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Background : RNA viruses evolve very fast, with a mutation rate of 103 to 105 base substitution per nucleotides per copy. The mutation is a survival strategy for the viruses, which leads them to survive in the new host. Fitness is defined as the replication capacity of the virus in an experimental setup. Generally, the large population passage of the virus leads to fitness gain, but the world data of the coronavirus infection and death shows the flattened curve with time. It is contradictory to the principle of fitness gain due to large population passage. The coronavirus is losing its potency but remains infectious as it is passaging into millions that leads to a decline in the death of COVID patients and high recovery rates. Fitness loss of coronaviruses attributed to a high level of mutation in the RNA genome as well as host immune response. The current outbreak of SARS CoV-2 is surfaced in December 2019 in Hubei province of China and considered as bats/pangolin origin, spreading 235 countries of the world, infecting nearly 31,664,104 people, and claimed nearly 972,221 lives as of September 24, 2020 (Death rate approximately 3%). This coronavirus has passaged into 31,664,104 people from the beginning of this pandemic until September 24, 2020. Now the virus is losing potency rather than being monotonous and continuous in producing virusrelated complications. The population is still getting infected at the same rate, but the severity of the disease is reduced due to the potency of the virus diminished due to the passage effect as well as fitness loss of the virus due to high mutation rates. The death rate is reduced to 3% as compared to 6% in June 2020, when this paper was first submitted. Objective: The purpose of the study is to prove the fact that the coronavirus loses its potency with time but, they remain infective. It becomes more infectious due to mutation of the gene but loses the capacity to kill the host. Methods: Since the WHO announces the COVID-19 outbreak is an emergency of international concern, every country in the world is taking many measures to mitigate the viral load to their population. Simultaneously, the WHO, CDC USA, CDC Europe, and much other organization is updating the COVID cases and death online daily as reported by the respective country. With the help of the COVID-19 outbreak data published by the European CDC and ourworldindata.org, we correlate the total cases of coronavirus and total death in the top ten affected countries in the world. We also link the trends of total cases vs. total death and total new cases vs. total new death related to COVID-19 in Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom, Italy, and New Zealand from January 30, 2020, until September 24, 2020. The reason to select these countries for the study is that these countries updating the COVID cases and deaths regularly and said to achieve the peak of COVID related infections and recovering from the pandemic. Results: We have tried to correlate the high mutation rate of the virus that leads to losing its potency to severe infection and death in the human. Viral extinction through high mutation could be considered as the new anti-viral strategies. Conclusion: Coronavirus is losing its potency to causing death to the human. The new infection is still being reported from every corner of the world, but the death rate is significantly decreasing.

Uranium is a heavy metal of considerable environmental and occupational concern. It is well-known that the kidney is the major target organ of uranium exposure. Elucidating the mechanistic basis of uranium interactions is essential for monitoring the health risk. In the present study, we investigated the cellular mechanisms involved in uranyl nitrate-induced nephrotoxicity. Male Swiss albino mice were administrated with a single intraperitoneal dose of 2 and 4 mg/kg of uranyl nitrate at different time points 1, 3, 5, 7, 14, and 28 days. Uranyl nitrate intoxication-induced apoptosis in the kidney tissue was observed by TUNEL assay. To assess the proliferation, immunohistochemistry was performed using Ki67 proliferative marker followed by western blotting to confirm the involvement of key signaling molecules. The number of TUNEL positive nuclei peaked at third day after uranyl nitrate insult. The increased expression of proliferation marker Ki67 suggests the enhanced DNA repair process prominently at seventh day. Uranyl nitrate administration also resulted in activation of extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK), Akt, and c-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNK) expression. All these changes were found to be time-dependent. The result of the current study suggests that uranyl nitrate induces acute renal injury by activation of apoptosis through JNK pathway, while the early activation of signaling molecules Akt and ERK promotes the tubular cell proliferation and cell survival.

Objective : To assess the effectiveness of the workshop on “Basic Research Skill Development”, conducted for newly admitted post graduate medical students of a private university from Mangalore, South Karnataka, India. Method : With a participatory approach, 2 days workshop (in July 2011) was organized for basic research skills development among 57 freshly admitted medical postgraduates. Based on the sessions, predesigned, structured tool (with 39 questions -MCQ or True / false type) was prepared. Initially, participants were exposed to Pretest to record prior knowledge. At the end of workshop Post-test was done with same tool. Data was analysed using McNemar chi square & paired-t tests by SPSS version17. P