Background: In late December 2019, an outbreak of acute respiratory illness, coronavirus disease 2019 , emerged in Wuhan, China. We aimed to study the epidemiology, clinical features and short-term outcomes of patients with COVID-19 in Wuhan, China. Methods: We performed a single center, retrospective case series study in 221 patients with laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia at a university hospital, including 55 severe patients and 166 non-severe patients, from January 2, 2020 to February 10, 2020. Results: Of the 221 patients with COVID-19, the median age was 55.0 years and 48.9% were male and only 8 (3.6%) patients had a history of exposure to the Huanan Seafood Market. Compared to the non-severe pneumonia patients, the median age of the severe patients was significantly older, and they were more likely to have chronic comorbidities. Most common symptoms in severe patients were high fever, anorexia and dyspnea. On admission, 33.0% patients showed leukopenia and 73.8% showed lymphopenia. In addition, the severe patients suffered a higher rate of co-infections with bacteria or fungus and they were more likely to developing complications. As of February 15, 2020, 19.0% patients had been discharged and 5.4% patients died. 80% of severe cases received ICU (intensive care unit) care, and 52.3% of them transferred to the general wards due to relieved symptoms, and the mortality rate of severe patients in ICU was 20.5%. Conclusions: Patients with elder age, chronic comorbidities, blood leukocyte/lymphocyte count, procalcitonin level, co-infection and severe complications might increase the risk of poor clinical outcomes.

Pan and ZY Peng are cocorresponding authors.All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. AbstractRationale: In late December 2019, an outbreak of acute respiratory illness, now officially named as COVID-19, or coronavirus disease 2019, emerged in Wuhan, China, now spreading across the whole country and world. More data were needed to understand the clinical characteristics of the disease. Objectives:To study the epidemiology, clinical features and outcomes of patients with COVID-19.Methods: we performed a single center, retrospective case series study in 221 patients with laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia at a university hospital. Measurements and Main Results:The median age was 55.0 years and 48.9% were male and only 8 (3.6%) patients had a history of exposure to the Huanan Seafood Market.Compared to the non-severe pneumonia patients, the median age of the severe patients was significantly older, and they were more likely to have chronic comorbidities. Most common symptoms in severe patients were high fever, anorexia and dyspnea. On admission, 33.0% patients showed leukopenia and 73.8% showed lymphopenia. In addition, the severe patients suffered a higher rate of co-infections with bacteria or fungus and they were more likely to developing complications. As of February 15, 2020, 19.0% patients had been discharged and 5.4% patients died. 80% of severe cases received ICU care, and 52.3% of them transferred to the general wards due to relieved symptoms, and the mortality rate of severe patients in ICU was 20.5%. All rights reserved. No reuse allowed without permission. author/funder, who has granted medRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. : medRxiv preprint 2 Conclusions: The COVID-19 epidemic spreads rapidly by human-to-human transmission.Patients with elder age, chronic comorbidities, blood leukocyte/lymphocyte count, procalcitonin level, co-infection and severe complications might increase the risk of poor clinical outcomes. Abstract: 247 words

A major reason for the failure of advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) treatment is the occurrence of chemoresistance to oxaliplatin-based chemotherapy. Recently, studies have shown that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in drug resistance. Using HiSeq sequencing methods, we identified that lncRNAs show differential expression levels in oxaliplatin-resistant (OxR) and non-resistant CRC patients. RT-qPCR was then performed in tissues and serum samples, and lncRNA MEG3 was verified to be downregulated in non-responding patients and to have considerable discriminating potential to identify responding patients from non-responding patients. Moreover, decreased serum MEG3 expression was associated with poor chemoresponse and low survival rate in CRC patients receiving oxaliplatin treatment. Subsequently, OxR cell lines were established, and MEG3 was significantly downregulated in HT29 OxR and SW480 OxR cells. In addition, overexpression of MEG3 with pMEG3 reversed oxaliplatin resistance in both CRC cell lines. Flow cytometric apoptosis analysis indicated that MEG3 promoted CRC cell apoptosis. More importantly, MEG3 enhanced oxaliplatin-induced cell cytotoxicity in CRC. In conclusion, our integrated approach demonstrated that decreased expression of lncRNA MEG3 in CRC confers potent poor therapeutic efficacy, and that MEG3 promotes chemosensitivity by enhancing oxaliplatin-induced cell apoptosis. Thus, overexpression of MEG3 may be a future direction by which to develop a novel therapeutic strategy to overcome oxaliplatin resistance of CRC patients.

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Tumor necrosis factor (TNF) receptor-associated factor 5 (TRAF5) is a key mediator of TNF receptor superfamily members and is important in both T helper (Th) cell immunity and the regulation of multiple signaling pathways. To clarify TRAF5's influence on inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), we investigated TRAF5 deficiency's effect on dextran sulfate sodium- (DSS-) induced colitis. Colitis was induced in TRAF5 knockout (KO) mice and their wild-type (WT) littermates by administering 3% DSS orally for 7 days. The mice were then sacrificed, and their colons were removed. Our data suggested that KO mice were more susceptible to DSS-induced colitis. TRAF5 deficiency significantly enhanced IFN-γ, IL-4, and IL-17a mRNA and protein levels in the colons of DSS-fed mice, and the mRNA expression of T-bet and GATA-3 was also markedly elevated. However, ROR-α and ROR-γt mRNA levels did not differ between DSS-induced KO and WT mice. Flow cytometry showed increased frequencies of Th2 and IFN-γ/IL-17a-coproducing CD4+ T cells in the colons of DSS-induced KO mice. Additionally, TRAF5 deficiency significantly enhanced the activation of NF-κB in CD4+ T cells after DSS administration. These results indicated that TRAF5 deficiency significantly aggravated DSS-induced colitis, most likely by regulating Th cell-mediated inflammation.