RECENT PUBLICATIONS FROM THE DEPARTMENT:
1. Saravanan Krishnan, Ashokkumar Thirunavukarasu, Niraj Kumar Jha, Rekha Gahtori, Ayush Singha Roy, Sunny Dholpuria, Kavindra Kumar Kesari, Sachin Kumar Singh, Kamal Dua, Piyush Kumar Gupta (2021) Nanotechnology-based therapeutic formulations in the battle against animal coronaviruses: an update. Journal of Nanoparticle Research, 23(10), 1-16 (ISSN 1572-896X) View
ABSTRACT
Outbreak of infectious diseases imposes a serious threat to human population and also causes a catastrophic impact on global economy. Animal coronaviruses remain as one of the intriguing problems, known to cause deadly viral diseases on economically important animal population, and also these infections may spread to other animals and humans. Through isolation of the infected animals from others and providing appropriate treatment using antiviral drugs, it is possible to prevent the virus transmission from animals to other species. In recent times, anti-viral drug-resistant strains are being emerged as a deadly virus which are known to cause pandemic. To overcome this, nanoparticles-based formulations are developed as antiviral agent which attacks the animal coronaviruses at multiple sites in the virus replication cycle. Nano-vaccines are also being formulated to protect the animals from coronaviruses. Nano formulations contain particles of one or more dimensions in nano-scale (few nanometres to 1000 nm), which could be inorganic or organic in nature. This review presents the comprehensive outline of the nanotechnology-based therapeutics formulated against animal coronaviruses, which includes the nanoparticles-based antiviral formulations and nanoparticles-based adjuvant vaccines. The mechanism of action of these nanoparticles-based antivirals against animal coronavirus is also discussed using relevant examples. In addition, the scope of repurposing the existing nano-enabled antivirals and vaccines to combat coronavirus infections in animals is elaborated.
2. Nisha Singh, Reeta Rani Singhania, Poonam S. Nigam, Cheng-Di Dong, Anil Kumar Patel, Munish Puri (2021) Global status of lignocellulosic biorefinery: Challenges and perspectives, Bioresource Technology, 344, Part B, (ISSN 0960-8524) View
ABSTRACT
The bioprocessing of lignocellulosic biomass to produce bio-based products under biorefinery setup is gaining global attention. The economic viability of this biorefinery would be inclined by the efficient bioconversion of all three major constituents of lignocellulosic biomass i.e. cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin for value-added biochemicals and biofuels production. Although the lignocellulosic biorefinery setup has a clear value proposition, the commercial success at the industrial scale is still inadequate. This can be attributed mainly to irregular biomass supply chain, market uncertainties, and scale-up challenges. Global research efforts are underway by public and private sectors to get deeper market penetration. A comprehensive account of important factors, limitations, and propositions are worth consideration for the commercial success of lignocellulosic biorefineries. In this article, the importance of integration of lignocellulosic biorefineries with existing petrochemical refineries, the technical challenges of industrialization, SWOT analysis, and future directions have been reviewed.