Garima Sharma

We report the results of a nationally-representative sample of the US population during the COVID-19 pandemic.The survey ran in two waves from April 1-5, 2020 and May 2-8, 2020.Of those employed pre-COVID-19, we find that about half are now working from home, including 35.2% who report they were commuting and recently switched to working from home.In addition, 10.1% report being laid-off or furloughed since the start of COVID-19.There is a strong negative relationship between the fraction in a state still commuting to work and the fraction working from home.We find that the share of people switching to remote work can be predicted by the incidence of COVID-19 and that younger people were more likely to switch to remote work.Furthermore, states with a higher share of employment in information work including management, professional and related occupations were more likely to shift toward working from home and had fewer people laid off or furloughed.We find no substantial change in results between the two waves, suggesting that most changes to remote work manifested by early April.

In the past few years, therapeutic microRNA (miRNA) and small interfering RNA (siRNA) are some of the most important biopharmaceuticals that are in commercial space as future medicines. This review summarizes the patents of miRNA- and siRNA-based new drugs, and also provides a snapshot about significant biopharmaceutical companies that are investing for the therapeutic development of miRNA and siRNA molecules. An insightful view about individual siRNA and miRNA drugs has been depicted with their present status, which is gaining attention in the therapeutic landscape. The efforts of the biopharmaceuticals are discussed with the status of their preclinical and/or clinical trials. Here, some of the setbacks have been highlighted during the biopharmaceutical development of miRNA and siRNA as individual therapeutics. Finally, a snapshot is illustrated about pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics with absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME), which is the fundamental development process of these therapeutics, as well as the delivery system for miRNA- and siRNA-based drugs.

Recently, a novel coronavirus (SARS-COV-2) emerged which is responsible for the recent outbreak in Wuhan, China. Genetically, it is closely related to SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. The situation is getting worse and worse, therefore, there is an urgent need for designing a suitable peptide vaccine component against the SARS-COV-2. Here, we characterized spike glycoprotein to obtain immunogenic epitopes. Next, we chose 13 Major Histocompatibility Complex-(MHC) I and 3 MHC-II epitopes, having antigenic properties. These epitopes are usually linked to specific linkers to build vaccine components and molecularly dock on toll-like receptor-5 to get binding affinity. Therefore, to provide a fast immunogenic profile of these epitopes, we performed immunoinformatics analysis so that the rapid development of the vaccine might bring this disastrous situation to the end earlier.

miRNAs, a class of small endogenous RNAs, are one of the essential biopharmaceuticals which are in commercial spans as next-generation medicine in recent times. A snapshot of the current scenario regarding the miRNAs as biopharmaceuticals have been discussed. In this work, biopharmaceutical companies working with miRNAs and the current status of preclinical/clinical trials about miRNA therapeutics have been reviewed. Finally, recent updates on the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion (ADME), as well as a delivery system of miRNAs, have been illustrated.