Here we present the results of a bibliometric survey of peer-reviewed and pre-print papers published in the English language on issues related to COVID-19 within the first three months since a cluster of a severe acute respiratory disease of unknown etiology was officially confirmed by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention on 31 December 2019. A systematic search using PubMed/Medline and Scopus databases and preprint servers was performed. The articles were classified according to their type, subject and country of origin. Up to 31 March 2020, a total of 2062 papers published in 578 peer-reviewed journals and 1425 preprints posted mostly on medRxiv (55.4 %), were identified. The mean number of published journal papers and preprints per day in the considered period was 27 and 12, respectively, and reached a maximum of 51 and 46 per day in March, respectively. The identified articles, journal papers and preprints, mostly covered the epidemiology of COVID-19 (35.7 %), clinical aspects of infection (21.0 %), preventative measures (12.8 %), treatment options (12.5 %), diagnostics (12.2 %), mathematical modeling of disease transmission and mitigation (9.6 %), and molecular biology and pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 (8.7 %). The majority of the journal papers were commentaries (38.5 %), reviews (33.6 %) and original research (21.3 %), while preprints predominantly presented original results (89.8 %). Chinese scientists contributed the highest share of original research and were responsible for 32.9 % journal papers and 43.9 % preprints published in the considered period. A high number of contributions was also seen from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Italy. The benefits and potential risks of such a massive publication output are discussed. The scientific response seen during the first 3 months of the COVID-19 outbreak is a demonstration of the capabilities of modern science to react rapidly to emerging global health threats by providing and discussing the essential information for understanding the etiological factor, its spread, preventative measures, and mitigation strategies.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is one of the ten most common cancers. Most cancer cases originate from alcohol and tobacco consumption. However, studies have demonstrated that human papillomavirus (HPV) infection, particularly HPV-16, may also significantly influence disease progression. The KRAB-ZNF family of genes is involved in epigenetic suppression, and its involvement in carcinogenesis is the subject of extensive studies. The available literature data demonstrate that they may play different roles, both as tumor suppressors and oncogenes. In this study, six ZNF genes, ZFP28, ZNF132, ZNF418, ZNF426, ZNF540, and ZNF880, were tested using several in silico approaches based on the TCGA and GEO datasets. Our analyses indicate that the expression of the analyzed ZNFs was significantly downregulated in tumor tissues and depended on tumor localization. The expression levels of ZNFs differed between HPV-positive vs. HPV-negative patients depending on the clinical-pathological parameters. More specifically, the patients with higher levels of ZNF418 and ZNF540 showed better survival rates than those with a lower expression. In addition, the level of ZNF540 expression in HPV-positive (HPV(+)) patients was higher than in HPV-negative (HPV(−)) patients (p < 0.0001) and was associated with better overall survival (OS). In conclusion, we demonstrate that ZNF540 expression highly correlates with HPV infection, which renders ZNF540 a potential biomarker for HNSCC prognosis and treatment.

Lithium has been the most important mood stabilizer used for the treatment of bipolar disorder and prophylaxis of manic and depressive episodes. Despite long use in clinical practice, the exact molecular mechanisms of lithium are still not well identified. Previous experimental studies produced inconsistent results due to different duration of lithium treatment and using animals without manic-like or depressive-like symptoms. Therefore, we aimed to analyze the gene expression profile in three brain regions (amygdala, frontal cortex and hippocampus) in the rat model of mania and depression during chronic lithium administration (2 and 4 weeks). Behavioral changes were verified by the forced swim test, open field test and elevated maze test. After the experiment, nucleic acid was extracted from the frontal cortex, hippocampus and amygdala. Gene expression profile was done using SurePrint G3 Rat Gene Expression whole transcriptome microarrays. Data were analyzed using Gene Spring 14.9 software. We found that chronic lithium treatment significantly influenced gene expression profile in both mania and depression models. In manic rats, chronic lithium treatment significantly influenced the expression of the genes enriched in olfactory and taste transduction pathway and long non-coding RNAs in all three brain regions. We report here for the first time that genes regulating olfactory and taste receptor pathways and long non-coding RNAs may be targeted by chronic lithium treatment in the animal model of mania.

Background and Objectives: In paediatric population, atopic asthma is associated with increased eosinophil counts in patients, that correlate with the airway inflammation measured by the concentration of nitric oxide in exhaled air (FeNO). As the FeNO level is a biomarker of atopic asthma, we assumed that polymorphisms in nitric synthases genes may represent a risk factor for asthma development. The purpose of this study was to analyse the association of NOS genetic variants with childhood asthma in the Polish population. Materials and methods: In study we included 443 children—220 patients diagnosed with atopic asthma and 223 healthy control subjects. We have genotyped 4 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) from 3 genes involved in the nitric oxide synthesis (NOS1, NOS2 and NOS3). All analyses were performed using polymerase chain reaction with restriction fragments length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP). Results: We observed significant differences between cases and controls in SNP rs10459953 in NOS2 gene, considering both genotypes (p = 0.001) and alleles (p = 0.0006). The other analyzed polymorphisms did not show association with disease. Conclusions: According to our results, 5′UTR variant within NOS2 isoform may have an impact of asthma susceptibility in the population of Polish children. Further functional studies are required to understand the role of iNOS polymorphism in NOS2 translation and to consider it as a novel risk factor in childhood asthma. The next step would be to apply this knowledge to improve diagnosis and develop novel personalized asthma therapies.

Adipose tissue is a major source of circulating exosomal microRNAs (miRNAs) that are modulators of the immune response in various types of tissues and organs, including airways. Still, no evidence exists if allergic airway inflammation may affect fat tissue inflammation via alterations in the miRNA expression profile. Therefore, we investigated the miRNA expression profile in the adipose tissue upon induced allergic inflammation in the airways in the rat. Brown Norway rats were chronically sensitized to house dust mite extract for seven weeks. Body composition was performed using MiniSpec Plus. The eosinophil count and the total IgE level were determined to confirm the induction of allergic inflammation. MiRNA expression profiling was done using the next-generation sequencing with validation by qPCR. We found that allergic airway inflammation significantly increased fat in adipose tissue, glucose concentration, and the gene expression of adipose tissue-derived proinflammatory peptides (leptin, TNFα). In miRNA-seq analysis, we showed significant differences in the expression of 36 mature miRNAs, three precursors, and two miRNA families in adipose tissue of allergic rats. Two miRNAs—miRNA-151-5p and miRNA-423-3p—showed significantly increased expression in qPCR in adipose tissue and lungs of sensitized animals. Allergic airway inflammation affects fat tissue and alters miRNA expression profile in adipose tissue in the rat.