Daily Prelims Notes 31 July 2022

July 31, 2022
Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
Category: DPN

No Comments

Daily Prelims Notes

31 July 2022

Table Of Contents

1. PREZODE

Subject: Science and Technology

Section: Biotechnology

Concept:

PREZODE (Preventing Zoonotic Disease Emergence) is an international One Health initiative supporting emergence risk reduction strategies for zoonotic infectious diseases,
It was launched in January 2021 during the One Planet Summit on Biodiversity organized by the French government.
It has more than 160 international partners, including 11 countries, signed. PREZODE has received support from the FAO and the President of the European Commission.
Partner Countries: Belgium, France, Mexico, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Cambodia, Costa-Rica, Haïti, Senegal, Uruguay, and Commonwealth of Dominica.
Some of the Partnering Indian Universities, Research centers, National institutions : All India Institute of Medical Sciences, ICAR-Indian Veterinary Research Institute, ICAR-National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology & Disease Informatics Punjab Agricultural University etc.,
It works with the ambition to understand the risks of emergence of zoonotic infectious diseases, to develop and implement innovative methods to improve prevention, early detection, and resilience in order to ensure rapid response to the risks of emerging infectious diseases of animal origin, while increasing biodiversity and fighting against poverty and food insecurity.
PREZODE will follow the recommendations of the forthcoming High-Level Expert Panel on One Health of the Tripartite

PREZODE will develop:

A framework for the international coordination of research and innovation projects and programs, of One Health monitoring networks, and of participatory projects with stakeholders;
A platform for sharing knowledge brought by past, current and future projects and capitalizing on experimentations across world regions; These activities will be performed in close collaboration with the One-Health High-Level Expert Panel announced on November 12th, 2020, at the Paris Peace Forum.
An online resource center for decision-makers to enable public policies supporting emergence risk reduction strategies for zoonotic infectious diseases.

2. Invasive frog and snake cost world economy $16 billion

Subject :Environment

Section: Biotechnology

According to a study published in Scientific Reports Two invasive species, the American bullfrog and the brown tree snake, cost the world an estimated $16 billion between 1986 and 2020, by causing problems ranging from crop damage to power outages.
The brown-and-green frog, known as lithobatescatesbeianus and weighs over two pounds (0.9 kg), had the greatest impact in Europe.
The brown tree snake, known as boigairregularis, has multiplied uncontrollably on Pacific islands including Guam and the Mariana Islands, where the species was introduced by the U.S. troops in World War II.

3. One step closer to precision cancer therapies

Subject : Science and Technology

Section: Biotechnology

Research found a combination of molecules that can be used for developing novel anti-cancer therapeutics
Research work over the last decade has helped identify a new target for killing cancer cells, opening the door for potential new therapy. The target pathway is utilised by cancer cells to repair DNA double-stranded break repair

Preventing DNA Replication

Topoisomerase 1-targeted chemotherapy is one of the mainstays of treating cancer cells. Currently-used anti-cancer drugs (Camptothecin, Topotecan and Irinotecan) target a molecule (the enzyme Topoisomerase 1 or Top1) involved in DNA replication. While DNA replication is essential to cell division, runaway replication characterises cancer.
Research found that cancer cells sometimes develop resistance to Topoisomerase 1-targeted chemotherapy through their intrinsic DNA repair toolbox. Based on these insights, a combination of molecules (the protein PRMT5, and the enzyme TDP1) can be used as potential targets for developing novel anti-cancer therapeutics, thus taking us a step closer to developing precision medicine approaches for cancer patients.
Top1, an enzyme in all higher eukaryotes, is essentially responsible for relaxing DNA as it coils during replication (and transcription). The drugs directed at this pathway disrupt the activity of Top1 by changing its shape and rendering it ineffective. While these result in a significant amount of cell death, including cancer cells, natural cellular repair mechanisms (using TDP1) often kick in and counteract the action of the drug.
Researcher developed CRISPR-mediated knock-out cells where the PRMT5 (Protein arginine methyltransferase 5) enzyme in the cells is no longer present. When challenged with a low dosage of camptothecin which is below the toleration levels used in chemotherapy, they found that the cancer cytotoxicity increased markedly. This helped confirm that PRMT5 deficiency in the cell is the target of the camptothecin.

4. Drugs Combinations

Subject : Science and Technology

Section: Biotechnology

The enzyme PRMT5 is broadly overexpressed in many cancer cells. Therefore, targeting the PRMT5 enzyme with drugs in combination with low dosage camptothecin will help in killing cancer cells more effectively.
The PRMT5 enzyme, which is found in abundance in cancer cells, directly regulates the natural cellular repair mechanisms through chemical fine tuning. This results in repairing of DNA breaks generated by camptothecin and thus, resistance to chemotherapy.

Major breakthrough

In 2018, Researcher achieved a breakthrough with the identification of the DNA repair proteins TDP1 (Tyrosyl DNA phosphodiesterase 1) and PRMT5 binding which was published in Nucleic Acids Research. But at that time, they did not understand the mechanism of action. Continuous research in the last five years helped unravel the mechanism in detail and the implications of a combinatorial chemotherapy.
PRMT5 inhibitor, GSK3326595, has been approved as a mono therapy in phase IIclinical trials of cancer. Therefore, the latest work provides a new rationale for using the combination of Top1-PRMT5 inhibitors in tumorigenesis.

5. States fail to give Environment Ministry details on elephant reserves

Subject :Environment

Section : Biodiversity

The Elephant Range States across India, have ignored an 18-month-old instruction from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC), to furnish information on their Elephant Reserves.
The MoEFCC had, on January 12, 2021, written to the chief wildlife wardens of the Elephant Reserve States, to provide the details for the compilation of information on Elephant Reserves (ERs) by its Project Elephant Division.
Data uploaded on the Wildlife Institute of India’s website say the elephant population across 16 States in the country ranged between 27,785 and 31,368 in 2012. While Karnataka had up to 7,458 elephantsfollowed by Assam with 5,281, Maharashtra had only four.
India has 30 notified ERs, spread across 15 Elephant Range Sta There are also 10 sites for the MIKE (monitoring of illegal killing of elephants) programme, mandated by the Conference of Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
The MIKE sites are Chirang-Ripu and Dihing-Patkai in Assam, Deomali in Arunachal Pradesh, Garo Hills in Meghalaya, Eastern Dooars in West Bengal, Mayurbhanj in Odisha, Shivalik in Uttarakhand, Mysore in Karnataka, Wayanad in Kerala and Nilgiri in Tamil Nadu.

About Elephants:

Elephants are keystone species.
Asian and African Elephants are facing extinction due to illegal poaching for high demand of ivory, tusks & other body parts; as a result these both elephants are also listed in IUCN Red list of Threatened Species as ‘Endangered Asian Elephants’ and ‘Vulnerable African Elephants’
There are around 28,000 elephants in India with around 25% of them in Karnataka.
12 august is celebrated every year as World Elephant day worldwide.
Elephants have the longest gestation period of any mammal—22 months. Females give birth every four to five years.
Elephant herds have complex social structures, are led by matriarchs, and are comprised of a group of other adult females and calves, while male elephants tend to live in isolation or small bachelor groups.
Conservation Status of Indian Elephants:
- Wildlife Protection Act, 1972: Schedule I
- IUCN Red List: Endangered
- CITES: Appendix I
Project Elephant: It is a centrally sponsored scheme which was launched in 1992 for their protection.

MIKE (monitoring of illegal killing of elephants

It comes under CITES
It was started in South Asia in 2003 with the following objective:
- To measure levels and trends in illegal hunting of elephants.
- To determine changes in these trends overtime.
- To determine the factors causing or associated with these changes and to try and assess in particular to what extent observed trends are a result of any decisions taken by the Conference of the Parties to CITES.
In India, Project Elephant has been formally implementing MIKE
IUCN Red List of threatened species status- African elephants are listed as“vulnerable” and Asian elephants as “endangered”.
(CITES) status – Appendix I. Appendix I lists species that are the most endangered among CITES-listed animals and plants. They are threatened with extinction and CITES prohibits international trade in specimens of these species except when the purpose of the import is not commercial, for instance for scientific research.
Project Elephant launched by the Government of India in the year 1992 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme.

Wildlife Institute of India

The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) is an autonomous institution under the Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate change
It was established in 1982.
It is based in Dehradun, Uttarakhand.
It offers training programs, academic courses, and advisory in wildlife research and management.

6. COVID-19 reinfection common with BA.5 variant

Subject: Science and Technology

Section: Biotechnology

Compared with the earlier Omicron BA.2 subvariant, currently dominant Omicron BA.5 is linked with higher odds of causing a second SARS-COV-2 infection regardless of vaccination status
The researchers said 10% of BA.5 cases were reinfections, compared to 5.6% of BA.2 cases, which suggests a reduction in protection conferred by previous infection against BA.5 compared to BA.2,
The vaccines appeared to be less effective in reducing the risk of severe outcomes for BA.5 compared with BA.2.
Among those infected with 5, booster vaccination was associated with 77% and 88% reduction in risk of COVID-19 hospitalisation and death, respectively, while higher risk reduction was found for BA.2 cases, with 93% and 94%, respectively
The spike protein on its surface that SARS-CoV-2 uses to break into heart muscle cells also triggers a damaging attack from the immune system
They found that in infected heart muscle cells, only SARS-CoV-2 spike interacted with the so-called TLR4 proteins (Toll-like receptor-4) that recognise invaders and trigger inflammatory responses.
A new monoclonal antibody combination can prevent and treat Omicron infections in monkeys, researchers reported in Nature Microbiology.
The antibodies, called P2G3 and P5C3, recognise regions of the spike protein the SARS-CoV-2 virus uses to enter cells. “P5C3 alone can block all SARS-CoV-2 variants that had dominated the pandemic up to Omicron BA.2

Two monkeypox cases in India not linked to Europe

Genome sequences of the first two imported cases of monkeypox detected in Kerala clearly show that they belong to a small cluster — A.2 — that was very different from the one that was first detected in the U.K. on May 6 this year and has since spread to more than 75 countries.
The genomes from the major outbreak of monkeypox cases in Europe and the rest of the world belong to the B.1 lineage.
All the three imported cases detected in Kerala were in men who had arrived from the Middle East.
The large outbreak that began in Europe in early May this year and since grown to over 21,000 cases globally has been spreading primarily through human-to-human transmission.
The sustained transmission among humans has predominantly been among men who have sex with men (MSM) and had spread across Europe in a matter of few days due to two superspreader events.
The small 2 cluster is starkly different from the large B.1 cluster that represents the virus that began spreading in Europe.

7. E-Waste

Subject: Environment

New e-waste rules threaten jobs, collection network

Electronic waste, or electronic goods that are past their shelf life, is largely handled by India’s vast informal sector.
The environment ministry brought the E waste (Management) Rules, 2016, that introduced a system of Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) compelling makers of electronic goods to ensure a proportion of the goods they sold every year was recycled.
They are expected to maintain records annually demonstrating this. Most companies however didn’t maintain an in-house unit in charge of recycling and this gave rise to network of government-registered companies, called Producer Responsibility Organisations (PRO) who acted as an intermediary between manufacturers of electronic goods and formal recycling units, that were technologically equipped to safely and efficiently recycle end-of-life electronic goods.

Draft Notification for Electronic Waste Management

This May, the Environment Ministry issued a draft notification that does away with PRO and dismantlers and vests all responsibility of recycling with authorised recyclers, only a handful of whom exist in India.
Recyclers will source a quantity of waste, recycle them and generate electronic certificates.
Companies can buy these certificates equivalent to their annual committed target and thus do not have to be involved with engaging PROs and dismantlers.
Recyclers will likely establish their own supply chains and companies will no longer bear any responsibility for ensuring that their produce is recycled.
The new rules would rely on an electronic management system that would track the material that went in for recycling with the output claimed by a recycler when they claimed GST (Goods and Services Tax) input credit.
The rules bring into effect a system of trading in certificates, akin to carbon credits, that will allow companies to temporarily bridge shortfalls.
Consumer goods companies and makers of electronics goods have to ensure at least 60% of their electronic waste is collected and recycled by 2023 with targets to increase them to 70% and 80% in 2024 and 2025, respectively.
Companies that don’t meet their annual targets will have to pay a fine or an ‘environmental compensation’.
The CPCB (Central Pollution Control Board) will oversee the overall implementation of these regulations.