COVID-19 and myocarditis: a review of literature.

Myocarditis has been discovered to be a significant complication of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a condition caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus. COVID-19 myocarditis seems to have distinct inflammatory characteristics, which make it unique to other viral etiologies. The incidence of COVID-19 myocarditis is still not clear as a wide range of figures have been quoted in the literature; however, it seems that the risk of developing myocarditis increases with more severe infection.

Updates on sphingolipids: Spotlight on retinopathy.

The sphingolipids ceramide (Cer), ceramide-1-phosphate (C1P), sphingosine (Sph), and sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P)) are key signaling molecules that regulate many patho-biological processes. During the last decade, they have gained increasing attention since they may participate in important and numerous retinal processes, such as neuronal survival and death, proliferation and migration of neuronal and vascular cells, inflammation, and neovascularization. Cer for instance has emerged as a key mediator of inflammation and death of neuronal and retinal pigment epithelium cells in experimental models of retinopathies such as glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration (AMD), and retinitis pigmentosa.