Early Convalescent Plasma for High-Risk Outpatients with Covid-19.

Background: Early administration of convalescent plasma obtained from blood donors who have recovered from coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) may prevent disease progression in acutely ill, high-risk patients with Covid-19.

Methods: In this randomized, multicenter, single-blind trial, we assigned patients who were being treated in an emergency department for Covid-19 symptoms to receive either one unit of convalescent plasma with a high titer of antibodies against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) or placebo. All the patients were either 50 years of age or older or had one or more risk factors for disease progression.

Dissection of metabolic, vascular, and nerve conduction interrelationships in experimental diabetic neuropathy by cyclooxygenase inhibition and acetyl-L-carnitine administration.

Alterations in cyclooxygenase (COX) pathway activity have been implicated in the pathogenesis of experimental diabetic neuropathy (EDN). These studies explore the relationships between COX-mediated and acetyl-L-carnitine (ALC)-sensitive defects that contribute to functional, metabolic, and vascular abnormalities of EDN. The effects of nonselective COX inhibition with flurbiprofen were contrasted with selective COX-2 inhibition with meloxicam, administered alone and in combination with ALC in nondiabetic (ND) and streptozotocin-induced diabetic (STZ-D) rats.

An aldose reductase inhibitor reverses early diabetes-induced changes in peripheral nerve function, metabolism, and antioxidative defense.

Aldose reductase inhibitors (ARIs) prevent peripheral nerve dysfunction and morphological abnormalities in diabetic animal models. However, some experimental intervention studies and clinical trials of ARIs on diabetic neuropathy appeared disappointing because of either 1) their inadequate design and, in particular, insufficient correction of the sorbitol pathway activity or 2) the inability to reverse established functional and metabolic deficits of diabetic neuropathy by AR inhibition in general. We evaluated whether diabetes-induced changes in nerve function, metabolism, and antioxidative defense are corrected by the dose of ARI (sorbinil, 65 mg/kg/d in the diet), resulting in complete inhibition of increased sorbitol pathway activity.