Journal Pre-proof J o u r n a l P r e -p r o o f Acknowledgements: AbstractThe novel Coronavirus disease 2019 is caused by SARS-CoV-2, which is the causative agent of a potentially fatal disease that is of great global public health concern. The outbreak of COVID-19 is wreaking havoc worldwide due to inadequate risk assessment regarding the urgency of the situation. The COVID-19 pandemic has entered a dangerous new phase. When compared with SARS and MERS, COVID-19 has spread more rapidly, due to increased globalization and adaptation of the virus in every environment. Slowing the spread of the COVID-19 cases will significantly reduce the strain on the healthcare system of the country by limiting the number of people who are severely sick by COVID-19 and need hospital care. Hence, the recent outburst of COVID-19 highlights an urgent need for therapeutics targeting SARS-CoV-2. Here, we have discussed the structure of virus; varying symptoms among COVID-19, SARS, MERS and common flu; the probable mechanism behind the infection and its immune response. Further, the current treatment options, drugs available, ongoing trials and recent diagnostics for COVID-19 have been discussed.We suggest traditional Indian medicinal plants as possible novel therapeutic approaches, exclusively targeting SARS-CoV-2 and its pathways.

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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental monogenic disorder with a strong genetic influence. Idiopathic autism could be defined as a type of autism that does not have a specific causative agent. Among signalling cascades, mTOR signalling pathway plays a pivotal role not only in cell cycle, but also in protein synthesis and regulation of brain homeostasis in ASD patients. The present review highlights, underlying mechanism of mTOR and its role in altered signalling cascades as a triggering factor in the onset of idiopathic autism. Further, this review discusses how distorted mTOR signalling pathway stimulates truncated translation in neuronal cells and leads to downregulation of protein synthesis at dendritic spines of the brain. This review concludes by suggesting downstream regulators such as p70S6K, eIF4B, eIF4E of mTOR signalling pathway as promising therapeutic targets for idiopathic autistic individuals.

Background: The Cochrane Collection reviews of randomized clinical trials (RCT) showed a favorable result of music therapy (MT) on individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) compared with a placebo treatment. Objective: This study focuses on accessing whether MT can improve the development of social skills of autistic children and to check if the effects of MT are long lasting. Materials and methods: This study was designed as a pre-test/post-test and follow-up among the autistic children. Fifty-four children with mild to severe autism were selected and assigned into two groups: active and passive. The children received MT for 3 months and the groups were followed-up for 3 months. The data were analyzed with IBM-SPSS-21 software using t test and the groups were compared by analysis of covariance. Results: The results of the MT intervention were mostly apparent in the following subscales-understanding/ perspective-taking, initiating interactions, responding initiation, and maintaining interactions with others. The post-test covariance analysis results showed a significant increase in social skills' scores (p < 0.05). Also, the t test results of the paired-sample revealed that the effectiveness of MT has been continual during the followup phase. Conclusions: The study illustrated that MT is an effective intervention in improving social skills of autistic children with steady effects. MT helped in developing a form of communication for these children which led to an improvement in their ability to understand, respond, and maintain their interaction with their peers.

Background: Heat shock proteins (Hsps) are widely reported in normal cellular dynamics under stress and nonstress conditions, and parallelly, the studies regarding its role in disease condition are also progressing steadily. The function of Hsps in neurodegenerative disorders is puzzling and not fully understood. This review aims to focus on the role of Hsp27 in normal and diseased conditions and emphasize its therapeutic potential. Hsp27: Hsp27, in particular, has shown to be involved in cell viability and actin cytoskeleton remodeling and also shown to improve many disease conditions. Phosphorylated Hsp27 modulates the p53 pathway by downregulating cellular senescence and also lowers reactive oxygen species to protect TNFα-mediated apoptosis. Hsp27 is also known to interfere with mitochondria-dependent and mitochondria-independent cell apoptotic stimulation.Conclusion: This article will highlight the various functions of Hsp27 especially as an anti-apoptotic factor and stress response factor and its therapeutic potential in preventing neuronal apoptosis in neurological diseases. This review also includes a comparison of the therapeutic potential of Hsp27 with regard to other small Hsps.