The patient did not present any typical clinical COVID-19 symptoms but re-checked the RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 infection was positive. The described case presents echocardiographic evidence of hypercoagulation as the first and only feature of SARS-CoV-2 condition besides the usual morphological presentation of the WindSock LAA.
  Cytisine is contraindicated and its effects have not been evaluated in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD).
 
  The safety, feasibility and short-term efficacy of cytisine for smoking cessation were evaluated in active smokers with CAD after percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI).
 
  Patients with stable CAD and acute coronary syndromes (ACS), who smoked at least 10 cigarettes per day, were included 30 days post PCI and offered cytisine therapy. Adverse events, smoking activity and drug adherence were assessed after 30 days.
 
  117 patients participated (mean standard deviation [SD] age, 60.8 [7.7] years; men, 73.6%, mean [SD] number of pack-years 39.1 [13.9]). Overall, 79 patients consented (study group) and 38 declined (control group) to use cytisine. At follow-up visit the incidence of adverse events did not differ between groups (17.7% vs 21%; P = 0.67). The groups had similar success rate of smoking cessation in the intention-to-treat analysis (41.8% vs 36.8%; P = 0.61). In as treated analysis, patients who completed the therapy achieved a higher success rate than patients who declined (69.7% vs 36.9%; P = 0.006) or did not complete therapy (69.7% vs 34.8%; P = 0.01). In the multivariable analysis, complete cytisine therapy and ACS at admission were associated with an increased and male sex with decreased chance of smoking cessation.
 
  Cytisine therapy is not associated with an increase in adverse events in patients with CAD after PCI. Cytisine is tolerable but effective in short-term follow-up only when the treatment is completed.
 Cytisine therapy is not associated with an increase in adverse events in patients with CAD after PCI.  https://www.selleckchem.com/products/o-pentagalloylglucose.html  Cytisine is tolerable but effective in short-term follow-up only when the treatment is completed.Combinatorial therapies that target multiple pathways have shown great promises for treating complex diseases. DrugComb (https//drugcomb.org/) is a web-based portal for the deposition and analysis of drug combination screening datasets. Since its first release, DrugComb has received continuous updates on the coverage of data resources, as well as on the functionality of the web server to improve the analysis, visualization and interpretation of drug combination screens. Here, we report significant updates of DrugComb, including (i) manual curation and harmonization of more comprehensive drug combination and monotherapy screening data, not only for cancers but also for other diseases such as malaria and COVID-19; (ii) enhanced algorithms for assessing the sensitivity and synergy of drug combinations; (iii) network modelling tools to visualize the mechanisms of action of drugs or drug combinations for a given cancer sample and (iv) state-of-the-art machine learning models to predict drug combination sensitivity and synergy. These improvements have been provided with more user-friendly graphical interface and faster database infrastructure, which make DrugComb the most comprehensive web-based resources for the study of drug sensitivities for multiple diseases.
  Sexual minority (SM) tobacco users are less likely to successfully quit than heterosexuals, yet little evidence describes cessation behaviors in this population over time. Our study investigated quit motivations, attempts, and methods in a longitudinal cohort of adult tobacco users by sexual orientation.
 
  Participants (N = 1177) completed interviews every 6 months through 48 months and reported quit attempts (24-hours tobacco free), successful quits (7-day point prevalence abstinence), motivations, and methods. Chi-squared and Fisher's exact tests assessed differences by heterosexual and SM orientation, gender, and quit outcome (attempt-only vs. successful quit).
 
  Quit rates were similar for heterosexual and SM adults. Over half attempted to quit at least once over 48 months, but few remained abstinent (SM 16.9%; heterosexual 12.1%). Most used nicotine replacement therapy (SM 31.9%; heterosexual 26.1%) or tobacco product substitution (SM 27.7%; heterosexual 21.2%). Few used quitlines (SM 4.3%; heterosexua heterosexual men reported that a co-worker quit smoking.Intending to contextualize vulnerabilities at the local level during COVID-19, this article reports an investigation of the social workers' interventions done in a Philippine province. Social workers as frontliners report on (i) the shift of interventions before and during COVID-19, (ii) the most vulnerable sector in their assigned areas, (iii) the problems in working out their field interventions, (iv) the emergence of creative programs and (v) key information to better improve or to have a more sustainable set of interventions in the long run.Transcription is a vital process activated by transcription factor (TF) binding. The active gene releases a burst of transcripts before turning inactive again. While the basic course of transcription is well understood, it is unclear how binding of a TF affects the frequency, duration and size of a transcriptional burst. We systematically varied the residence time and concentration of a synthetic TF and characterized the transcription of a synthetic reporter gene by combining single molecule imaging, single molecule RNA-FISH, live transcript visualisation and analysis with a novel algorithm, Burst Inference from mRNA Distributions (BIRD). For this well-defined system, we found that TF binding solely affected burst frequency and variations in TF residence time had a stronger influence than variations in concentration. This enabled us to device a model of gene transcription, in which TF binding triggers multiple successive steps before the gene transits to the active state and actual mRNA synthesis is decoupled from TF presence. We quantified all transition times of the TF and the gene, including the TF search time and the delay between TF binding and the onset of transcription. Our quantitative measurements and analysis revealed detailed kinetic insight, which may serve as basis for a bottom-up understanding of gene regulation.