Effect of glucocorticoid therapy on the prognosis of patients with severe and critical COVID-19: a single-center retrospective cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has elevated mortality in severe and critical patients globally. This study examined the effect of glucocorticoids (GCS) on the time of virus clearance and absorption of lung lesions in severe and critical COVID-19 patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Severe and critical COVID-19 cases diagnosed in Wuhan Pulmonary Hospital from January 7 to February 10, 2020 were analyzed. The generalized linear model was utilized to assess the effects of GCS therapy on the times of nucleic acid test turning negative and improved pulmonary imaging, respectively. RESULTS: Of 66 patients, 51 (77.3%) and 15 (22.7%) were severe and critical cases, respectively, and aged 62 ± 11 years. A total of 58 patients (87.9%) tested negative, and 56 (84.8%) showed improved lung imaging. Age, thrombocytopenia, CD8 + T cell count, course of GCS therapy, and total dose were correlated with the time of nucleic acid test turning negative (p < 0.05), and sex was correlated with the time of initial pulmonary imaging improvement (p < 0.05). The time of nucleic acid test turning negative in individuals with GCS therapy course ≤ 10 days was shorter than that of the GCS therapy course > 10 days group (p=0.001). No statistical difference was found in the dose, course of GCS, and initial time of improved lung imaging. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing the dose of GCS and prolonging the course of treatment do not shorten the time of nucleic acid test turning negative or improved absorption of pulmonary lesions. Thus, the rational use of GCS is particularly important.

Transcriptome analysis and de novo annotation of the critically endangered Amur sturgeon (Acipenser schrenckii).

The aim of this study was to provide comprehensive insights into the genetic background of sturgeon by transcriptome study. We performed a de novo assembly of the Amur sturgeon Acipenser schrenckii transcriptome using Illumina Hiseq 2000 sequencing. A total of 148,817 non-redundant unigenes with base length of approximately 121,698,536 bp and ranges from 201 to 26,789 bp were obtained. All the unigenes were classified into 3368 distinct categories and 145,449 singletons by homologous transcript cluster analysis. In all, 46,865 (31.49%) unigenes showed homologous matches with Nr database and 32,214 (21.65%) unigenes were matched to Nt database. In total, 24,862 unigenes were categorized into significantly enriched 52 function groups by GO analysis, and 38,436 unigenes were classified into 25 groups by KOG prediction, as well as 128 enriched KEGG pathways were identified by 45,598 unigenes (P < 0.05). Subsequently, a total of 19,860 SSRs markers were identified with the abundant di-nucleotide type (10,658; 53.67%) and the most AT/TA motif repeats (2689; 13.54%). A total of 1341 conserved lncRNAs were identified by a customized pipeline. Our study provides new sequence and function information for A. schrenckii, which will be the basis for further genetic studies on sturgeon species. The huge number of potential SSRs and putatively conserved lncRNAs isolated by the transcriptome also shed light on research in many fields, including the evolution, conservation management, and biological processes in sturgeon.

Rapid development of polymorphic microsatellite markers for the Amur sturgeon (Acipenser schrenckii) using next-generation sequencing technology.

Anthropogenic activities have seriously impacted wild resources of the Amur sturgeon, Acipenser schrenckii, and more information on local and regional population genetic structure is required to aid the conservation of this species. In this study, we report the development of 12 novel polymorphic microsatellite loci using next-generation sequencing technology, and the genotyping of 24 individuals collected from a sturgeon farm. The results show that the mean number of ob-served alleles per locus is 6.6 (ranging from 2 to 17). Observed and expected heterozygosity values ranged from 0 to 0.958 and from 0.508 to 0.940, respectively. Not a single locus showed significant departure from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and no linkage disequilibrium was observed among any pairwise loci. These highly informative microsatellite markers will be useful for genetic diversity and population structure analyses of A. schrenckii and other species of this genus.

Soybean isoflavone alleviates ß-amyloid 1-42 induced inflammatory response to improve learning and memory ability by down regulation of Toll-like receptor 4 expression and nuclear factor-κB activity in rats.

ß-amyloid 1-42 (Aß1-42)-induced learning and memory impairment in rats is believed to be associated with inflammation. Cytokine production is a key pathologic event in the progression of inflammatory processes. In this rat study, soybean isoflavones (SIF) was used to investigate it's protective effects on inflammation caused by ß-amyloid 1-42 (Aß1-42), which is associated with learning and memory impairment in Alzheimer disease. We characterized the learning and memory ability. cytokine profiles of circulating interleukin-1ß (IL-1ß), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in the serum and the expression of Toll like receptor4 (TLR4) and nuclear factor-κB p65 (NF-κB p65) mRNA and protein in the brain tissue following intracerebroventricular administration of Aß1-42 by miniosmotic pump for 14 days. The results showed that functional deficits of learning and memory in SIF treatment groups were significantly improved compared to the control group without SIF treatment in water maze test. The serum IL-1ß and TNF-α level were significantly increased, and the expressions of TLR4 and NF-κB p65 mRNA and protein in the brain were up-regulated, indicating inflammation response was initiated following administration of Aß1-42. After intragastric pre-treatment with SIF, inflammatory cytokines was significantly reduced and also SIF reversed the Aß1-42 induced up-regulation of TLR4 and NF-κB p65 mRNA and protein expression in the brain and expression of NF-κB p65 in nuclei. These results suggested that SIF reduced the cytokine cascade and inflammatory response induced by Aß1-42 which could result in the improvement of spatial learning and memory ability impairment in the rats.