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Background: Endophytic fungi are taxonomically and ecologically heterogeneous group of organisms, mainly belonging to the Ascomycotina and Deuteromycotina. Endophytes usually produce the enzymes necessary for the colonization of plant tissues. Endophytes are able to utilize components of plant cells without disturbing host metabolism, which is confirmed by isozyme analysis and studies on substrate utilization. The patents related to enzymes and metabolites produced by endophytic fungi are associated with their ecological significance. Application of metabolites and growth promoting factors produced from endophytic fungi, in the pharmaceutical and agricultural industries, is now well established. The patents on secretion of extracellular enzymes in vitro by endophytic fungi needed for cell wall degradation, support the hypothesis that fungal endophytes represent a group of organisms specialized to live within plant tissue., Objective: This review presents the patents granted on different aspects of endophytic fungi for the last 11 years. This expresses the scenario and impact of these patents regarding significance in human society., Conclusion: In the last few years, research and inventions regarding the different aspects of endophytic fungi beneficial for host plant as well as for human beings have been carried out, which is supported by the increasing number of patents granted on endophytic fungi., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.)

Background: Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell (IPSC) Technology is the most advanced research as it offers an attractive alternative for establishing patient-specific IPSCs to recapitulate phenotypes of not only monogenic diseases (viz. Thalassaemia, Sickle cell anemia, Haemophilia, Tay-Sachs disease), but also late-onset polygenic diseases (viz. Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia). Over the hindsight, numerous studies of the past and current scientists have led to the production, maturation and understanding of induced pluripotent stem cell technology and its use in basic and clinical research., Methods: A systematic search of peer-reviewed scientific literature and clinical trials in public databases were carried out to summarize the evidence on the use of IPSC., Results: Current review sheds light upon the use of patient-derived iPSC models in drug toxicity, screening and discovery which have been derived after referring to more than 200 articles in literature. Furthermore, their use as disease models was also studied signifying the versatility of iPSC lines., Conclusion: Through this review, we describe the advent of iPSC technology, where we comprehensively cover the generation of iPSCs and their characterization along with their prospective applications using IPSC banks in disease modeling and drug screening., (Copyright© Bentham Science Publishers; For any queries, please email at epub@benthamscience.org.)

With the recent emergence of novel technologies, the field of biomarker discovery has been the subject of intense research and activity. Major advances in cancer control will be greatly aided by early detection for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer in its pre-invasive state. Cancer being a diverse disease involves alterations in three classes of genes viz. (proto) oncogenes, tumour suppressor genes and DNA repair genes offering a wide variety of opportunities for the development of biomarkers. The emergence of innovative technologies in genomics, proteomics, metabolomics and imaging allows researchers to facilitate inclusive analysis of cancer cells. These approaches have already demonstrated its power to discriminate cancer cells from normal cells and to identify specific genetic elements involved in cancer progression. Cancer evolves via manifold pathways and is a culmination of a variety of genetic, molecular and clinical events. In the past few years, several reports have led to identification of novel cancer signatures via high throughput biology. Current review gives an overview of the bioinformatics tools, cancer database and available software package tools and further summarizes about different strategies involved in Omics research (genomics, proteomics, metabolomics) for the development of cancer biomarkers. We also discuss about the current and emerging biomarkers in breast cancer with fundamental insight into different markers used in breast cancer detection. In addition, we focus upon the systematic integration of various omic data for accelerating cancer biomarker discovery with evidence based cancer management. The above strategies may lead to significant improvement in cancer screening, prognosis and management of therapeutic response in cancer patients.

Flavonoids are substances which are widely distributed in the plant kingdom. They occur in considerable quantities in common food products, spices and beverages. Interest of researchers has been greatly enhanced towards therapeutic potential of flavonoids in last some years. This review summarizes important patents pertaining to recent biotechnological techniques applied for the production, analysis of biosynthetic pathways, effects and applications of different flavonoids. For systematic studies investigations which have been published in the form of patents, are classified in different sectors like biosynthesis, medical application, antimicrobial activity, alteration of flower color, industrial application, cosmetics, food and plant tissue culture. A number of activities have been observed in each sector with vast area of research on flavonoids.

All organisms are protected by their immune system but occasionally this system overreacts leading to allergic and inflammatory reactions in the body. These reactions are the starting points of various diseases like asthma, eczema and urticaria etc. They involve activation of T cells, release of histamines, toxic chemicals from mast cells and eosinophils respectively. Several chemically and naturally synthesized therapeutic agents are available for the treatment of these immunological diseases. The present review provides a detailed account of mechanism of allergic and inflammatory reactions, its types and various treatment strategies with a special focus on some recent patents in this field.

Tuberculosis is a major global health challenge and is far from being controlled. Development of resistance to currently available drugs due to the successful adaptation of the pathogen has been a major contributing factor for its control failure. Presently, there is an immense interest in identification of pathways, unique to the intracellular environment that could be utilized for the development of new and better drugs. In this sequence, targeting essential functions of Mycobacterium tuberculosis has emerged as a reliable strategy for containing the spread of the disease by this organism. The fact that iron has been known to be the key player required for its survival and ability to spread infection, the organism must carefully balance iron acquisition with iron uptake for its infectivity. Conversely, this iron homeostatic process could be disrupted to interfere with the survival and replication of this bacterium in host. Urgency to develop such an approach has been further strengthened with the worldwide recrudescence of tuberculosis especially in the developing nations of the world. In the current review, we have focused on the recent developments in targeting the essential functions of mycobacterium especially interfering in its iron homeostatic process. The relevance of iron for mycobacterial virulence, the intracellular survival and the immense potential of targeting iron-sulfur (Fe-S) cluster containing proteins in tuberculosis drug discovery has been discussed.