Neurological music therapy during the COVID-19 outbreak: updates and future challenges.

BACKGROUND: In the last few years, several studies confirmed the effectiveness of music therapy (MT) for the rehabilitative management of patients with neurological disorders. AIM: Here we discuss the feasibility and disadvantages of tele-neurological MT (tele-NMT) compared to the traditional MT programmes. METHODS: We selected all the articles registered in the Web of Knowledge, PubMed, Google Scholar and ScienceDirect from March 2020 to November 2021 concerning tele-NMT during the COVID-19 outbreak, collecting same examples and experiences. RESULTS: With the advent of the COVID-19, several music-based interventions (MBIs) have been adapted from "in person" to a "remote and virtual" mode (through the telemedicine). DISCUSSION: Tele-NMT could represent a promising option to provide constant care and support to people with neurological diseases during the pandemic.

Computationally prioritized drugs inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection and syncytia formation.

The pharmacological arsenal against the COVID-19 pandemic is largely based on generic anti-inflammatory strategies or poorly scalable solutions. Moreover, as the ongoing vaccination campaign is rolling slower than wished, affordable and effective therapeutics are needed. To this end, there is increasing attention toward computational methods for drug repositioning and de novo drug design. Here, multiple data-driven computational approaches are systematically integrated to perform a virtual screening and prioritize candidate drugs for the treatment of COVID-19. From the list of prioritized drugs, a subset of representative candidates to test in human cells is selected. Two compounds, 7-hydroxystaurosporine and bafetinib, show synergistic antiviral effects in vitro and strongly inhibit viral-induced syncytia formation. Moreover, since existing drug repositioning methods provide limited usable information for de novo drug design, the relevant chemical substructures of the identified drugs are extracted to provide a chemical vocabulary that may help to design new effective drugs.

Integrated network analysis reveals new genes suggesting COVID-19 chronic effects and treatment.

The COVID-19 disease led to an unprecedented health emergency, still ongoing worldwide. Given the lack of a vaccine or a clear therapeutic strategy to counteract the infection as well as its secondary effects, there is currently a pressing need to generate new insights into the SARS-CoV-2 induced host response. Biomedical data can help to investigate new aspects of the COVID-19 pathogenesis, but source heterogeneity represents a major drawback and limitation. In this work, we applied data integration methods to develop a Unified Knowledge Space (UKS) and used it to identify a new set of genes associated with SARS-CoV-2 host response, both in vitro and in vivo. Functional analysis of these genes reveals possible long-term systemic effects of the infection, such as vascular remodelling and fibrosis. Finally, we identified a set of potentially relevant drugs targeting proteins involved in multiple steps of the host response to the virus.

Mayor outpatient surgery. Opportunity against the pandemic

ABSTRACT The global crisis unleashed by the coronavirus pandemic redefined the modality of health care and thus also in surgery. Major Ambulatory Surgery (MAS) was developed as a working modality that was efficient for the health system but was unable to put itself in the conversation. At this moment, it seems to be the ideal model to avoid Covid-19 infections and, given this opportunity, to definitively promote their development. The General Surgery Service of Nicolás Avellaneda Hospital in Tucumán presents an integrated MAS unit with extensive experience, which served as a support to respond to the need to resolve surgical waiting lists, prevent simple pathologies from progressing to complicated ones, work with low costs and minimize the risk of contagion during the pandemic period in our province. We present the steps and precautions taken to redesign and adapt to the daily way of working.