BackgroundRecently, numerous studies have demonstrated the emerging role of long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) in human cancers. Linc00467 is a newly defined lncRNA and was reported to promote cell survival in neuroblastoma. However, the function of linc00467 in lung cancer is still unclear.Material and methodsWe analyzed linc00467 expression and survival data derived from The Cancer Genome Altas lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) dataset as well as in collected LUAD tissues. Then, we silenced linc00467 expression in two lung cancer cell lines using small interfering RNAs and explored the effect of linc00467 knockdown on cell growth in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, we revealed a novel target gene of linc00467 and elucidated the underlying competitive endogenous RNA regulatory mechanism in lung cancer cells.ResultsOur data suggested that linc00467 expression was elevated in LUAD tissues and correlated with overall survival of LUAD patients. Linc00467 knockdown resulted in reduced proliferation rate in lung cancer cells. Furthermore, we elucidated that linc00467 promoted CCND1 expression in lung cancer cells via functioning as a molecular sponge for miR-20b-5p.ConclusionLinc00467/miR-20b-5p/CCND1 signaling pathway may provide new insights into lung cancer treatment.

In this study, we investigated the acute exacerbation and outcomes of COPD patients during the outbreak of COVID-19 and evaluated the prevalence and mortality of COPD patients with confirmed COVID-19. Methods: A prospectively recruited cohort of 489 COPD patients was retrospectively followed-up for their conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic from December 2019 to March 2020 in Hubei, China. In addition, the features of 821 discharged patients with confirmed COVID-19 were retrospectively analyzed. Results: Of the 489 followed-up enrolled COPD patients, 2 cases were diagnosed as confirmed COVID-19, and 97 cases had exacerbations, 32 cases of which were hospitalized, and 14 cases died. Compared with the 6-month follow-up results collected 1 year ago, in 307 cases of this cohort, the rates of exacerbations and hospitalization of the 489 COPD patients during the last 4 months decreased, while the mortality rate increased significantly (2.86% vs 0.65%, p=0.023). Of the 821 patients with COVID-19, 37 cases (4.5%) had pre-existing COPD. Of 180 confirmed deaths, 19 cases (10.6%) were combined with COPD. Compared to COVID-19 deaths without COPD, COVID-19 deaths with COPD had higher rates of coronary artery disease and/ or cerebrovascular diseases. Old age, low BMI and low parameters of lung function were risk factors of all-cause mortality for COVID-19 patients with pre-existing COPD. Conclusion: Our findings imply that acute exacerbations and hospitalizations of COPD patients were infrequent during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, COVID-19 patients with pre-existing COPD had a higher risk of all-cause mortality.

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Objective: To compare the performance of Epworth sleepiness scale (ESS), sleep apnea clinical score (SACS), Berlin questionnaire (BQ), and STOP-BANG questionnaire (SBQ) in screening for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods: A total of 431 patients were analyzed. All subjects completed lung function test, ESS, SACS, BQ, and SBQ survey and overnight polysomnography (PSG). According to lung function and PSG results, participants were divided into COPD with OSA group (OVS, AHI ≥5) and without OSA group (AHI <5). The value of ESS, SACS, BQ, and SBQ was compared in predicting OSA in patients with COPD by receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve statistics. Results: Of the 431 subjects, there were 96 cases in COPD without OSA group, and 335 cases in OVS group including 183, 96, and 56 cases of COPD combined with mild, moderate or severe OSA. In predicting different degrees of severity of OSA in patients with COPD, the value of ESS was poor with all the values of area under the curve (AUC) < 0.7. SACS and BQ had moderate predictive value in screening for severe OSA with the value of AUC of 0.750, 0.735 respectively. However, the SBQ performed best in predicting various degrees of OSA. For screening mild OSA (AHI ≥5), the ROC statistics recommended the cutoff score of SBQ >2 was considered high risk of OSA; the sensitivity, specificity, and AUC were 92.8%, 40.6%, and 0.723 respectively, the odds ratio (OR) was 2.161. When AHI ≥15, AUC for SBQ was 0.737. In predicting severe OSA (AHI ≥30), the ROC curve showed cutoff point, sensitivity, specificity, and AUC for SBQ was >4, 66.1%, 82.1%, and 0.824 respectively; the positive and negative likelihood ratio was 3.70, 0.41 separately, the OR was 2.977. Conclusion: SBQ performed better than ESS, SACS, and BQ in predicting OSA in patients with COPD.