Marine Algae as a Natural Source for Antiviral Compounds

Coronavirus or COVID-19 is started from the China, Wuhan city in December 2019 and soon later, spread around 190 countries and declared as pandemic on March 11, 2020 by WHO. Healthcare systems all over the world are fighting against this pandemic. Most of the countries are lockdown for uncertain periods to protect their people from this pandemic as a result the world economy is struggling to cope up with the current situation. Several countries have conducted research studies to produce vaccine or antiviral drug but there is still no specific solution for the prevention or treatment of COVID-19 infection in general. Along with other treatment methods, many countries are fuelling their demand for antiviral compounds from natural resources due to coronavirus. Microalgae and cyanobacteria are excellent source of antiviral activity. Several cyclic or linear peptides and depsipeptides isolated from cyanobacteria are protease inhibitors, which is considered as significant antiviral candidate. Micro and macroalgae were one of the first sources of natural compounds showing in vitro anti-HIV activity. Numerous in vitro or in vivo studies has shown the potential of algae against wild range of viruses. The use of natural products in the manufacturing of drugs is an ancient and well-established practice. Marine microorganisms are known producers of pharmacological and anti-viral agents and may provide unlimited biological resources to produce therapeutic drugs for the treatment and control of viral diseases in humans. Our major intention to write this review to bring world’s attention in terms of public health and public policy practices across the world to grab an opportunity from this known healthcare practices, and conventional platform to produce vaccine or antiviral medicine to overcome COID-19

Distribution and abundance of benthic macroorganisms in and around Visakhapatnam Harbour on the east coast of India

Benthic communities form an important component of the marine food chain. Their occurrence also provides information on the health of the ecosystem. A study was carried out to understand the distribution and abundance of macrobenthos along with sediment characteristics and physicochemical parameters in Visakhapatnam Harbour, a major port along the east coast of India. In all 84 macrobenthic taxa were reported from the port area of which 60 were polychaetes and 24 were other invertebrate taxa. Our observations revealed an increase in the number of polychaete species observed over the last 20 years from this region. An earlier study reported 38 polychaete species in 1975 and a year later the number of polychaete species reported was 12, indicating an increase in the number of polychaete species in the present study by about 150%. The macrobenthic abundance and dominance of species varied with the seasons. Pre-monsoon was dominated by Cirratulus sp., during monsoon tanaids were dominant indicating a seasonal shift in the occurrence and dominance of macrobenthos. During post-monsoon, Cossura coasta was dominant followed by Nephtys dibranchis and amphipods. Sediment characteristics (sand, silt and clay), organic carbon and dissolved oxygen were the important factors influencing the abundance and species diversity. The abundance of macrobenthic forms also varied with inner and outer harbour region. Higher species diversity was observed in the outer harbour suggesting the outer harbour has semi-polluted conditions such as higher dissolved oxygen (DO) and salinity, low nutrients (nitrite, nitrate and silicate) and low organic carbon in the sediment