A little over century after the 1918 influenza pandemic, the world is witnessing another pandemic of similar magnitude, caused by SARS-CoV-2 and affecting nearly 215 countries. Although SARS-CoV-2 primarily affects the lungs, neurological presentations are being recognised with increasing frequency. Recently, Ellul and colleagues1 have elaborated a spectrum of neurological diseases in 901 patients of COVID-19. Here, we describe three case series of brain autopsies2–4 that have revealed distinctly different pathologies, failing to explain the common pathobiological mechanism of central nervous system (CNS) involvement in severe COVID-19.

Melanonychia is described as a brown to black pigmentation of nail, due to stimulation and hyperplasia of nail matrix. Various systemic disorders, trauma, inflammatory disorders, fungal infections, drugs, benign melanocytic hyperplasia, etc., are responsible for this condition, and most of them are benign. A number of chemotherapeutic agents can cause melanonychia. Cases of cyclophosphamide-induced melanonychia are not frequent. We report a 38-year-old female, a known case of steroid dependent nephrotic syndrome, who developed melanonychia on starting treatment with cyclophosphamide. It is a benign condition, which resolves on discontinuation of the drug.

Systems genetics is key for integrating a large number of variants associated with diseases. Vitamin K (VK) is one of the scarcely studied disease conditions. In this work, we ascertained the differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and variants associated with individual subpopulations of VK disease phenotypes, viz., myocardial infarction, renal failure and prostate cancer. We sought to ask whether or not any DEGs harbor pathogenic variants common in these conditions, attempt to bridge the gap in finding characteristic biomarkers and discuss the role of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) in the biogenesis of VK deficiencies.

The potentiality of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) for pre-exposure prophylaxis against SARS-CoV-2 has not been explored in randomized controlled trials. However, there is rationale behind this potentiality in terms of demonstrated in-vitro effect of HCQ against SARS-CoV-2, safety profile of HCQ in healthy individuals and a recent observational study demonstrating benefits of HCQ prophylaxis in terms of a significant reduction (>80%) in the odds of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the health-care workers (HCWs) with the intake of six or more doses of HCQ prophylaxis as per the guidelines of the National Task Force for COVID-19 in India.