Neuromyelitis optica also known as Devic's syndrome is a rare autoimmune disorder that predominantly targets the optic nerves and the spinal cord. It is a debilitating disorder that damages a person's health. Initially it was considered as a variant of multiple sclerosis (MS). But, in 2004, a water channel protein associated antibody was found to be responsible for the disease. This helped in distinguishing the disease from multiple sclerosis. Multiple molecular mechanisms like complement dependent cytotoxicity, antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity etc. contribute to the disease. Certain environmental and genetic factors have been identified as risk factors of the disease. Initially, the disease was thought to affect only the optic nerves and the spinal cord. But certain regions of the brain have also been found to be attacked during the course of the disease. A small proportion of the patients have been found to be seronegative for the AQP4-IgG. Recently, the term neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder has been framed to include all the features of the disease. The disease remains incurable despite the availability of various treatment modalities. This review presents critical information obtained from prior studies regarding the disease and also raise several questions to understand the research gaps in this field.
COVID-19 is a severe acute respiratory syndrome caused by a novel strain of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and is declared as a global pandemic by WHO as it caused severe damage to mankind by virus transmission from human to human with increased mortality rate worldwide. Corona virus is a spherical shaped and enveloped positive-sense single stranded RnA virus with a size of ~30 kilobase encoding various structural, non-structural proteins and accessory proteins. the entry of coronavirus into the host cells is mediated by spike proteins which efficiently allow SARS-CoV2 to replicate in host cell by evading immune surveillance like innate and adaptive immune responses in the host cells and ultimately leads to increased virulence and disease outcome. In the current review, we highlighted the molecular insights of SARS-CoV-2 and its infection mechanism in the host cell via host-viral protein interactions based on currently available data up to 16 th May 2020 and using various research literature databases. the detection of coronavirus is mainly by Rt-PCR and serological tests. there is no complete treatment for COVID-19, few methods like plasma therapy and remdesivir treatment are reported to show promising results in improving patient's health and decreasing mortality rate.
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