Highlights Tocilizumab can significantly improve COVID-19’s pulmonary inflammation. Tocilizumab can significantly improve the clinical symptoms of COVID-19 patients. Tocilizumab combined with or without favipiravir can effectively reduce the mortality of COVID-19.

The global COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted personal and work lives and created great uncertainty and stress, especially for frontline health care professionals like doctors and nurses who risk personal health while facing increased workloads and new COVID-related tasks. People can passively respond to this disruption, or they can be more active and choose to shape the conditions surrounding their work during the crisis. We designed a multiwave, multisource study examining whether a proactive orientation is a key resource for frontline health care professionals in the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing from proactive and conservation of resources theories, we studied a sample of 408 doctors and nurses at a COVID-19 hospital in the locked-down area surrounding Wuhan City, China during the first wave of the virus. Our aim is to examine how personal agency contributes to health care professionals' performance and well-being when combating COVID-19. Proactive personality as a dispositional resource was associated with higher levels of perceived strengths use, a job-related motivational resource. This effect was jointly moderated by routine disruption and perceived organizational support. Proactive personality was indirectly associated with performance and two indicators of well-being (resilience and thriving) through perceived strengths use. More frequent physical exposure to the virus magnified the effects of perceived strengths use on an archival indicator of performance during the first wave of the pandemic.

Many molecular epidemiological studies have been performed to explore the association between MTHFR C677T polymorphism and cancer risk in diverse populations. However, the results were inconsistent. Hence, we performed a meta-analysis to investigate the association between cancer risk and MTHFR C677T (150,086 cases and 200,699 controls from 446 studies) polymorphism. Overall, significantly increased cancer risk was found when all eligible studies were pooled into the meta-analysis. In the further stratified and sensitivity analyses, significantly increased breast cancer risk was found in Asians and Indians, significantly decreased colon cancer risk was found, significantly decreased colorectal cancer risk was found in male population, significantly increased gastric cancer risk was found in Caucasians and Asians, significantly increased hepatocellular cancer risk was found in Asians, significantly decreased adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia (AALL) risk was found in Caucasians, significantly decreased childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (CALL) risk was found in Asians, and significantly increased multiple myeloma and NHL risk was found in Caucasians. In summary, this meta-analysis suggests that MTHFR C677T polymorphism is associated with increased breast cancer, gastric cancer, and hepatocellular cancer risk in Asians, is associated with increased gastric cancer, multiple myeloma, and NHL risk in Caucasians, is associated with decreased AALL risk in Caucasians, is associated with decreased CALL risk in Asians, is associated with increased breast cancer risk in Asians, is associated with decreased colon cancer risk, and is associated with decreased colorectal cancer risk in male population. Moreover, this meta-analysis also points out the importance of new studies, such as Asians of HNC, Asians of lung cancer, and Indians of breast cancer, because they had high heterogeneity in this meta-analysis (I(2) > 75%).

Background In recent years, many studies have explored the potential prognostic utility of C-reactive protein/albumin ratio (CAR) in patients with gastric cancer (GC), however, the results remain conflicting. We thus performed a meta-analysis to determine the association of CAR and prognosis of GC. Methods This meta-analysis was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Statement. PubMed, Web of science, Embase, and Cochrane Library were searched. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) of included studies were pooled to estimate the prognostic value of CAR. Results Eight studies with a total of 3,216 patients were included in this meta-analysis. High CAR was significantly associated with poor OS (HR = 1.59, 95%CI = 1.36–1.85, p<0.001) and worse CSS (HR = 1.65, 95%CI = 1.21–2.25, p = 0.002). In addition, high CAR was significantly associated with male sex (OR = 1.80, 95%CI = 1.31–2.47, p<0.001), advanced tumor stage (OR = 2.14, 95%CI = 1.48–3.09, p<0.001), and tumor size ≥3cm (OR = 2.69, 95%CI = 1.84–3.93, p<0.001). Conclusion Elevated pretreatment CAR is a prognostic marker of poor OS and CSS in patients with GC. Furthermore, high CAR levels are associated with clinicopathological features reflecting tumor progression.

Objective. Angiogenesis is one of the therapeutic targets of cerebral infarction. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) can regulate the pathological process of angiogenesis following ischemic stroke. Taurine-upregulated gene 1 (TUG1), an lncRNA, is correlated to ischemic stroke. We intended to determine the effect of TUG1 on angiogenesis following an ischemic stroke. Materials and Methods. Middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) was adopted to build a focal ischemic model of the rat brain, and pcDNA-TUG1 and miR-26a mimics were injected into rats. Neurological function was estimated through modified neurological severity scores. The volume of focal brain infarction was calculated through 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining. The level of TUG1 and miR-26a was measured by PCR. The expression of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and CD31 was checked using immunohistochemistry and western blot. The correlation between miR-26a and TUG1 was verified through a luciferase reporter assay. Results. TUG1 increased noticeably while miR-26a was markedly reduced in MCAO rats. Overexpression of miR-26a improved neurological function recovery and enhanced cerebral angiogenesis in MCAO rats. TUG1 overexpression aggravated neurological deficits and suppressed cerebral angiogenesis in MCAO rats. Bioinformatics analysis revealed that miR-26a was one of the predicted targets of TUG1. Furthermore, TUG1 combined with miR-26a to regulate angiogenesis. TUG1 overexpression antagonized the role of miR-26a in neurological recovery and angiogenesis in MCAO rats. Conclusions. TUG1/miR-26a, which may act as a regulatory axis in angiogenesis following ischemic stroke, can be considered a potential target for cerebral infarction therapy.