Objective Obesity and COVID‐19 are both world epidemics now. There may be some potential relationships between them, but we knew little. This work was to explore the relationship through literature searching, systematic review, and meta‐analysis. Methods Pubmed, Embase, WOS, Cochrane, CNKI, Wanfang, and Sinomed databases were searched to collect the literature concerning obesity and COVID‐19. Systematic review and meta‐analysis were conducted after literature screening, quality assessment, and data extraction. Results 180 articles were initially searched after duplicate removal and 9 were finally included in our analysis. Results show that severe COVID‐19 patients have higher BMI than non‐severe ones(WMD =2.67, 95%CI[1.52‐3.82]); COVID‐19 patients with obesity were more severe and have a worse outcome than those without(OR=2.31, 95%CI[1.3‐4.12]). Conclusion Obesity may aggravate COVID‐19. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

BackgroundDespite accumulating evidence on the role of glial cells and their associated chemicals in mechanisms of pain, few studies have addressed the potential role of chemokines in the descending facilitation of chronic pain. We aimed to study the hypothesis that CXCL1/CXCR2 axis in the periaqueductal gray (PAG), a co-restructure of the descending nociceptive system, is involved in descending pain facilitation.MethodsIntramedullary injection of Walker 256 mammary gland carcinoma cells of adult female Sprague Dawley rats was used to establish a bone cancer pain (BCP) model. RT-PCR, Western blot, and immunohistochemistry were performed to detect pNfkb, Cxcl1, and Cxcr2 and their protein expression in the ventrolateral PAG (vlPAG). Immunohistochemical co-staining with NeuN, GFAP, and CD11 were used to examine the cellular location of pNFκB, CXCL1, and CXCR2. The effects of NFκB and CXCR2 antagonists and CXCL1 neutralizing antibody on pain hypersensitivity were evaluated by behavioral testing.ResultsBCP induced cortical bone damage and persistent mechanical allodynia and increased the expression of pNFκB, CXCL1, and CXCR2 in vlPAG. The induced phosphorylation of NFκB was co-localized with GFAP and NeuN, but not with CD11. Micro-injection of BAY11-7082 attenuated BCP and reduced CXCL1 increase in the spinal cord. The expression level of CXCL1 in vlPAG showed co-localization with GFAP, but not with CD11 and NeuN. Micro-administration of CXCL1 neutralizing antibody from 6 to 9 days after inoculation attenuated mechanical allodynia. Furthermore, vlPAG application of CXCL1 elicited pain hypersensitivity in normal rats. Interestingly, CXCR2 was upregulated in vlPAG neurons (not with CD11 and GFAP) after BCP. CXCR2 antagonist SB225002 completely blocked the CXCL1-induced mechanical allodynia and attenuated BCP-induced pain hypersensitivity.ConclusionThe NFκB-dependent CXCL1-CXCR2 signaling cascade played a role in glial-neuron interactions and in descending facilitation of BCP.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12974-018-1391-2) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

This review aimed to evaluate the impact of obesity on the onset, exacerbation, and mortality of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19); and compare the effects of different degrees of obesity. PubMed, EMBASE, and Web of Science were searched to find articles published between December 1, 2019, and July 27, 2020. Only observational studies with specific obesity definition were included. Literature screening and data extraction were conducted simultaneously by two researchers. A random‐effects model was used to merge the effect quantity. Sensitivity analysis, subgroup analysis, and meta‐regression analysis were used to deal with the heterogeneity among studies. Forty‐one studies with 219,543 subjects and 115,635 COVID‐19 patients were included. Subjects with obesity were more likely to have positive SARS‐CoV‐2 test results (OR = 1.50; 95% CI: 1.37–1.63, I 2 = 69.2%); COVID‐19 patients with obesity had a higher incidence of hospitalization (OR = 1.54, 95% CI: 1.33–1.78, I 2 = 60.9%); hospitalized COVID‐19 patients with obesity had a higher incidence of intensive care unit admission (OR = 1.48, 95% CI: 1.24–1.77, I 2 = 67.5%), invasive mechanical ventilation (OR = 1.47, 95% CI: 1.31–1.65, I 2 = 18.8%), and in‐hospital mortality (OR = 1.14, 95% CI: 1.04–1.26, I 2 = 74.4%). A higher degree of obesity also indicated a higher risk of almost all of the above events. The region may be one of the causes of heterogeneity. Obesity could promote the occurrence of the whole course of COVID‐19. A higher degree of obesity may predict a higher risk. Further basic and clinical therapeutic research needs to be strengthened.

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Objective: To evaluate the diagnostic performance of metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) using bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) in patients with ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP).Methods: BALF samples of 72 patients with VAP were collected from August 2018 to May 2020. The diagnostic performance of conventional testing (CT) and mNGS methods were compared based on bacterial and fungal examinations. The diagnostic value of mNGS for viral and mixed infections was also analyzed.Results: The percentage of mNGS positive samples was significantly higher than that estimated by the CT method [odds ratio (OR), 4.33; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.78–10.53; p < 0.001]. The sensitivity and specificity of mNGS for bacterial detection were 97.1% (95% CI, 93.2–101.0%) and 42.1% (95 CI, 30.7–53.5%), respectively, whereas the positive predictive value (PPV) and the negative predictive value (NPV) were 60.0% (95% CI, 48.7–71.3%) and 94.1% (95% CI, 88.7–99.6%), respectively. A total of 38 samples were negative for bacterial detection as determined by the CT method, while 22 samples were positive as shown by the mNGS method. Conflicting results were obtained for three samples between the two methods of bacterial detection. However, no significant differences were noted between the mNGS and CT methods (OR, 1.42; 95% CI, 0.68–2.97; p = 0.46) with regard to fungal infections. The sensitivity and specificity of mNGS were 71.9% (95% CI, 61.5–82.3%) and 77.5% (95% CI, 67.9–87.1%), respectively. mNGS exhibited a PPV of 71.9% (95% CI, 61.5–82.3%) and an NPV of 77.5% (95% CI, 67.9–87.1%). A total of 9 out of 40 samples were found positive for fungi according to mNGS, whereas the CT method failed to present positive results in these samples. The mNGS and CT methods produced conflicting results with regard to fungal detection of the two samples. A total of 30 patients were virus-positive using mNGS. Furthermore, 42 patients (58.3%) were identified as pulmonary mixed infection cases.Conclusions: mNGS detection using BALF improved the sensitivity and specificity of bacterial identification in patients who developed VAP. In addition, mNGS exhibited apparent advantages in detecting viruses and identifying mixed infections.