The effect of laboratory-verified smoking on SARS-CoV-2 infection: results from the Troina sero-epidemiological survey.

Previous research yielded conflicting results on the association between cigarette smoking and risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Since the prevalence of smoking is high globally, the study of its impact on COVID-19 pandemic may have considerable implications for public health. This study is the first to investigate the association between the SARS-CoV-2 antibody sero-positivity and biochemically verified smoking status, to refine current estimates on this association.

Seroepidemiological Survey on the Impact of Smoking on SARS-CoV-2 Infection and COVID-19 Outcomes: Protocol for the Troina Study.

Background: After the global spread of SARS-CoV-2, research has highlighted several aspects of the pandemic, focusing on clinical features and risk factors associated with infection and disease severity. However, emerging results on the role of smoking in SARS-CoV-2 infection susceptibility or COVID-19 outcomes are conflicting, and their robustness remains uncertain.

Objective: In this context, this study aims at quantifying the proportion of SARS-CoV-2 antibody seroprevalence, studying the changes in antibody levels over time, and analyzing the association between the biochemically verified smoking status and SARS-CoV-2 infection.

A programmable smoke delivery device for PET imaging with cigarettes containing C-nicotine.

Introduction: PET imaging with C-nicotine-loaded cigarettes is a valuable tool to directly assess fast nicotine kinetics and its neuropharmacological role in tobacco dependence. To eliminate variations among puffs inhaled by subjects, this work aimed to develop a programmable smoke delivery device (SDD) to produce highly reproducible and adjustable puffs of cigarette smoke for PET experiments.

New Method: The SDD was built around a programmable syringe pump as a smoking machine to draw a puff of smoke from a C-nicotine-loaded cigarette and make it available for a subject to take the smoke into the mouth and then inhale it during PET data acquisition.

Silver acetate interactions with nicotine and non-nicotine smoke components.

Oral topical silver-containing formulations were marketed in the 1970s and 1980s as smoking deterrents, based on the finding that when using such formulations, an unpleasant taste occurs upon smoking. This approach has not been widely adopted, however, in part because of a lack of efficacy data. The advent of new pharmacologic treatments for smoking cessation renews the possibility that such a taste aversion approach may be a useful adjunct to smoking cessation treatment.

Pulmonary delivery of nicotine pyruvate: sensory and pharmacokinetic characteristics.

The aim of this study was to evaluate pharmacokinetic and subjective responses to a prototype nicotine pyruvate (NP) aerosol generation system. In nine healthy adult daily cigarette smokers, plasma nicotine levels and subjective responses were assessed after double-blind administration of 10 inhalations of: NP (10 μg/puff, 20 μg/puff, and 30 μg/puff); Nicotrol/Nicorette nicotine vapor inhaler (NV) cartridge; and placebo (room air). Plasma nicotine concentrations increased to a significantly greater extent after inhalations of 20 μg/puff or 30 μg/puff NP (by 5.

Synthesis and biological evaluation of pentacyclo[5.4.0.0(2,6).0(3,10).0(5,9)]undecane derivatives as potential therapeutic agents in Parkinson's disease.

In previous studies, the polycyclic cage amine 8-benzylamino-8,11-oxapentacyclo[5.4.0.

Tobacco leaf, smoke and smoking, MAO inhibitors, Parkinson's disease and neuroprotection; are there links?

The potential neuroprotective properties of monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) inhibitors have been of interest in part because of the role that this enzyme plays in the bioactivation of the parkinsonian inducing neurotoxin 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP). Interestingly, tobacco smokers have lowered levels of brain and blood platelet MAO-B activity and a well documented lowered incidence of Parkinson's disease (PD) compared to non-smokers. This correlation has led to the intriguing question of whether there are possible relationships between smoking, MAO-B activity and PD.