivity, and significant biocompatibility with the biological system. In recent years, GN has found applications in tissue engineering owing to its impressive stiffness, mechanical strength, electrical conductivity, and the ability to innovate in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) design. It also offers a photothermic effect that potentiates the targeted killing of cells via physicochemical interactions. It is generally synthesized by physical and chemical methods and is characterized by modern and sophisticated analytical techniques such as NMR, Raman spectroscopy, electron microscopy, etc. A lot of reports show the successful conjugation of GN with existing repurposed drugs, which improves their therapeutic efficacy against many microbial infections and also its potential application in drug delivery. Thus, in this review, the antimicrobial potentialities of GN-based nanomaterials, their synthesis, and their toxicities in biological systems are discussed.

After one year, the COVID-19 pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 is still the largest concern for the scientific community. Of the many recognized drug targets of SARS-CoV-2, the main protease is one of the most important target due to its function in viral replication. We conducted an in silico study with repurposing drugs of antibiotics class against virus protease and peptidase using AutoDock tool. The following significant binding energy interaction was observed with protease (PDB: 6LU7) like piperacillin –7.25; tobramycin –9.20 and doxorubicin (Doxo) –10.04 kcal/mol and with peptidase (PDB: 2GTB) piperacillin –7.08; tobramycin –8.54 and Doxo –9.89 kcal/mol. Furthermore, the interaction and stability behavior of the Doxo–protease and Doxo–peptidase complexes were analyzed for a 100-nanosecond (ns) time. Calculated RMSD values observed using molecular dynamics simulation (MDS) were found to be 0.15–0.25 nm, RMSF calculation per residues showed a value near 0.2 nm and R_g values remained approximately 2.25 nm. MM-PBSA analysis of total binding energy calculation of Doxo–protease and Doxo–peptidase complexes are found to be –148.692 and –105.367 kJ/mol, respectively. Moreover, amino acid residue ASP-197 showed the lowest contribution binding energy i.e. –18.1185 kJ/mol, and amino acid residue ASP-187 showed –17.0267 kJ/mol contribution energy. Thus, significant docking interaction and stable dynamicity of Doxo–protease complex with time was suggested that Doxo could be a choice to inhibit potentially the viral proteases that could prevent the entry inside the host cell to control the COVID-19 disease. Communicated by Ramaswamy H. Sarma