Breeding Vegetables for Nutritional Security

The most dominant vegetables in the global food economy are tomato, cucurbits, (pumpkin, squash, cucumber and gherkin), allium (onion, shallot, garlic) and chili. These vegetables are consumed in nearly all countries although with much variation in shape, size, color and taste, while the marketing of global vegetables accounts for significant revenue streams, traditional vegetables often have superior nutritional properties. Biodiversity is considered essential for food security and nutrition and can contribute to the achievement through improved dietary choices and positive health impacts Through conventional breeding approach, it is possible to develop new vegetable varieties or integrate the favorable genes for neutraceuticals, bioactive compounds and edible color into cultivated varieties. Advances in molecular biology and recombinant technology have paved the way for enhancing the pace of special trait variety development using marker assisted breeding and designing new vegetable crop plants following transgenic approach.

In-Silico Approach in the Development of Salmonella Epitope Vaccine

In the case of infection control, one of our primary concerns is typhoid fever. According to WHO, typhoid prevalence in Indonesia is highly endemic. There is also the problem with the low efficacy of the available vaccine to prevent the disease. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop a highly effective typhoid vaccine. One of the phases in vaccine development is an exploratory phase, a research-intensive phase of the vaccine development process designed to identify natural or synthetic antigens that might help prevent or treat a disease through computer in silico prediction targets. The vaccines developed through epitope peptide are designed to be safer, more efficacious, and less expensive than traditional vaccines. A thorough understanding of the disease agent, particularly critical epitopes to induce the appropriate immunological reaction, is required to achieve these aims. Mapping epitope sequences or antigenic peptides from pathogenic proteins recognized by B cells and T cells is crucial for vaccine development. Once the epitopes were identified, the polypeptide production could be produced through protein recombinant technology. The polypeptide vaccine, in the end, could be delivered using a liposomal delivery system.

The Health Effects of Genetically Modified Foods: a Brief Review

Genetically modified foods are organisms (i.e. plants or animals) in which the genetic material (Deoxyribonucleic Acid) has been altered in a way that does not occur naturally by mating and/or natural recombination. Combining genes from different organisms is known as recombinant Deoxyribonucleic Acid technology and the resulting organism is said to be ‘Genetically Modified’, ‘Genetically Engineered’ or ‘Transgenic’. Crops grown commercially and/or field-tested are resistant to a virus that could destroy most of the African harvest, other crops with increased iron and vitamins that may alleviate chronic malnutrition and a variety of plants that are able to survive weather extremes. There are fruits that produce human vaccines against infectious diseases such as hepatitis B, fish that mature more quickly, fruit and nut trees that yield years earlier and plants that produce new plastics with unique properties. Controversies and public concern surrounding Genetically Modified foods and crops commonly focus on human and environmental safety, ethics, food security, poverty reduction and environmental conservation. With this new technology on gene manipulation there are the risks of tampering with nature, effects will have on the environment, the health concerns that consumers should be aware of, and effects related with recombinant technology. This review addresses the major concerns about the safety, environmental and legal issues which are collectively infer health hazards of Genetically Modified foods and recombinant technology in different perspective.

ASSESSMENT OF AIRBORNE FUNGAL ALLERGENS: BIOCHEMICAL AND IMMUNOPROTEOMIC APPROACH : A REVIEW

Atmospheric air contains a wide variety of components like inorganic gaseous, particulate pollutants and biological particles such as fungal spores, pollen grains, dust mites and animal dander that can affect human health. Among biological particles, airborne fungal spores are an essential source of aeroallergens. In India, allergy prevalence has become a major health concern with symptoms ranging from mild rhinitis to severe asthma and even life threatening anaphylaxis. Aerobiological studies provide qualitative and quantitative information about fungal spores of a given region. The proper identification, purification and molecular characterization of fungal allergens are essential for proper diagnosis and to design immunotherapeutic vaccines. Only a few fungal allergens have been characterized by recombinant technology and structural biology. Detailed analysis of fungal biochemistry can be done by using multiple techonologies including Skin Prick Test (SPT), ELISA, immunonoblot, MALDI TOF, genome and transcriptome sequencing, recombinant technology and bioinformatics. The purpose of this review is to describe the different strategies that have been used to identify, purify and characterize the fungal allergens, which may enrich the database of allergy research and help in the implementation of immunotherapy in future.

Human Recombinant FSH and Its Biosimilars: Clinical Efficacy, Safety, and Cost-Effectiveness in Controlled Ovarian Stimulation for In Vitro Fertilization

Exogenous human follicle-stimulating hormone (hFSH), either derived from extraction and purification from the urine or obtained by recombinant technology in the form of follitropin α, β and δ (rFSH), has been used for decades in the treatment of infertility. The main applications of FSH treatment in the woman have been, and still are, ovulation induction in oligo-anovulatory subjects, and stimulation of the development of a cohort of follicles in patients undergoing controlled ovarian stimulation (COS) for in vitro fertilization (IVF). In the last years, two biosimilars of follitropin alfa, rFSH compounds structurally and functionally similar to the originator, have been approved and marketed for clinical use in Europe. Moreover, some other rFSH biosimilars are currently under investigation. The objective of this article is to review the available evidences comparing the efficacy, safety, and cost-effectiveness of rFSH follitropin alpha originator with its biosimilars, discussing the clinical trials that allowed biosimilars to get registration and marketing authorization.

Vaccine Approaches for Pandemic COVID-19

The coronavirus strain, SARS-CoV-2 causative agent of the pandemic viral pneumonia disease COVID-19, identified in the late 2019. Unfortunately, there is no vaccine or therapeutics available to control the disease. Although, earlier research efforts of SARS pandemic (2003) provides the precious information to the researchers for fast track vaccine development. Research efforts for vaccine development of COVID-19 pandemic are unprecedented in terms of promising time period. The inactivated whole virus-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is first one developed and entered into clinical trial. However, later on after announce of complete genome sequence of SARS-CoV-2, vaccine based on recombinant viral vector, nucleic acid and immunogenic fragment also introduced. Previous experience of undesired immunopotentiation in SARS-CoV studies represents, vaccine safety should be the main concern. Researchers believe that next generation vaccine approaches using recombinant technology such as viral vector or subunit protein-based vaccine will be more effective and safer. This review describes brief information of the major vaccine candidates and the current scenario of vaccine approaches against COVID-19 pandemic.

Development of Ubiquitin Tools for Studies of Complex Ubiquitin Processing Protein Machines

: Ubiquitination is one of the most extensive post-translational modifications in eukaryotes and is involved in various physiological processes such as protein degradation, autophagy, protein interaction, and protein localization. The ubiquitin (Ub)-related protein machines include Ub-activating enzymes (E1s), Ub-conjugating enzymes (E2s), Ub ligases (E3s), deubiquitinating enzymes (DUBs), p97, and the proteasomes. In recent years, the role of DUBs has been extensively studied and relatively well understood. On the other hand, the functional mechanisms of the other more complex ubiquitin-processing protein machines (e.g., E3, p97, and proteasomes) are still to be sufficiently well explored due to their intricate nature. One of the hurdles facing the studies of these complex protein machines is the challenge of developing tailor-designed structurally defined model substrates, which unfortunately cannot be directly obtained using recombinant technology. Consequently, the acquisition and synthesis of the ubiquitin tool molecules are essential for the elucidation of the functions and structures of the complex ubiquitin-processing protein machines. This paper aims to highlight recent studies on these protein machines based on the synthetic ubiquitin tool molecules.