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All across the globe, India is considered as an agricultural nation because its agro products drive the economy. An increase in population growth and a hike in food demands lead to the use of hazardous chemicals in farm fields. An in-depth field survey in Northern India was conducted to understand the types of agrochemicals that were used, farmers' knowledge about their safe handling, and their practices on its usage. Ninety-two responders (primarily farmers) from 37 districts of 12 states were interviewed to collect the information. The library containing 58 compounds as toxic spray constituents were developed and further screened in-silico for ADMET, drug-likeness, toxicity prediction, and molecular docking against their target actions in the human system. Glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) was selected as target protein showing the best-docked score with Bordeaux, Indoxacarb, Cyphenothrin, Deltamethrin, and Beta-cyfluthrin. The study revealed various adverse effects on human health and advocated provisions of alternative solutions such as using GST as a binding agents to hold the toxic chemicals out of living system and eventually saves valuable lives of the farmers.

Background. Studies on antigenic proteins for arboviruses are important for providing diagnostics and vaccine development. India and its neighboring countries have a huge burden of arboviral diseases. Data mining for country-specific sequences from existing bioinformatics databases is cumbersome and time-consuming. This necessitated the development of a database of antigenic proteins from arboviruses isolated from the countries of the Indian subcontinent. Methods. Arboviral antigenic protein sequences were obtained from the NCBI and other databases. In silico antigenic characterization was performed (Epitope predic- tions) and data was incorporated into the database. The front end was designed and developed using HTML, CSS, and PHP. For the backend of the database, we have used MySQL. Results. A database, named ArVirInd, is created as a repository of information on curated antigenic proteins. This enlists sequences by country and year of outbreak or origin of the viral strain. For each entry, antigenic information is provided along with functional sites, etc. Researchers can search this database by virus/protein name, country, and year of collection (or in combination) as well as peptide search for epitopes. It is available publicly via the Internet at http://www.arvirind.co.in. ArVirInd will be useful in the study of immune informatics, diagnostics, and vaccinology for arboviruses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Porcine enterovirus G (EV-G) and teschovirus (PTV) generally cause asymptomatic infections. Although both viruses have been reported from various countries, they are rarely detected from India. To detect these viruses in Western India, fecal samples (n  = 26) of diarrheic piglets aged below three months from private pig farms near Pune (Maharashtra) were collected. The samples were screened by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction using conserved enterovirus specific primers from 5′ untranslated region. For genetic characterization of detected EV-G strain, nearly complete genome, and for PTV, partial VP1 gene were sequenced. EV-G strain showed the highest identity in a VP1 gene at nucleotide (78.61%) and amino acid (88.65%) level with EV-G15, prototype strain. However, its complete genome was homologous with the nucleotide (78.38% identity) and amino acid (91.24% identity) level to Ishi-Ka2 strain (LC316832), unassigned EV-G genotype detected from Japan. The nearly complete genome of EV-G15 consisted of 7398 nucleotides excluding the poly(A) tail and has an open reading frame that encodes a 2170 amino acid polyprotein. Genetic analysis of the partial VP1 gene of teschovirus identified porcine teschovirus 4 (PTV-4) and putative PTV-17 genotype. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on nearly full genome characterization of EV-G15, and detection of PTV-4 and putative PTV-17 genotypes from India. Further, detection and characterization of porcine enteroviruses are needed for a comprehensive understanding of their genetic diversity and their association with symptomatic infections from other geographical regions of India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]