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Background: Post-viral symptoms have long been known in the medical community but have received more public attention during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many post-viral symptoms were reported as particularly frequent after SARS-CoV-2 infection. However, there is still a lack of evidence regarding the specificity, frequency and persistence of these symptoms in comparison to other viral infectious diseases such as influenza., Methods: We investigated a large population-based cohort based on German routine healthcare data. We matched 573,791 individuals with a PCR-test confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection from the year 2020 to contemporary controls without SARS-CoV-2 infection and controls from the last influenza outbreak in 2018 and followed them up to 18 months., Results: We found that post-viral symptoms as defined for COVID-19 by the WHO as well as tissue damage were more frequent among the COVID-19 cohort than the influenza or contemporary control cohort. The persistence of post-viral symptoms was similar between COVID-19 and influenza., Conclusion: Post-viral symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 infection constitute a substantial disease burden as they are frequent and often persist for many months. As COVID-19 is becoming endemic, the disease must not be trivialized. Research should focus on the development of effective treatments for post-viral symptoms., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The total synthesis of restrictinol, the hydrolysis product of the antifungal natural product restricticin, starting from commercially available methyl (S)-(+)-3-hydroxy-2-methylpropionate is described. Key stages in the strategy involved (i) the use of Brown's allylboration chemistry to construct an acyclic intermediate bearing three of the four stereogenic centers of the natural product, (ii) formation of a C-glycosidic vinyl iodide, and (iii) introduction of the triene side chain via a Suzuki coupling reaction.

The macrocyclic "cholaphanes" 3a-c were synthesized from the inexpensive steroid cholic acid. Like earlier relatives they feature substantial cavities with inward-directed hydroxyl groups, suitable for binding polar molecules such as carbohydrates in nonpolar media. New features are the externally directed alkyl chains, promoting solubility in organic solvents, and (in the case of 3b/c) reduced conformational freedom resulting from truncation of the steroidal side-chain. In particular, modeling shows that the smallest macrocycle 3c possesses very little flexibility, preferring an open conformation which is also revealed in the X-ray crystal structure of its pentahydrate. NMR studies indicated that all three cholaphanes form 1:1 complexes with octyl beta-D-glucoside in CDCl(3), with K(a) = 600-1560 M(-)(1). Cholaphanes 3b/c proved able to extract methyl beta-D-glucoside from aqueous solutions into CHCl(3). The transport of methyl beta-D-glucoside across a chloroform barrier was also demonstrated for 3c.