A community effort in SARS-CoV-2 drug discovery.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose a substantial threat to human lives and is likely to do so for years to come. Despite the availability of vaccines, searching for efficient small-molecule drugs that are widely available, including in low- and middle-income countries, is an ongoing challenge. In this work, we report the results of an open science community effort, the "Billion molecules against COVID-19 challenge", to identify small-molecule inhibitors against SARS-CoV-2 or relevant human receptors.

Performance of the 47-kilodalton membrane protein versus DNA polymerase I genes for detection of Treponema pallidum by PCR in ulcers.

Treponema pallidum PCR (Tp-PCR) is a direct diagnostic method for primary and secondary syphilis, but there is no recommendation regarding the best choice of target gene. In this study, we sequentially tested 272 specimens from patients with sexually transmitted ulcers using Tp-PCR targeting the tpp47 and then polA genes. The two methods showed similar accuracies and an almost-perfect agreement.