Noroviruses: Evolutionary Dynamics, Epidemiology, Pathogenesis, and Vaccine Advances-A Comprehensive Review.

Noroviruses constitute a significant aetiology of sporadic and epidemic gastroenteritis in human hosts worldwide, especially among young children, the elderly, and immunocompromised patients. The low infectious dose of the virus, protracted shedding in faeces, and the ability to persist in the environment promote viral transmission in different socioeconomic settings. Considering the substantial disease burden across healthcare and community settings and the difficulty in controlling the disease, we review aspects related to current knowledge about norovirus biology, mechanisms driving the evolutionary trends, epidemiology and molecular diversity, pathogenic mechanism, and immunity to viral infection.

Versatile Applications of Cyanobacteria in Biotechnology.

Cyanobacteria are blue-green Gram-negative and photosynthetic bacteria which are seen as one of the most morphologically numerous groups of prokaryotes. Because of their ability to fix gaseous nitrogen and carbon dioxide to organic materials, they are known to play important roles in the universal nutrient cycle. Cyanobacteria has emerged as one of the promising resources to combat the issues of global warming, disease outbreaks, nutrition insecurity, energy crises as well as persistent daily human population increases.

Evidence of hepatitis B infection and co-infection with enteric fever among febrile patients in a primary health facility in Kogi State, Nigeria.

Hepatitis B and enteric fever remain infectious diseases of major health concern and the etiologic agents share overlapping regions of high endemicity worldwide. This study determined the seroprevalence of hepatitis B and enteric fever among febrile patients in Ejule metropolis, North-central Nigeria. In a cross-sectional study, blood samples obtained from 200 consenting patients were screened for hepatitis B and enteric fever with standard diagnostics ABON hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and Widal agglutination tests, respectively.

Making Sense of "Nonsense" and More: Challenges and Opportunities in the Genetic Code Expansion, in the World of tRNA Modifications.

The evolutional development of the RNA translation process that leads to protein synthesis based on naturally occurring amino acids has its continuation via synthetic biology, the so-called rational bioengineering. Genetic code expansion (GCE) explores beyond the natural translational processes to further enhance the structural properties and augment the functionality of a wide range of proteins. Prokaryotic and eukaryotic ribosomal machinery have been proven to accept engineered tRNAs from orthogonal organisms to efficiently incorporate noncanonical amino acids (ncAAs) with rationally designed side chains.

Coinfection of Human Immunodeficiency Virus-Infected Patients with Hepatitis B Virus in Lokoja, North Central Nigeria.

Globally, coinfection of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) patients with Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) is associated with an accelerated progression of HIV disease and higher mortality resulting from complications of liver-related disease. Despite the public health importance, data are lacking on this subject in the study area. Therefore, we evaluated the prevalence and risk factors for HIV/HBV coinfection among HIV patients accessing antiretroviral treatment in Lokoja, Nigeria.