Association of Overlapped and Un-overlapped Comorbidities with COVID-19 Severity and Treatment Outcomes: A Retrospective Cohort Study from Nine Provinces in China / 生物医学与环境科学（英文）

Objective@#Several COVID-19 patients have overlapping comorbidities. The independent role of each component contributing to the risk of COVID-19 is unknown, and how some non-cardiometabolic comorbidities affect the risk of COVID-19 remains unclear.@*Methods@#A retrospective follow-up design was adopted. A total of 1,160 laboratory-confirmed patients were enrolled from nine provinces in China. Data on comorbidities were obtained from the patients' medical records. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate the odds ratio ( @*Results@#Overall, 158 (13.6%) patients were diagnosed with severe illness and 32 (2.7%) had unfavorable outcomes. Hypertension (2.87, 1.30-6.32), type 2 diabetes (T2DM) (3.57, 2.32-5.49), cardiovascular disease (CVD) (3.78, 1.81-7.89), fatty liver disease (7.53, 1.96-28.96), hyperlipidemia (2.15, 1.26-3.67), other lung diseases (6.00, 3.01-11.96), and electrolyte imbalance (10.40, 3.00-26.10) were independently linked to increased odds of being severely ill. T2DM (6.07, 2.89-12.75), CVD (8.47, 6.03-11.89), and electrolyte imbalance (19.44, 11.47-32.96) were also strong predictors of unfavorable outcomes. Women with comorbidities were more likely to have severe disease on admission (5.46, 3.25-9.19), while men with comorbidities were more likely to have unfavorable treatment outcomes (6.58, 1.46-29.64) within two weeks.@*Conclusion@#Besides hypertension, diabetes, and CVD, fatty liver disease, hyperlipidemia, other lung diseases, and electrolyte imbalance were independent risk factors for COVID-19 severity and poor treatment outcome. Women with comorbidities were more likely to have severe disease, while men with comorbidities were more likely to have unfavorable treatment outcomes.

Clinical efficacy of idarubicin combined with methotrexate for treatment of patients with central nervous system diffuse large B cell lymphoma / 中国实验血液学杂志

This study was aimed to investigate the clinical efficacy of idarubicin combined with methotrexate for treatment of patients with central nervous system diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. A total of 88 patients with central nervous system diffuse large B-cell lymphoma was selected, out of them 54 patients received idarubicin combined with methotrexate and were selected as A group, other 34 patients received only methotrexate and were selected as B group (control group). Clinical efficacy and safety were compared after treatment. The results showed that in A group 84 patients achieved complete remission (CR), 5 patients archived partial remission (PR), the total remission rate of A group was 72.2%; in B group 10 patients achieved complete remission (CR), 4 patients archived partial remission (PR), the total remission rate of B group was 41.2%; the average survival time of A group was 33.172 months, and the average survival time of B group was 26.305 months, the former was significantly higher than latter (P < 0.05). It is concluded that idarubicin combined with methotrexate for the patients with central nervous system diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is effective and safe, and may be used in clinic.

Differential liver histopathological features of chronic HBV infection patients with normal and mildly elevated serum ALT / 中华肝脏病杂志

To study the liver histopathological features that are distinctive between chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection patients who have normal serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT)/asparatate aminotransferase (AST) and those with mildly elevated serum ALT/AST. One-hundred-and-thrity-four chronic HBV infection patients with normal serum ALT/AST and 165 chronic HBV infection patients with mildly elevated serum ALT/AST were included in the study. Liver biopsies were performed and used to assess the histological changes by hematoxylin-eosin and reticular fiber staining; mild to severe scoring for inflammation was made as grade G0-G4 and for fibrosis stage as S0-S4. HBV DNA levels were detected by fluorescent quantitative PCR. HBV serological markers were examined by chemiluminescence. The mildly elevated serum ALT/AST group had more male patients than the normal serum ALT/AST group. In the normal serum ALT/AST group, 50.0% (67/134) of the patients had moderate histological changes and only 3.0% (4/134) had severe changes (G3-4 and/or S3-4). In the mildly elevated ALT/AST group, 65.7% (174/265) of patients had moderate histological changes and 16.2% (43/265) had severe changes (G3-4 and/or S3-4). Hepatic inflammation and fibrosis were significantly more severe in the mildly elevated serum ALT/AST group than in the normal ALT/AST group (x2 = 26.386, P less than 0.01; x2 = 15.299, P less than 0.01). In the normal ALT/AST group, the severity of inflammation and fibrosis were positively correlated with age (rs = 0.620, P less than 0.01; rs = 0.347, P less than 0.01). In the mildly elevated ALT/AST group, the severity of inflammation and fibrosis were negatively correlated with age (rs = -0.807, P less than 0.01; rs = -0.557, P less than 0.01). In both groups, the severity of inflammation and fibrosis were negatively correlated with HBV DNA levels (rs = -0.215, P less than 0.01, rs = -0.527, P less than 0.01, rs = -0.951, P less than 0.01; rs = -0.715, P less than 0.01) and were not positively correlated with HBeAg. The majority of the chronic HBV infection patients with normal serum ALT/AST and those with mildly elevated serum ALT/AST had moderate liver pathological changes. All patients with low HBV DNA levels were closely followed-up, regardless of HBeAg-positive status.

Analysis of in vitro anti-leukemia effect of 5-aza-2'-deoxycitydine / 中南大学学报(医学版)

OBJECTIVE@#To investigate the effect of methylation transferase inhibitor 5-aza-2'-deoxycitydine (5-aza-2 dC) on the growth, differentiation and apoptosis of human acute myeloid leukemia(AML) cell line HL-60, and to explore the possible anti-leukemia mechanism of 5-aza-2 dC.@*METHODS@#HL-60 cells were treated by 5-aza-2 dC at various concentrations for different periods of time. The effect of 5-aza-2 dC on the growth of HL-60 cells were detected by MTT assay. The effect on the cell cycle and differentiation were detected by flow cytometry. The effect on the apoptosis were detected by Hochest33342 staining and flow cytometry. The expression of S100A8 and S100A9 was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).@*RESULTS@#(1) 5-aza-2 dC inhibited the growth of HL-60 cells in a concentration- and time-dependent manner, and HL-60 cells were arrested at G2/M phases; (2) 5-aza-2 dC enhanced the expression of cell differentiation antigen CD11b at HL-60 cells, especially at the low drug concentration; (3) 5-aza-2 dC induced HL-60 cell apoptosis in a concentration- and time-dependent manner, especially at the high drug concentration; (4) 5-aza-2 dC increased the expression levels of S100A8 and S100A9 mRNA in HL-60 cells.@*CONCLUSION@#5-aza-2 dC can inhibit the growth of HL-60 cells accompanied with G2/M phase arrest, induce the differentiation and apoptosis of the cells, and increase the expression levels of S100A8 and S100A9 mRNA, which may be the anti-AML mechanism of 5-aza-2 dC.