Neurotropic SARS-CoV-2: Causalities and Realities

Evidences for the dysfunctions of central nervous system (CNS) caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection have accumulated since the beginning of pandemic. The clinical and experimental evidences on viral entry routes to CNS lead to several open questions. While the neurological impairments caused by the virus stay as a reality under Long COVID, dissecting the causality underlying these problems continues to be an intensely studied topic. Extensive reports of olfactory dysfunctions including anosmia, hyposmia, and parosmia due to infections during 2020–2021, led to the hypothesis of virus’ CNS invasion through the olfactory nerve. Some of the investigations using animal models of cellular factors mediating the viral entry also suggest potential neurotropism. Conversely, recent studies proved the absence of viral particles in olfactory sensory neurons and olfactory bulb, hence leading to the deliberation on viral entry route. Here, we summarize the findings on the debated neurotropic characteristics of the virus, including clinical observations and the results from animal models. Further, we emphasize on the need of tracking olfactory and cognitive fitness in the post-COVID-19 era

Fluorescent Discrimination between Traces of Chemical Warfare Agents and Their Mimics

An array of fluorogenic probes is able to discriminate between nerve agents, sarin, soman, tabun, VX and their mimics, in water or organic solvent, by qualitative fluorescence patterns and quantitative multivariate analysis, thus making the system suitable for the inthe- field detection of traces of chemical warfare agents as well as to differentiate between the real nerve agents and other related compounds.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Spain (Project CTQ2012- 31611), Junta de Castilla y León, Consejería de Educación y Cultura y Fondo Social Europeo (Project BU246A12-1), the European Commission, Seventh Framework Programme (Project SNIFFER FP7-SEC-2012-312411) and the Swedish Ministry of Defence (no. A403913

Biological therapies in the systemic management of psoriasis: International Consensus Conference

Psoriasis is a chronic, immune-mediated disorder that usually requires long-term treatment for control. Approximately 25% of patients have moderate to severe disease and require phototherapy, systemic therapy or both. Despite the availability of numerous therapeutic options, the long-term management of psoriasis can be complicated by treatment-related limitations. With advances in molecular research and technology, several biological therapies are in various stages of development and approval for psoriasis. Biological therapies are designed to modulate key steps in the pathogenesis of psoriasis. Collectively, biologicals have been evaluated in thousands of patients with psoriasis and have demonstrated significant benefit with favourable safety and tolerability profiles. The limitations of current psoriasis therapies, the value of biological therapies for psoriasis, and guidance regarding the incorporation of biological therapies into clinical practice are discussed.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72815/1/j.1365-2133.2004.06070.x.pd

Modelling chemical reactivity in Diels-Alder cycloaddition reactions of heteroacyl- 1,4-benzoquinones-A semiempirical (AM1) computational study

518-521A semiempirical (AM1) computational study on the modelling of a number of model heteroacyl-1,4-benzoquinones with a selected set of dienes, viz. Electron-rich dienes like isoprene and 2,3-dimethyl-1 ,3-butadiene and electron-deficient diene, like perchloro-1,3-butadiene is described

A System for design traceability

Peer reviewed: YesNRC publication: Ye