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The gut microbiota plays an important role in neurological diseases via the gut–brain axis. Many factors such as diet, antibiotic therapy, stress, metabolism, age, geography and genetics are known to play a critical role in regulating the colonization pattern of the microbiota. Recent studies have shown the role of the low carbohydrate, adequate protein, and high fat “ketogenic diet” in remodeling the composition of the gut microbiome and thereby facilitating protective effects in various central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Gut microbes are found to be involved in the pathogenesis of various CNS disorders like epilepsy, Parkinson’s disease (PD), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), multiple sclerosis (MS), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and stress, anxiety and depression. In vivo studies have shown an intricate link between gut microbes and KD and specific microbes/probiotics proved useful in in vivo CNS disease models. In the present review, we discuss the gut–brain bidirectional axis and the underlying mechanism of KD-based therapy targeting gut microbiome in in vivo animal models and clinical studies in neurological diseases. Also, we tried to infer how KD by altering the microbiota composition contributes towards the protective role in various CNS disorders. This review helps to uncover the mechanisms that are utilized by the KD and gut microbiota to modulate gut–brain axis functions and may provide novel opportunities to target therapies to the gut to treat neurologic disorders.

The emergence of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), responsible for causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), marked the third time in the twenty-first century when a new, highly pathogenic human coronavirus outbreak has led to an epidemic. The COVID-19 epidemic has emerged in late December 2019 in Wuhan city of China and spread rapidly to other parts of the world. This quick spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection to many states across the globe affecting many people has led WHO to declare it a pandemic on March 12, 2020. As of July 4, 2020, more than 523,011 people lost their lives worldwide because of this deadly SARS-CoV-2. The current situation becomes more frightening as no FDA-approved drugs or vaccines are available to treat or prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection. The current therapeutic options for COVID-19 are limited only to supportive measures and non-specific interventions. So, the need of the hour is to search for SARS-CoV-2-specific antiviral treatments and to develop vaccines for SARS-CoV-2. Also, it is equally important to maintain our immunity, and natural products and Ayurvedic medicines are indispensable in this regard. In this review, we discuss recent updates regarding various therapeutic approaches to combat COVID-19 pandemic and enlist the major pipeline drugs and traditional medicines that are under trial for COVID-19. Also, possible mechanisms involved in viral pathogenesis are discussed, which further allow us to understand various drug targets and helps in discovering novel therapeutic approaches for COVID-19. Altogether, the information provided in this review will work as an intellectual groundwork and provides an insight into the ongoing development of various therapeutic agents.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) affects 1 in 23 males and 1 in 25 females, making it the third most common cancer. With roughly 608000 deaths worldwide, CRC accounts for 8% of all cancer-related deaths, making it the second most common cause of death due to cancer. Standard and conventional CRC treatments include surgical expurgation for resectable CRC and radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and their combinational regimen for non-resectable CRC. Despite these tactics, nearly half of patients develop incurable recurring CRC. Cancer cells resist the effects of chemotherapeutic drugs in a variety of ways, including drug inactivation, drug influx and efflux modifications, and ATP-binding cassette transporter overexpression. These constraints necessitate the development of new target-specific therapeutic strategies. Emerging therapeutic approaches, such as targeted immune boosting therapies, non-coding RNA-based therapies, probiotics, natural products, oncolytic viral therapies, and biomarker-driven therapies, have shown promising results in preclinical and clinical studies. We tethered the entire evolutionary trends in the development of CRC treatments in this review and discussed the potential of new therapies and how they might be used in conjunction with conventional treatments as well as their advantages and drawbacks as future medicines.

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