Genetic screening for hypertension and COVID-19 reveals functional variation of SPEG potentially associated with severe COVID-19 in women.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has led to more than 6.4 million deaths worldwide. The prevalent comorbidity between hypertension and severe COVID-19 suggests common genetic factors may affect the outcome of both diseases. As both hypertension and severe COVID-19 demonstrate sex-biased prevalence, common genetic factors between the two diseases may display sex-biased differential associations. By evaluating COVID-19 association signals of 172-candidate hypertension single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) derived from more than 1 million European individuals in two sex-stratified severe COVID-19 genome-wide association studies from UK BioBank with European ancestry, we revealed one functional cis expression quantitative trait locus of SPEG (rs12474050) showing sex-biased association with severe COVID-19 in women. The risk allele rs12474050*T associates with higher blood pressure. In our study, we found it is significantly correlated with lower SPEG expression in muscle-skeletal but with higher expression in both brain cerebellum and cerebellar hemisphere. Additionally, nominal significances were detected for the association between rs12474050*T and lower SPEG expression in both heart left ventricle and atrial appendage; among these tissues, the SPEG expression is nominally significantly higher in females than in males. Further analysis revealed SPEG is mainly expressed in cardiomyocytes in heart and is upregulated upon SARS-CoV-2 infection, with significantly higher upregulation of SPEG only observed in female but not in male COVID-19 patients compared to both normal female and male individuals, suggesting upregulation of SPEG is a female-specific protective mechanism against COVID-19 induced heart damage. Taken together, our analyses suggest the involvement of SPEG in both hypertension and severe COVID-19 in women, which provides new insights for sex-biased effect of severe COVID-19 in women.

Predicting model of mild and severe types of COVID-19 patients using Thymus CT radiomics model: A preliminary study.

OBJECTIVE: To predict COVID-19 severity by building a prediction model based on the clinical manifestations and radiomic features of the thymus in COVID-19 patients. METHOD: We retrospectively analyzed the clinical and radiological data from 217 confirmed cases of COVID-19 admitted to Xiangyang NO.1 People's Hospital and Jiangsu Hospital of Chinese Medicine from December 2019 to April 2022 (including 118 mild cases and 99 severe cases). The data were split into the training and test sets at a 7:3 ratio. The cases in the training set were compared in terms of clinical data and radiomic parameters of the lasso regression model. Several models for severity prediction were established based on the clinical and radiomic features of the COVID-19 patients. The DeLong test and decision curve analysis (DCA) were used to compare the performances of several models. Finally, the prediction results were verified on the test set. RESULT: For the training set, the univariate analysis showed that BMI, diarrhea, thymic steatosis, anorexia, headache, findings on the chest CT scan, platelets, LDH, AST and radiomic features of the thymus were significantly different between the two groups of patients (P < 0.05). The combination model based on the clinical and radiomic features of COVID-19 patients had the highest predictive value for COVID-19 severity [AUC: 0.967 (OR 0.0115, 95%CI: 0.925-0.989)] vs. the clinical feature-based model [AUC: 0.772 (OR 0.0387, 95%CI: 0.697-0.836), P < 0.05], laboratory-based model [AUC: 0.687 (OR 0.0423, 95%CI: 0.608-0.760), P < 0.05] and model based on CT radiomics [AUC: 0.895 (OR 0.0261, 95%CI: 0.835-0.938), P < 0.05]. DCA also confirmed the high clinical net benefits of the combination model. The nomogram drawn based on the combination model could help differentiate between the mild and severe cases of COVID-19 at an early stage. The predictions from different models were verified on the test set. CONCLUSION: Severe cases of COVID-19 had a higher level of thymic involution. The thymic differentiation in radiomic features was related to disease progression. The combination model based on the radiomic features of the thymus could better promote early clinical intervention of COVID-19 and increase the cure rate.

Affinity binding of COVID-19 drug candidates (chloroquine/hydroxychloroquine) and serum albumin: Based on photochemistry and molecular docking.

Chloroquine (CQ) and hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) show good efficacy in the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 in the early stage, while they are no longer recommended due to their side effects. As an important drug delivery carrier, serum albumin (SA) is closely related to the efficacy of drugs. Here, the affinity behaviour of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine with two SA were investigated through the multispectral method of biochemistry and computer simulation. The results showed that the intrinsic emission of both SA was quenched by CQ and HCQ in a spontaneous exothermic entropy reduction static process, which relied mainly on hydrogen bonding and van der Waals forces. The lower binding constants suggested weak binding between the two drugs and SA, which might lead to differences in efficacy and possibly even to varying side effects. Binding site recognition demonstrated that CQ preferred to bind to the two sites of both SA, while HCQ tended to bind to site I of SA. The results of conformational studies demonstrated that CQ and HCQ could affect the structure of both SA by slightly increasing the α-helix content of SA. Finally, we combine the results from experimental start with molecular simulations to suggest drug modifications to guide the design of drugs. This work has important implications for guiding drug design improvements to select CQ derivatives with fewer side effects for the treatment of COVID-19.

Intranasal delivery of replicating mRNA encoding hACE2-targeting antibody against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron infection in the hamster.

The Omicron variant is sweeping the world, which displays striking immune escape potential through mutations at key antigenic sites on the spike protein, making broad-spectrum SARS-CoV-2 prevention or therapeutical strategies urgently needed. Previously, we have reported a hACE2-targeting neutralizing antibody 3E8, which could efficiently block both prototype SARS-CoV-2 and Delta variant infections in prophylactic mouse models, having the potential of broad-spectrum to prevent SARS-CoV-2. However, preparation of monoclonal neutralizing antibodies is severely limited by the time-consuming process and the relative high cost. Here, we utilized a modified VEEV replicon with two subgenomic (sg) promoters engineered to express the light and heavy chains of the 3E8 mAb. The feasibility and protective efficacy of replicating mRNA encoding 3E8 against Omicron infection in the hamster were demonstrated through the lung targeting delivery with the help of VEEV-VRP. Overall, we developed a safe and cost-effective platform of broad-spectrum to prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Evaluation of a Functional Single Nucleotide Polymorphism of the SARS-CoV-2 Receptor ACE2 That Is Potentially Involved in Long COVID.

Since the occurrence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in December 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has led to a global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A better understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2 at the genetic level would help combat COVID-19, particularly for long COVID. We performed a genetic analysis of ACE2 and searched for its common potential single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with minor allele frequency >0.05 in both European and Chinese populations that would contribute to ACE2 gene expression variation. We thought that the variation of the ACE2 expression would be an important biological feature that would strongly affect COVID-19 symptoms, such as "brain fog", which is highlighted by the fact that ACE2 acts as a major cellular receptor for SARS-CoV-2 attachment and is highly expressed in brain tissues. Based on the human GTEx gene expression database, we found rs2106809 exhibited a significant correlation with the ACE2 expression among multiple brain and artery tissues. This expression correlation was replicated in an independent European brain eQTL database, Braineac. rs2106809*G also displays significantly higher frequency in Asian populations than in Europeans and displays a protective effect (p = 0.047) against COVID-19 hospitalization when comparing hospitalized COVID-19 cases with non-hospitalized COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 test-negative samples with European ancestry from the UK Biobank. Furthermore, we experimentally demonstrated that rs2106809*G could upregulate the transcriptional activity of ACE2. Therefore, integrative analysis and functional experiment strongly support that ACE2 SNP rs2106809 is a functional brain eQTL and its potential involvement in long COVID, which warrants further investigation.

A Novel Convolutional Neural Network Model as an Alternative Approach to Bowel Preparation Evaluation Before Colonoscopy in the COVID-19 Era: A Multicenter, Single-Blinded, Randomized Study.

INTRODUCTION: Adequate bowel preparation is key to a successful colonoscopy, which is necessary for detecting adenomas and preventing colorectal cancer. We developed an artificial intelligence (AI) platform using a convolutional neural network (CNN) model (AI-CNN model) to evaluate the quality of bowel preparation before colonoscopy. METHODS: This was a colonoscopist-blinded, randomized study. Enrolled patients were randomized into an experimental group, in which our AI-CNN model was used to evaluate the quality of bowel preparation (AI-CNN group), or a control group, which performed self-evaluation per routine practice (control group). The primary outcome was the consistency (homogeneity) between the results of the 2 methods. The secondary outcomes included the quality of bowel preparation according to the Boston Bowel Preparation Scale (BBPS), polyp detection rate, and adenoma detection rate. RESULTS: A total of 1,434 patients were enrolled (AI-CNN, n = 730; control, n = 704). No significant difference was observed between the evaluation results ("pass" or "not pass") of the groups in the adequacy of bowel preparation as represented by BBPS scores. The mean BBPS scores, polyp detection rate, and adenoma detection rate were similar between the groups. These results indicated that the AI-CNN model and routine practice were generally consistent in the evaluation of bowel preparation quality. However, the mean BBPS score of patients with "pass" results were significantly higher in the AI-CNN group than in the control group, indicating that the AI-CNN model may further improve the quality of bowel preparation in patients exhibiting adequate bowel preparation. DISCUSSION: The novel AI-CNN model, which demonstrated comparable outcomes to the routine practice, may serve as an alternative approach for evaluating bowel preparation quality before colonoscopy.

Genetic screening for hypertension and COVID-19 reveals functional variant of SPEG associated with severe COVID-19 in female (preprint)

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), has caused more than 6.4 million deaths worldwide and is still spreading among global populations. The prevalent comorbidity between hypertension and severe COVID-19 suggests common genetic factors may affect the outcome of both diseases. As both hypertension and severe COVID-19 demonstrate sex-specific prevalence, common genetic factors among the two diseases may display gender-based differential associations. By evaluating COVID-19 association signals of 172-candidate hypertension single nucleotide polymorphisms derived from more than one million European individuals in two severe COVID-19 genome-wide association studies from UK BioBank with European ancestry, we revealed one functional cis expression quantitative trait locus of SPEG (rs12474050) associating with both hypertension and severe COVID-19 in female. The risk allele of rs12474050*T is correlated with lower SPEG expression in muscle-skeletal, heart-atrial appendage, and heart-left ventricle; among these tissues the SPEG expression is higher in female than in male COVID-19 patients. Further analysis revealed SPEG is mainly expressed in cardiomyocytes in heart and is upregulated upon SARS-CoV-2 infection, with significantly higher folder change of SPEG expression observed in female compared to male COVID-19 patients. Taken together, our analyses strongly suggest the involvement of SPEG in both hypertension and severe COVID-19 in female, which provides new insights for sex-specific effect of severe COVID-19 in female.

An Optimized CNN Model for Engagement Recognition in an E-Learning Environment

In the wake of the restrictions imposed on social interactions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, traditional classroom education was replaced by distance education in many universities. Under the changed circumstances, students are required to learn more independently. The challenge for teachers has been to duly ascertain students' learning efficiency and engagement during online lectures. This paper proposes an optimized lightweight convolutional neural network (CNN) model for engagement recognition within a distance-learning setup through facial expressions. The ShuffleNet v2 architecture was selected, as this model can easily adapt to mobile platforms and deliver outstanding performance compared to other lightweight models. The proposed model was trained, tested, evaluated and compared with other CNN models. The results of our experiment showed that an optimized model based on the ShuffleNet v2 architecture with a change of activation function and the introduction of an attention mechanism provides the best performance concerning engagement recognition. Further, our proposed model outperforms many existing works in engagement recognition on the same database. Finally, this model is suitable for student engagement recognition for distance learning on mobile platforms.

Trafficked Malayan pangolins contain viral pathogens of humans.

Pangolins are the most trafficked wild animal in the world according to the World Wildlife Fund. The discovery of SARS-CoV-2-related coronaviruses in Malayan pangolins has piqued interest in the viromes of these wild, scaly-skinned mammals. We sequenced the viromes of 161 pangolins that were smuggled into China and assembled 28 vertebrate-associated viruses, 21 of which have not been previously reported in vertebrates. We named 16 members of Hunnivirus, Pestivirus and Copiparvovirus pangolin-associated viruses. We report that the L-protein has been lost from all hunniviruses identified in pangolins. Sequences of four human-associated viruses were detected in pangolin viromes, including respiratory syncytial virus, Orthopneumovirus, Rotavirus A and Mammalian orthoreovirus. The genomic sequences of five mammal-associated and three tick-associated viruses were also present. Notably, a coronavirus related to HKU4-CoV, which was originally found in bats, was identified. The presence of these viruses in smuggled pangolins identifies these mammals as a potential source of emergent pathogenic viruses.

Evaluation of a Functional Single Nucleotide Polymorphism of the SARS-CoV-2 Receptor ACE2 That Is Potentially Involved in Long COVID

Since the occurrence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in December 2019, SARS-CoV-2 has led to a global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. A better understanding of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2 at the genetic level would help combat COVID-19, particularly for long COVID. We performed a genetic analysis of ACE2 and searched for its common potential single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with minor allele frequency >0.05 in both European and Chinese populations that would contribute to ACE2 gene expression variation. We thought that the variation of the ACE2 expression would be an important biological feature that would strongly affect COVID-19 symptoms, such as “brain fog”, which is highlighted by the fact that ACE2 acts as a major cellular receptor for SARS-CoV-2 attachment and is highly expressed in brain tissues. Based on the human GTEx gene expression database, we found rs2106809 exhibited a significant correlation with the ACE2 expression among multiple brain and artery tissues. This expression correlation was replicated in an independent European brain eQTL database, Braineac. rs2106809*G also displays significantly higher frequency in Asian populations than in Europeans and displays a protective effect (p = 0.047) against COVID-19 hospitalization when comparing hospitalized COVID-19 cases with non-hospitalized COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 test-negative samples with European ancestry from the UK Biobank. Furthermore, we experimentally demonstrated that rs2106809*G could upregulate the transcriptional activity of ACE2. Therefore, integrative analysis and functional experiment strongly support that ACE2 SNP rs2106809 is a functional brain eQTL and its potential involvement in long COVID, which warrants further investigation.

Impacts of the psychological stress response on nonsuicidal self-injury behavior in students during the COVID-19 epidemic in China: the mediating role of sleep disorders.

BACKGROUND: The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 had a great impact on the physical and mental health of people all over the world, especially for students whose physical and mental development was not yet mature. In order to understand the physical and mental conditions of students during the epidemic period and provide a theoretical basis for coping with psychological problems in public health emergencies, this study explored the mediating role of sleep disorders in the effect of the psychological stress response (PSR) on non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI), along with the moderating role of emotional management ability (EMA). METHODS: The SRQ-20, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, NSSI Behavior Questionnaire, and Emotional Management Questionnaire were used to investigate the mental health of Chinese students in April 10-20 (Time point 1, T1) and May 20-30 (Time point 2, T2), 2020. A total of 1,955 students (Mage = 19.64 years, 51.4% male) were examined at T1 and 342 students (Mage = 20.06 years, 48.2% male) were reassessed at T2. RESULTS: Overall, the detection rate of PSR and NSSI were 17.60% (n = 344) and 24.90% (n = 486) respectively in the T1 sample, and were 16.37% (n = 56) and 25.44% (n = 87), in the T2 sample. We also found that sleep disorders played a mediating role in the effect of PSR on NSSI in the T1 and T2 samples. In addition, EMA was shown to regulate the effect of PSR on sleep disorders and the effect of sleep disorders on NSSI in the T1 samples. CONCLUSION: We found that PSR resulting from public health emergency might lead to NSSI behaviors in individuals. PSR may also cause sleep disorders, which can bring about NSSI. However, these effects were also moderated by the EMA. This research expands our understanding of PSR and NSSI in students during the pandemic.

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on career intention amongst undergraduate medical students: a single-centre cross-sectional study conducted in Hubei Province.

BACKGROUND: Undergraduate medical (UM) students faced the difficulties inherent in medical careers due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. Thus, imperative containment measures might affect UM students' career intentions. Information on the factors that may be associated with these students' career change intentions is limited. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey in August 2020 to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on career intention and the associated factors in UM students. Univariate analyses and logistic regression analysis were performed to identify said factors. RESULTS: A total of 2040 medical students from the Hubei University of Medicine were surveyed. Univariate analyses showed that grade, attitude towards healthcare, and the degree of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the students' lives were associated with changes in career choice (P<0.05). Logistic regression analysis showed that Grade 2, Grade 5, attitude towards a medical career, and having relatives with a medical background were associated with changes in career choice. The degree of the COVID-19 pandemic's impact was a common and significant factor associated with career preference, career perspective, and ideal workplace. CONCLUSIONS: Changes in career intentions were particularly influenced by grade, attitude towards being a health worker, and the degree of COVID-19's impact on the participants' lives. Treating large-scale public health emergencies rationally, setting up correct views of occupation choice, and building reasonable career planning may reduce the loss of medical talent.

Dynamic changes of IgM and IgG antibodies in asymptomatic patients as an effective way to detect SARS-CoV-2 infection.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has become a global pandemic, and close contacts and asymptomatic patients are worthy of attention. METHODS: A total of 1844 people in close contacts with 76 COVID-19 patients were investigated, and nasopharyngeal swabs and venous blood were collected for centralized medical quarantine observation. Real-time fluorescence was used to detect SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid in nasopharyngeal swabs of all close contacts, and the colloidal gold method was used to detect serum-specific antibodies. Levels of IgM- and IgG-specific antibodies were detected quantitatively through chemiluminescence from the first nucleic acid turned negative date (0 week) and on weekly intervals of ≤1 week, 1-2 weeks, 2-3 weeks, 3-4 weeks, 4-5 weeks, 5-6 weeks, and 6-7 weeks. RESULTS: The total positive rate of the colloidal gold method (88.5%, 23/26) was significantly higher (χ2  = 59.182, p < 0.001) than that of the healthy control group (2.0%, 1/50). There was significant difference in IgG concentration at different time points (0-7 weeks) after negative nucleic acid conversion (χ2  = 14.034, p = 0.029). Serum IgG levels were significantly higher at weekly time points of 4-5 weeks (Z = -2.399, p = 0.016), 5-6 weeks (Z = -2.049, p = 0.040), and 6-7 weeks (Z = -2.197, p = 0.028) compared with 1-2 weeks after negative nucleic acid conversion. However, there was no significant difference (χ2  = 4.936, p = 0.552) in IgM concentration between time points tested (0-7 weeks) after negative nucleic acid conversion. The positive rates of IgM and IgG in asymptomatic patients (χ2  = 84.660, p < 0.001) were significantly higher than those in the healthy control group (χ2  = 9.201, p = 0.002) within 7 weeks of negative nucleic acid conversion. CONCLUSIONS: The IgG concentration in asymptomatic cases remained at a high level after nucleic acid turned negative. Nucleic acid detection combined with IgM and IgG antibody detection is an effective way to screen asymptomatic infections.

Changes of serum IL-10, IL-1ß, IL-6, MCP-1, TNF-α, IP-10 and IL-4 in COVID-19 patients.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Studies have shown that some cytokines in COVID-19 patients were elevated. This study aims to assess whether IL-10, IL-1ß, IL-6, MCP-1, TNF-α, IP-10 and IL-4 serve as potential diagnostic biomarkers of COVID-19. METHODS: The above serum cytokines in COVID-19 patients and non-COVID-19 patients were detected by ELISA and SARS-CoV-2 IgM and IgG were detected by the chemiluminescence method. The independent-sample Mann-Whitney U test was utilised to compare cytokine levels in different groups and courses, the Levene T-test and T'-test were utilised to compare they in different genders and the Spearman correlation test was utilised to analyse the correlation between the cytokine levels with ages and SARS-CoV-2 IgG and IgM. RESULTS: Serum levels of IL-10, IL-1ß, MCP-1, TNF-α and IL-4 in COVID-19 patients were significantly higher than those in non-COVID-19 patients, while IL-6 were only significantly higher than in healthy people, IP-10 were significantly lower than in other diseases patients. AUCs of COVID-19 diagnosed by IL-10, IL-1ß, IL-6, MCP-1, TNF-α, IP-10 and IL-4 were 0.735, 0.775, 0.595, 0.821, 0.848, 0.38 and 0.682, respectively. In the COVID-19 patients' serum, the levels of IL-10 and MCP-1 of male were noticeably higher than those of female, and all cytokines were significantly positively correlated with age, IL-1ß and IL-4 were significantly negatively correlated with SARS-CoV-2 IgM, while IL-10, IL-1ß, IL-6, TNF- and IP-10 were significantly negatively correlated with SARS-CoV-2 IgG. IL-10 on 43-56 days was significantly lower than at 29-42 days, TNF-α at 15-42 days was significantly higher than at 0-14 days, IP-10 at 0-14 days was the highest and IL-4 at 29-42 days was significantly higher than at 0-14 days. CONCLUSIONS: The detection of IL-10, IL-1 ß, IL-6, MCP-1, TNF-α and IL-4 would assist the clinical study of COVID-19, and IP-10 may be the cytokine of early elevation in COVID-19 patients.

Prediction of in-hospital recurrence and false-negative results in patients with COVID-19 by red blood cell values on admission.

The clinical characteristics and risk factors of patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) with re-positive or false-negative test results have so far remained to be determined. The present study provides a cross-sectional observational study on 134 hospitalized patients selected from Huoshenshan Hospital (Wuhan, China) using cluster sampling. A total of 68 patients had reduced red blood cell (RBC) counts, 55 a decrease in the hemoglobin concentration (HBC) and 73 a decline in hematocrit (HCT). The false-negative rate of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) RNA detection in pharyngeal swab specimens was 18.7%. The absolute lymphocyte count (ALC), RBC, HBC and HCT levels in false-negative patients were significantly higher than those in patients who tested positive for viral nucleic acids. Multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that RBC [odds ratio (OR)=0.43, 95% CI: 0.18-0.99], HBC (OR=0.97, 95% CI: 0.94-0.99) and ALC (OR=0.43, 95% CI: 0.20-0.91) were the factors influencing the negative testing results for viral nucleic acid. The rate of re-positive patients was 16.4%. The white blood cell, RBC, HBC and HCT values in re-positive patients were lower than those in non-re-positive patients. The median (interquartile range) values for RBC, HBC and HCT of male re-positive patients were 3.95 (3.37, 4.2) x1012/l, 123 (103, 133) g/l and 36.6 (31.1, 39.2)%, respectively, while the RBC, HBC and HCT of female re-positive patients were 3.54 (3.13, 3.74) x1012/l, 115 (102, 118) g/l and 34.2 (28.5, 34.9)%, respectively. It was determined that RBC, HBC and HCT values had moderate accuracy in predicting SARS-CoV-2 recurrence in patients with COVID-19 using receiver operating curve analysis. The present study suggested that RBC may have an important role in the pathogenesis of COVID-19.

Patient hematology during hospitalization for viral pneumonia caused by SARS-CoV-2 and non-SARS-CoV-2 agents: a retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: Hematological comparison of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and other viral pneumonias can provide insights into COVID-19 treatment. METHODS: In this retrospective case-control single-center study, we compared the data of 126 patients with viral pneumonia during different outbreaks [severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003, influenza A (H1N1) in 2009, human adenovirus type 7 in 2018, and COVID-19 in 2020]. RESULTS: One of the COVID-19 characteristics was a continuous decline in the hemoglobin level. The neutrophil count was related to the aggravation of COVID-19 and SARS. Thrombocytopenia occurred in patients with SARS and severe COVID-19 even at the recovery stage. Lymphocytes were related to the entire course of adenovirus infection, recovery of COVID-19, and disease development of SARS. CONCLUSIONS: Dynamic changes in hematological counts could provide a reference for the pathogenesis and prognosis of pneumonia caused by respiratory viruses in clinics.

Matrix metalloproteinase 3 as a valuable marker for patients with COVID-19.

The situation of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to evolve, our study explored the significance of serum levels of matrix metalloproteinase 3 (MMP3) as a marker for patients with COVID-19. Sixty-two COVID-19 patients in the First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine and Loudi Center for Diseases Prevention and Control, from January to March 2020, were sampled as the novel coronavirus pneumonia infected group. One hundred and thirty-one cases from the First Hospital of Hunan University of Chinese Medicine, including 67 healthy individuals and 64 non-COVID-19 inpatients, served as the noninfected group. Approximately every 5 days, sera from 20 cases were collected and analyzed three times, using an automatic biochemical analyzer, to detect serum MMP3 concentrations. Correlation was analyzed between MMP3 and other proinflammatory cytokines. Following normality tests, differences in serum MMP3 levels between the infected and noninfected group were analyzed via SPSS (version 25.0) software, using the Wilcoxon rank sum test. The MMP3 concentration was 44.44 (23.46 ~ 72.12) ng/mL in the infected group and 32.42 (28.16 ~ 41.21) ng/mL in the noninfected group. The difference between the two groups was statistically significant (Z = -2.799, P = .005 < .05). A positive correlation was found between MMP3 and interleukin 1ß (IL-1ß; r = .681, P = .000 < .05), and IL-6 (r = .529, P = .002 < .05). Serum MMP3 concentration, measured over three separate time points, were 55.98 (30.80 ~ 75.97) ng/mL, 34.84 (0.00 ~ 51.84) ng/mL, and 5.71 (0.00 ~ 40.46) ng/mL, respectively. Detection of serum MMP3 levels may play an important role in the development of therapeutic approaches for COVID-19 and may indicate the severity of disease.