The looming problem of resistance to antibiotics in microorganisms is a global health concern. The drug-resistant microorganisms originating from anthropogenic sources and commercial livestock farming have posed serious environmental and health challenges. Antibiotic-resistant genes constituting the environmental “resistome” get transferred to human and veterinary pathogens. Hence, deciphering the origin, mechanism and extreme of transfer of these genetic factors into pathogens is extremely important to develop not only the therapeutic interventions to curtail the infections, but also the strategies to avert the menace of microbial drug-resistance. Clinicians, researchers and policymakers should jointly come up to develop the strategies to prevent superfluous exposure of pathogens to antibiotics in non-clinical settings. This article highlights the present scenario of increasing antimicrobial-resistance in pathogenic bacteria and the clinical importance of unconventional or non-antibiotic therapies to thwart the infectious pathogenic microorganisms.

Mucormycosis is a serious and potentially fatal fungal infection caused by a type of rare but opportunistic fungal pathogen called mucormycetes. Recently, mucormycosis, also known as black fungus, made severe chaos in India during the second wave (between April and June 2021) of the tragical COVID-19 epidemic by its sudden and devastating surge with up to 50% mortality rate. While the exact cause of its sharp rise suddenly and specifically during the second wave still remains debatable, it has been noted that the people who are diabetic and have recovered from COVID-19 infection are more predisposed to mucormycosis. Nevertheless, the precise reason and mechanism(s) underlying the surge of this deadly infection needs to be investigated to comprehend its pathogenesis and pathological elements and discover rationale preventative/ therapeutic solutions. It is speculated that the indiscriminate use of steroids, antibiotics and zinc as a self-medication practice that increased during the COVID-19 epidemic may have promoted the dysbiosis of gut microbiota thereby inducing immune-suppression and making the risk group highly susceptible to this mycotic disease. In these contexts, this timely article attempts to contemplate and discuss some of the possible factors and potential mechanisms that can help to understand and explain the conundrum of sudden, steep and deadly upsurge of mucormycosis infections during the second wave of COVID-19 epidemic.

Salmonella Typhimurium (ST) is the zoonotic pathogenic Gram-negative bacteria to causes infectious disease in humans as well as in animals. It causes gastrointestinal illness and fever called salmonellosis, which is foodborne diarrheal and leading cause of millions of deaths worldwide. Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) during its pathogenesis takeaway the actin cytoskeleton of their host cells and this is the crucial step of its infection cycle. Cyclophilin A, a type of peptidyl-prolyl isomerase that's encoded by the ppiA gene in ST, plays pleiotropic roles in maintaining bacterial physiology. In this research, the proteomic characterization of the peptidyl-prolyl cis-trans isomerase-A (Cyclophilin A) from Salmonella Typhimurium is reported. Cyclophilin A (CypA) protein from Salmonella Typhimurium proved to be a highly conserved protein sequence and highly homologous compared to other organisms. This protein was expressed in Escherichia coli and then puri ed in a recombinant form protein exhibited a characteristic PPIases activity (V max = 0.8752 ± 0.13892 µmoles/ min, K m = 0.9315 ± 0.5670 µM) in comparison to control. Also, in this study the mass spectrometry analysis of Cyp A proteinpeptide showed the highest sequence similarity with the cyclophilin protein of Salmonella. PPIases proteins enzyme data suggest that Ppi-A has roles in the protein folding that may be contributing to the virulence of Salmonella by isomerization of protein outline. These results suggest an active and vital role of this protein in protein folding along with regulation in Salmonella Typhimurium.

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