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Zinc (Zn) is the quintessential d block metal, needed for survival in all living organisms. While Zn is an essential element, its excess is deleterious, therefore, maintenance of its intracellular concentrations is needed for survival.... more
Zinc (Zn) is the quintessential d block metal, needed for survival in all living organisms. While Zn is an essential element, its excess is deleterious, therefore, maintenance of its intracellular concentrations is needed for survival. The living organisms, during the course of evolution, developed proteins that can track the limitation or excess of necessary metal ions, thus providing survival benefits under variable environmental conditions. Zinc uptake regulator (Zur) is a regulatory transcriptional factor of the FUR superfamily of proteins, abundant among the bacterial species and known for its intracellular Zn sensing ability. In this study, we highlight the roles played by Zur in maintaining the Zn levels in various bacterial species as well as the fact that in recent years Zur has emerged not only as a Zn homeostatic regulator but also as a protein involved directly or indirectly in virulence of some pathogens. This functional aspect of Zur could be exploited in the ventures ...
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Tuberculosis (TB) infection is one of the leading causes of death in the world. According to WHO reports 2019, the average rate of decrease in global TB incidences was only 1.6% per year from 2000 to 2018, besides that the global decline... more
Tuberculosis (TB) infection is one of the leading causes of death in the world. According to WHO reports 2019, the average rate of decrease in global TB incidences was only 1.6% per year from 2000 to 2018, besides that the global decline in TB deaths was just 11%. Therefore, the dire need for early detection of the pathogen for the successful diagnosis of TB seems justified. Mycobacterium tuberculosis secretory proteins have gained more attention as TB biomarkers, for the early diagnosis and treatment of TB. Here in this review, we elaborate on the recent advancements made in the field of piezoelectric, magnetic, optical, and electrochemical biosensors, in addition to listing their merits and setbacks. Additionally, this review also discusses the construction of biosensors through modern integrated technologies, such as combinations of analytical chemistry, molecular biology, and nanotechnology. Integrated technologies enhance the detection for perceiving highly selective, specific, and sensitive signals to detect M. tuberculosis. Furthermore, this review highlights the recent challenges and scope of improvement in numerous biosensors developed for rapid, specific, selective, and sensitive detection of tuberculosis to reduce the TB burden and successful treatment.
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Infectious diseases are life-threatening and may lead to high mortality and morbidity rates. The existing danger of an increase and spread of multidrug resistance pathogens is a global concern. Therefore, the designing of novel... more
Infectious diseases are life-threatening and may lead to high mortality and morbidity rates. The existing danger of an increase and spread of multidrug resistance pathogens is a global concern. Therefore, the designing of novel antibiotics and vaccine to control and eliminate the disease is an utmost requirement. Traditional approaches for screening vaccine and drug targets are time-consuming and have been unsuccessful in controlling the spread of infectious diseases due to several reasons such as altered antigenic diversity, altered virulence potential, and antimicrobial resistance in the infectious agent population. To overcome this problem, there has been a paradigm shift from the conventional to microbial genomics approaches, as the availability of complete genome sequence of patho-genic microorganisms and multiple isolates of the same species provides a wealth of information on nearly all the potential drug targets. Microbial genomics approaches open up new avenues to pursuit novel antimicrobial agents that are highly conserved in a range of microbes, essential for the survival of pathogens and absent in humans. In this chapter, we present an overview of the microbial genomics approaches such as pan-genomics, comparative genomics, functional Hemant Joshi and Akanksha Verma are both considered as first author.