The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is a public health emergency of international concern. The current study aims to explore whether the neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) are associated with the development of death in patients with COVID-19. A total of 131 patients diagnosed with COVID-19 from 13 February 2020 to 14 March 2020 in a hospital in Wuhan designated for treating COVID-19 were enrolled in the current study. These 131 patients had a median age of 64 years old (interquartile range: 56–71 years old). Furthermore, among these patients, 111 (91.8%) patients were discharged and 12 (9.2%) patients died in the hospital. The pooled analysis revealed that the NLR at admission was significantly elevated for non-survivors, when compared to survivors (P < 0.001). The NLR of 3.338 was associated with all-cause mortality, with a sensitivity of 100.0% and a specificity of 84.0% (area under the curve (AUC): 0.963, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.911–1.000; P < 0.001). In view of the small number of deaths (n = 12) in the current study, NLR of 2.306 might have potential value for helping clinicians to identify patients with severe COVID-19, with a sensitivity of 100.0% and a specificity of 56.7% (AUC: 0.729, 95% CI 0.563–0.892; P = 0.063). The NLR was significantly associated with the development of death in patients with COVID-19. Hence, NLR is a useful biomarker to predict the all-cause mortality of COVID-19.

Background: Rhinitis and asthma are very common diseases involving genetic and environmental factors. Most patients with asthma also have rhinitis, which suggests the concept of 'one airway, one disease.' A disintegrin and metalloproteinase 33 (ADAM33) is the first asthma-susceptible gene to be discovered by positional cloning. To evaluate the potential influence of ADAM33 gene polymorphisms on allergic rhinitis (AR) and allergic asthma (AS), a case-control study was conducted on the Han population of northeast China.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterized by chronic airflow limitation and it is thought that neutrophils play a major role in the disease pathogenesis. Genetic polymorphism of the vitamin-D-binding protein (VDBP) gene is considered one of the candidates for variation in susceptibility to COPD. To evaluate the potential influences of VDBP gene polymorphisms on COPD, a case-control study was conducted in the Han population of north-east China. The VDBP polymorphic site was genotyped in 100 COPD patients and 100 controls. Genotypes were determined by polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism. A significantly higher proportion of VDBP-1F homozygosity was found in COPD patients, while the frequency of VDBP-2 homozygosity was significantly lower in COPD patients, which seemed to suggest that VDBP-2 homozygocity provided a protective effect. These data suggest that the VDBP gene may be involved in COPD susceptibility in Chinese Han population.

The most common radiographic and CT findings in patients with S-OIV infection are unilateral or bilateral ground-glass opacities with or without associated focal or multifocal areas of consolidation. On HRCT, the ground-glass opacities had a predominant peribronchovascular and subpleural distribution. CT plays an important role in the early recognition of severe S-OIV (H1N1).

Abstract. It is believed that breast cancer stem cells (BCSCs), like normal stem cell counterparts, have the capacity of selfrenewal and differentiation. Simultaneously, estrogen receptor (ER)-negative (-) BCSCs are affected by surrounding differentiated ER-positive (+) tumor cells by virtue of paracrine signaling within the tumor micro environment. Genistein (GEN), as a sort of phytoestrogen, can act on ER + breast cancer cells but the role of GEN in the differentiation of neighboring ER -BCSCs has not been defined. Transwell co-culture system was utilized so as to elaborate the interaction between welldifferentiated ER + breast cancer cells (MCF-7) and ER -breast cancer stem/progenitor cells (mammospheres derived from MDA-MB-231 cells). GEN-induced differentiation of BCSCs was analyzed by mammospheres formation assay, flow cytometry and RT-PCR after a 3 day solo-culture or co-culture. We find that GEN sized 2 µM, and 40 nM, effectively promotes morphological alteration of mammospheres, reduces the ratio of subset of CD44 + /CD24 -/ESA + cells and upregulates the expression of differentiated cell markers of mammospheres in co-culture system, but not in solo-culture condition. Besides, we demonstrate that the differentiation-inducing effect of GEN on mammospheres is associated with PI3K/ Akt and MEK/ERK signaling pathways which are activated by amphiregulin released from ER + cancer cells. These results indicate that GEN was able to induce the differentiation of breast cancer stem/progenitor cells through interaction with ER + cancer cells by a paracrine mechanism.