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New hexa-coordinated ruthenium(III) complexes of the type [RuX 2 (L)(EPh 3 ) 2 ] (X ¼ Cl or Br; L ¼ monobasic bidentate Schiff base ligand; E ¼ P or As) have been synthesised by the reactions of [RuCl 3 (PPh 3 ) 3 ], [RuCl 3 (AsPh 3 ) 3 ], [RuBr 3 -(AsPh 3 ) 3 ] or [RuBr 3 (PPh 3 ) 2 (MeOH)] with the appropriate ligands such as anthranilic acid cinnamaldehyde (Hanthcin), anthranilic acid p-tolualdehyde (Hanth-p-tol) and anthranilic acid p-anisaldehyde (Hanth-p-ans). All of these new complexes were characterised using various physico-chemical methods such as elemental analyses, spectral (IR, electronic and EPR), magnetic moment and cyclic voltammetric data. The antibacterial activities of ligands and their complexes have also been determined. An octahedral structure has been tentatively assigned to all of the new complexes.

The cultivated silk, mulberry, is being used as biomaterial in different forms. Eri, tasar and muga are some of the known wild silk varieties. The studies on biomedical applications of electrospun mats produced from these wild silks are limited though few studies on eri silk are available. In this work, comparison was made between eri and tasar silk fibroin scaffolds for biomedical application. The scaffolds were produced from eri silk fibroin (ESF) and tasar silk fibroin (TSF) by electrospinning method and they were treated with ethanol to improve dimensional stability. Ethanol treatment increased the crystallinity% of both ESF and TSF scaffolds. The crystallinity percentage of the ESF and TSF scaffolds was found to be 46.7 and 42.8 % respectively. Thermal stability was higher for ESF than that of TSF scaffold. The hemolytic % of ESF and TSF scaffolds was found to be 1.3 and 7.7 % respectively. The platelet adhesion on the surface of ESF scaffold was lower than that found on TSF scaffold. Better fibroblast cell attachment, binding and spreading was found on the ESF scaffold. The cell viability on ESF scaffold was 83.78 % and in TSF was 78.01 % for 48 h. The results showed that ESF electrospun scaffold can be considered as a better biomaterial for biomedical applications compared to that of TSF scaffold.

A growing amount of epidemiological data from multiple countries indicate an increased prevalence of obesity, more importantly central obesity, among hospitalized subjects with COVID-19. This suggests that obesity is a major factor contributing to adverse outcome of the disease. As it is a metabolic disorder with dysregulated immune and endocrine function, it is logical that dysfunctional metabolism contributes to the mechanisms behind obesity being a risk factor for adverse outcome in COVID-19. Emerging data suggest that in obese subjects, (a) the molecular mechanisms of viral entry and spread mediated through ACE2 receptor, a multifunctional host cell protein which links to cellular homeostasis mechanisms, are affected. This includes perturbation of the physiological renin-angiotensin system pathway causing pro-inflammatory and pro-thrombotic challenges (b) existent metabolic overload and ER stress-induced UPR pathway make obese subjects vulnerable to severe COVID-19, (c) host cell response is altered involving reprogramming of metabolism and epigenetic mechanisms involving microRNAs in line with changes in obesity, and (d) adiposopathy with altered endocrine, adipokine, and cytokine profile contributes to altered immune cell metabolism, systemic inflammation, and vascular endothelial dysfunction, exacerbating COVID-19 pathology. In this review, we have examined the available literature on the underlying mechanisms contributing to obesity being a risk for adverse outcome in COVID-19.