Efficacy of extracorporeal photopheresis in the treatment of severe erosive lichen planus: a case series.

There are no good evidence-based recommendations for any systemic treatment of erosive lichen planus (ELP). Extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) may be an effective therapy for recalcitrant forms of the disease. We report 3 patients with severe ELP treated with ECP.

Multiomic integration analysis identifies atherogenic metabolites mediating between novel immune genes and cardiovascular risk.

Background: Understanding genetic-metabolite associations has translational implications for informing cardiovascular risk assessment. Interrogating functional genetic variants enhances our understanding of disease pathogenesis and the development and optimization of targeted interventions.

Methods: In this study, a total of 187 plasma metabolite levels were profiled in 4974 individuals of European ancestry of the GCAT| Genomes for Life cohort.

Cross comparison of alternative diagnostic protocols including substitution to the clinical sample, RNA extraction method and nucleic acid amplification technology for COVID-19 diagnosis.

Background: the gold-standard diagnostic protocol (GSDP) for COVID-19 consists of a nasopharyngeal swab (NPS) sample processed through traditional RNA extraction (TRE) and amplified with retrotranscription quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Multiple alternatives were developed to decrease time/cost of GSDP, including alternative clinical samples, RNA extraction methods and nucleic acid amplification. Thus, we carried out a cross comparison of various alternatives methods against GSDP and each other.

Morphometrics and Phylogenomics of Coca (Erythroxylum spp.) Illuminate Its Reticulate Evolution, With Implications for Taxonomy.

South American coca (Erythroxylum coca and E. novogranatense) has been a keystone crop for many Andean and Amazonian communities for at least 8,000 years. However, over the last half-century, global demand for its alkaloid cocaine has driven intensive agriculture of this plant and placed it in the center of armed conflict and deforestation.