Lead time of early warning by wastewater surveillance for COVID-19: Geographical variations and impacting factors.

The global data on the temporal tracking of the COVID-19 through wastewater surveillance needs to be comparatively evaluated to generate a proper and precise understanding of the robustness, advantages, and sensitivity of the wastewater-based epidemiological (WBE) approach. We reviewed the current state of knowledge based on several scientific articles pertaining to temporal variations in COVID-19 cases captured via viral RNA predictions in wastewater. This paper primarily focuses on analyzing the WBE-based temporal variation reported globally to check if the reported early warning lead-time generated through environmental surveillance is pragmatic or latent. We have compiled the geographical variations reported as lead time in various WBE reports to strike a precise correlation between COVID-19 cases and genome copies detected through wastewater surveillance, with respect to the sampling dates, separately for WASH and non-WASH countries. We highlighted sampling methods, climatic and weather conditions that significantly affected the concentration of viral SARS-CoV-2 RNA detected in wastewater, and thus the lead time reported from the various climatic zones with diverse WASH situations were different. Our major findings are: i) WBE reports around the world are not comparable, especially in terms of gene copies detected, lag-time gained between monitored RNA peak and outbreak/peak of reported case, as well as per capita RNA concentrations; ii) Varying sanitation facility and climatic conditions that impact virus degradation rate are two major interfering features limiting the comparability of WBE results, and iii) WBE is better applicable to WASH countries having well-connected sewerage system.

Aminoalkyl-organo-silane treated sand for the adsorptive removal of arsenic from the groundwater: Immobilizing the mobilized geogenic contaminants.

Arsenic (As), a geogenic legacy pollutant can be present in environmental matrices (water, soil, plants, or animal) in two redox states (As(III) or As(V)). In the present study, charged mono- and di-amino functionalized triethoxy and methoxyorganosilane (TT1 and TT2- 1% and 5%) were impregnated with quartz sand particles for the treatment of As polluted water. Spectroscopic characterization of organosilane treated sand (STS) indicated the co-existence of minerals (Mg, Mn, Ti), amide, and amidoalkyl groups, which implies the suitability of silanized materials as a metal(loids) immobilization agent from water. Changes in peaks were observed after As sorption in Fourier thermal infrared and EDS images indicating the involvement of chemisorption. Batch sorption studies were performed with the optimized experimental parameters, where an increased removal (>20% for TT2-1% and >60% for TT1-1%) of As was observed with sorbate concentration (50 µg L-1), temp. (25 ± 2 ºC) and sorbent dosages (of 10 g L-1) at 120 min contact time. Among the different adsorbent dosages, 10 g L-1 of both TT1 and TT2 was selected as an optimum dosage (maximum adsorption capacity ≈ 2.91 µg g-1). The sorption model parameters suggested the possibility of chemisorption, charge/ion-dipole interaction for the removal of arsenate.

Successful multimodality management of extrarenal extracranial malignant rhabdoid tumour of the left sciatic nerve mimicking a neurofibroma.

Extrarenal extracranial malignant rhabdoid tumour (MRT) is a rare and highly aggressive tumour representing <1% of paediatric soft tissue malignancies. Only a few cases of MRT of the thigh arising from the sciatic nerve have been reported in medical literature to date. A 5-year-old girl presented with progressively increasing painless lump in the posterior aspect of the left thigh. A contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the left thigh showed a 4.7 × 5 × 10.5 cm well-marginated, lobulated, homogeneously enhancing lesion in the posterior compartment of the left thigh along the course of the sciatic nerve. She underwent en bloc excision of the left sciatic nerve tumour and end-to-end anastomosis of the left sciatic nerve with a right sural nerve graft. Histopathological and immunohistochemical examination of the surgical specimen revealed a malignant rhabdoid tumour. INI-1 immunoexpression was lost in the tumour cells. The metastatic workup was essentially normal. Subsequently, she received post-operative radiotherapy to the tumour bed (50.4 Gray in 28 fractions over 5.5 weeks) followed by six cycles of multiagent chemotherapy with ICE (Ifosfamide, Carboplatin, and Etoposide) regimen. On the last follow-up visit, 20 months after surgery, she was in complete clinical and radiological response. Aggressive multimodality management comprising radical resection of tumour, post-operative radiotherapy to the tumour bed, and multiagent chemotherapy with ICE regimen can lead to favourable outcomes in patients with this rare tumour.

Antidrug resistance in the Indian ambient waters of Ahmedabad during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic increases the consumption of antimicrobial substances (ABS) due to the unavailability of approved vaccine(s). To assess the effect of imprudent consumption of ABS during the COVID-19 pandemic, we compare the 2020 prevalence of antidrug resistance (ADR) of Escherichia coli (E. coli) with a similar survey carried out in 2018 in Ahmedabad, India using SARS-CoV-2 gene detection as a marker of ABS usage. We found a significant ADR increase in 2020 compared to 2018 in ambient water bodies, harbouring a higher incidence of ADR E.coli towards non-fluoroquinolone drugs. Effective SARS-CoV-2 genome copies were found to be associated with the ADR prevalence. The prevalence of ADR depends on the efficiency of WWTPs (Wastewater Treatment Plants) and the catchment area in its vicinity. In the year 2018 study, prevalence of ADR was discretely distributed, and the maximum ADR prevalence recorded was ~60%; against the current homogenous ADR increase, and up to 85% of maximum ADR among the incubated E.coli isolated from the river (Sabarmati) and lake (Chandola and Kankaria) samples. Furthermore, wastewater treatment plants showed less increase in comparison to the ambient waters, which eventually imply that although SARS-CoV-2 genes and faecal pollution may be diluted in the ambient waters, as indicated by low Ct-value and E.coli count, the danger of related aftermath like ADR increase cannot be nullified. Also, Non-fluoroquinolone drugs exhibited overall more resistance than quinolone drugs. Overall, this is probably the first-ever study that traces the COVID-19 pandemic imprints on the prevalence of antidrug resistance (ADR) through wastewater surveillance and hints at monitoring escalation of other environmental health parameters. This study will make the public and policyholders concerned about the optimum use of antibiotics during any kind of treatment.

Efficacy of agricultural waste derived biochar for arsenic removal: Tackling water quality in the Indo-Gangetic plain.

Arsenic (As), a geogenic and extremely toxic metalloid can jeopardize terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems through environmental partitioning in natural soil-water compartment, geothermal and marine environments. Although, many researchers have investigated the decontamination potential of different mesoporous engineered bio sorbents for a suite of contaminants, still the removal efficiency of various pyrolyzed agricultural residues needs special attention. In the present study, rice straw derived biochar (RSBC) produced from slow pyrolysis process at 600 °C was used to remove As (V) from aqueous medium. Batch experiments were conducted at room temperature (25 ± 2 °C) under different initial concentrations (10, 30, 50, 100 µg L-1), adsorbent dosages (0.5-5 µg L-1), pH (4.0-10.0) and contact times (0-180 min). The adsorption equilibrium was established in 120 min. Adsorption process mainly followed pseudo-second order kinetics (R2 ≥ 0.96) and Langmuir isotherm models (R2 ≥ 0.99), and the monolayer sorption capacity of 25.6 µg g-1 for As (V) on RSBC was achieved. Among the different adsorbent dosages and initial concentrations used in the present study, 0.2 g L-1 (14.8 µg g-1) and 100 µg L-1 (13.1 µg g-1) were selected as an optimum parameters. A comparative analysis of RSBC with other pyrolyzed waste materials revealed that RSBC had comparable adsorption ability (per unit area). These acidic groups are responsible for the electron exchange (electrostatic attraction, ion-exchange, π-π/n-πinteractions) with the anionic arsenate, which facilitates optimum removal (>60%) at 7 < pH < pHPZC. The future areas of research will focus on decontamination of real wastewater samples containing mixtures of different emerging contaminants and installation of biofilter beds that contains different spent adsorbents/organic substrates (including biochar) for biopurification study in real case scenario.

A chronicle of SARS-CoV-2: Seasonality, environmental fate, transport, inactivation, and antiviral drug resistance.

In this review, we present the environmental perspectives of the viruses and antiviral drugs related to SARS-CoV-2. The present review paper discusses occurrence, fate, transport, susceptibility, and inactivation mechanisms of viruses in the environment as well as environmental occurrence and fate of antiviral drugs, and prospects (prevalence and occurrence) of antiviral drug resistance (both antiviral drug resistant viruses and antiviral resistance in the human). During winter, the number of viral disease cases and environmental occurrence of antiviral drug surge due to various biotic and abiotic factors such as transmission pathways, human behaviour, susceptibility, and immunity as well as cold climatic conditions. Adsorption and persistence critically determine the fate and transport of viruses in the environment. Inactivation and disinfection of virus include UV, alcohol, and other chemical-base methods but the susceptibility of virus against these methods varies. Wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) are major reserviors of antiviral drugs and their metabolites and transformation products. Ecotoxicity of antiviral drug residues against aquatic organisms have been reported, however more threatening is the development of antiviral resistance, both in humans and in wild animal reservoirs. In particular, emergence of antiviral drug-resistant viruses via exposure of wild animals to high loads of antiviral residues during the current pandemic needs further evaluation.

Frontier review on the propensity and repercussion of SARS-CoV-2 migration to aquatic environment.

Increased concern has recently emerged pertaining to the occurrence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in aquatic environment during the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. While infectious SARS-CoV-2 has yet to be identified in the aquatic environment, the virus potentially enters the wastewater stream from patient excretions and a precautionary approach dictates evaluating transmission pathways to ensure public health and safety. Although enveloped viruses have presumed low persistence in water and are generally susceptible to inactivation by environmental stressors, previously identified enveloped viruses persist in the aqueous environment from days to several weeks. Our analysis suggests that not only the surface water, but also groundwater, represent SARS-CoV-2 control points through possible leaching and infiltrations of effluents from health care facilities, sewage, and drainage water. Most fecally transmitted viruses are highly persistent in the aquatic environment, and therefore, the persistence of SARS-CoV-2 in water is essential to inform its fate in water, wastewater and groundwater and subsequent human exposure.

Development of Autonomous Advanced Disinfection Tunnel to Tackle External Surface Disinfection of COVID-19 Virus in Public Places.

This paper describes a robust autonomous disinfection tunnel to disinfect external surfaces of COVID-19 virus such as clothes and open body sections in public places such as airports, office complexes, schools, and malls. To make the tunnel effective and highly efficient, it has been provided with two chambers with three disinfection processes. Due to the multiple processes, the possibility of neutralizing the virus is quite high and higher than other solutions available at this point for this purpose. Chamber 1 sprays the solution of a disinfectant on the person. This solution can be either a dilute solution of approved chemical or any Ayurvedic/herbal disinfectant. Once the person enters chamber 2, he/she is exposed to hot air at 70 °C along with far-ultraviolet C rays (207-222 nm). Both chambers function autonomously by detecting a person in a chamber using ultrasonic sensors. The proposed tunnel is developed under industry-academia collaboration jointly by Technopark@iitk and ALIMCO under the ambit of the Ministry of Human Resources Development and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, respectively. The tunnel is referred to as the 'Techno Advanced Disinfection Tunnel' (TADT).

Synthesis and Anticonvulsant Effect of Novel Thiazolidinedione Containing Benzene-sulfonylurea and Sulfonylthiourea Derivatives.

A newer series of 1-(4-substitutedphenyl)-3-(4-((2,4-dioxothiazolidin-5-lidene)methyl)phenyl sulfonyl)urea/thiourea (4a-l) were synthesized for their anticonvulsant activity. The activity is attributed to its potential to restrain astrocytic Na+, 2HCl, and K+ co-transport similar to torasemide which has sulfonylurea in its structure. Torasemide having the similar action as the furosemide that obstructs kainic acid-induced electrical discharges observed from cortex and it has neuroprotective agents, for instance antagonizing the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) and non-NMDA receptors for evaluating antiepileptic activity. The structures of new derivatives were established by elemental analysis and spectroscopic techniques viz. FTIR, 1H NMR and LC-MS. The all twelve derivatives were assessed for anticonvulsant activity at three different doses at 30, 100 and 300 mg/kg body weight into maximal electroshock (MES) and subcutaneous pentylenetetrazole (sports) models. Compounds 4c and 4e were formed to be most active among all the derivatives for both the models of anticonvulsant activity. Beside these compounds 4g, 4i and 4k also possessed the prominent anticonvulsant activity devoid of any neurotoxicity. The sulfonylurea and sulfonylthiourea both were proved to be effective anticonvulsant pharmacophore. Other structure activity relationships were established by considering the aspect of substitution in the lead.

Synthesis and oral hypoglycemic effect of novel thiazine containing trisubstituted benzenesulfonylurea derivatives.

A new series of 3-(4-substituted phenyl)-1-(4-(4,6-dimethyl-6H-1,3-thiazin-2-yl)phenylsulfonyl)-1-substituted urea (5a-o) was synthesized by an effectual route via sulfonylcarbamates and explores the novel site for substitution in sulfonylurea as well as the way of thiazine can be prepared. The molecules were established by elemental analysis and spectroscopic viz. IR, (1)H NMR, (13)C NMR and MS techniques. All the fifteen derivatives were shown very prominent oral hypoglycemic effect at the dose of 40 mg/kg body weight (p.o.) in respect of standard drug glibenclamide and control. The hypoglycemic effect was studied using oral glucose tolerance test in normal and NIDDM in STZ-rat model. The compounds 5a, 5d, 5f, 5i, 5k and 5n were dominant out of fifteen derivatives for blood glucose lowering activity (more than 80%) when comparing with NIDDM control. These derivatives were either containing simply phenyl ring (5a, 5f and 5k) on to the second amine of sulfonylurea (R' = H) or nitro group at the para position in compound 5d, 5i and 5n (R' = NO2 ) to produce significant oral hypoglycemic effect. Other structural activity relationship is also observed regarding the heteroaromatic and substituted aromatic group at R and R' position respectively.

Anticonvulsant and Neurotoxicity of Some Novel 1-([1,3,4]thiadiazino[6,5- b]indol-3-yl Semicarbazides.

In the present study a series of new N(4)-(4-substituted benzylidene)-N(1)-([1,3,4]thiadiazino [6,5-b]indol-3-yl)semicarbazide (1-6), N(4)-([1,3,4]thiadiazino[6,5-b]indol-3-yl)-N(1)-(1-(4-substituted phenyl)ethylidene)semicarbazide (7-10), N(4)-([1,3,4]thiadiazino[6,5-b]indol-3-yl)-N(1)-((4-substituted phenyl)(phenyl)methylene) semicarbazide. (11-14) have been synthesized from isatin and thiosemicarbazide through multiple steps to meet structural necessities for the anticonvulsant activity. All the newly prepared compounds were characterized by spectral techniques like FT-IR, (1)H and (13)C NMR, EI-MS and elemental analysis. All the newly synthesized compounds were investigated for the anticonvulsant activity against maximal electroshock induced seizures (MES) and subcutaneous pentylenetetrazole (scPTZ) models and their neurotoxicity were also evaluated by rotarod test. The results obtained showed that 64% of the compounds showed protection in the MES test and 36% of the compounds showed protection in ScPTZ test. Some of the compounds also showed good activity after oral administration. Among the synthesized compounds, compound 14 was shown to be the most active compound showing activity at 100 and 300 mg/kg in MES and ScPTZ test with prolonged duration of action. In the present study, semicarbazones of hydroxy containing carbonyl compounds were depicted to be the potent molecule with low neurotoxicity and prolong duration of action on oral administration. The result of the present study may be used for the future development of novel anticonvulsants with broad spectrum of anticonvulsant activity.

A review of neglected tropical diseases: filariasis.

Filariasis is result of parasitic infection caused by three specific kinds of round worm. Lymphatic filariasis is found in under developed region of South America, Central Africa, pacific and Caribbian. It has been found for centuries, with main symptoms as elephant like swelling of the arms, legs and genitals. It is estimate that 120 millions peoples in the world have lymphatic filariasis. The spread of diseases and the challenge encountered in its management are discussed along with a review on drugs against filariasis in this article. Detail on clinical effect of drugs on the infection, safety profile, status in clinical practices and drug resistances are also covered.