Tele-Audiology: Current State and Future Directions.

The importance of tele-audiology has been heightened by the current COVID-19 pandemic. The present article reviews the current state of tele-audiology practice while presenting its limitations and opportunities. Specifically, this review addresses: (1) barriers to hearing healthcare, (2) tele-audiology services, and (3) tele-audiology key issues, challenges, and future directions. Accumulating evidence suggests that tele-audiology is a viable service delivery model, as remote hearing screening, diagnostic testing, intervention, and rehabilitation can each be completed reliably and effectively. The benefits of tele-audiology include improved access to care, increased follow-up rates, and reduced travel time and costs. Still, significant logistical and technical challenges remain from ensuring a secure and robust internet connection to controlling ambient noise and meeting all state and federal licensure and reimbursement regulations. Future research and development, especially advancements in artificial intelligence, will continue to increase tele-audiology acceptance, expand remote care, and ultimately improve patient satisfaction.

Traditional Tibetan medicine to fight against COVID-19: Basic theory and therapeutic drugs.

The Coronavirus Diseases 2019 (COVID-19) has been rapidly spreading globally and has caused severe harm to the health of people and a substantial social burden. In response to this situation, experts around the world have considered various treatments, including the use of traditional medicine. Traditional Tibetan medicine (TTM), one of the traditional medicines in China, has played an important role in the treatment of infectious diseases in history. It has formed a solid theoretical foundation and accumulated rich experience in the treatment of infectious diseases. In this review, we provide a comprehensive introduction to the basic theory, treatment strategies, and commonly used drugs of TTM for the treatment of COVID-19. In addition, the efficacies and potential mechanisms of these TTM drugs against COVID-19 are discussed based on available experimental data. This review may provide important information for the basic research, clinical application and drug development of traditional medicines for the treatment of COVID-19 or other infectious diseases. More pharmacological studies are needed to reveal the therapeutic mechanisms and active ingredients of TTM drugs in the treatment of COVID-19.

Reply to Chan, et al.

We appreciate the comments from Chan et al. for our study, and have carefully responded to the comments of Chan et al. and are very grateful for their praise of our research. We agree that smoking might be a risk factor of the severity of COVID-19 as mentioned by Chan et al., but in our study, smoking was not so robust compared with our conclusion. Also, we strongly agreed with the opinion of Chan, et al. that COVID-19 patients with diabetes or other chronic diseases might worsen the situation of the disease. But these factors were out of the scope of our study and we had published other research on this topic related to diabetes. Because of the limited sample size and original medical records, our study could not cover many factors suggested as Chan, et al. But we wish our study will be a useful and meaningful pilot study for the future studies. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) codon adapts well to the gene expression profile of liver cancer: an evolutionary explanation for HBV's oncogenic role.

Due to the evolutionary arms race between hosts and viruses, viruses must adapt to host translation systems to rapidly synthesize viral proteins. Highly expressed genes in hosts have a codon bias related to tRNA abundance, the primary RNA translation rate determinant. We calculated the relative synonymous codon usage (RSCU) of three hepatitis viruses (HAV, HBV, and HCV), SARS-CoV-2, 30 human tissues, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). After comparing RSCU between viruses and human tissues, we calculated the codon adaptation index (CAI) of viral and human genes. HBV and HCV showed the highest correlations with HCC and the normal liver, while SARS-CoV-2 had the strongest association with lungs. In addition, based on HCC RSCU, the CAI of HBV and HCV genes was the highest. HBV and HCV preferentially adapt to the tRNA pool in HCC, facilitating viral RNA translation. After an initial trigger, rapid HBV/HCV translation and replication may change normal liver cells into HCC cells. Our findings reveal a novel perspective on virus-mediated oncogenesis.

The clinical and bioinformatics analysis for the role of antihypertension drugs on mortality among patients with hypertension hospitalized with COVID-19.

Comorbidities such as hypertension could exacerbate symptoms of coronaviral disease 2019 (COVID)-19 infection. Patients with hypertension may receive both anti-COVID-19 and antihypertension therapies when infected with COVID-19. However, it is not clear how different classes of anti-hypertension drugs impact the outcome of COVID-19 treatment. Herein, we explore the association between the inpatient use of different classes of anti-hypertension drugs and mortality among patients with hypertension hospitalized with COVID-19. We totally collected data from 278 patients with hypertension diagnosed with COVID-19 admitted to hospitals in Wuhan from February 1 to April 1, 2020. A retrospective study was conducted and single-cell RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq) analysis of treatment-related genes was performed. The results showed that Angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) and calcium channel blocker (CCB) drugs significantly increased the survival rate but the use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor/ß-block/diuretic drugs did not affect the mortality caused by COVID-19. Based on the analysis of four public data sets of single-cell RNA-Seq on COVID-19 patients, we concluded that JUN, LST1 genes may play a role in the effect of ARB on COVID-19-related mortality, whereas CALM1 gene may contribute to the effect of CCB on COVID-19-related mortality. Our results provide guidance on the selection of antihypertension drugs for hypertensive patients infected with COVID-19.

Achieving global mortality reduction targets and universal health coverage: The impact of COVID-19.

Wenhui Mao and coauthors discuss possible implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for health aspirations in low- and middle-income countries.