Background: We aimed to report the clinical characteristics of imported cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in Jiangsu Province. Methods: We retrospectively investigated the clinical, imaging, and laboratory characteristics of confirmed cases of COVID-19 with World Health Organization interim guidance in 3 grade IIIA hospitals of Jiangsu from 22 January to 14 February 2020. Real-time RT-PCR was used to detect the new coronavirus in respiratory samples. Results: Of the 80 patients infected with COVID-19, 41 were female, with a median age of 46.1 years. Except for 3 severe patients, the rest of the 77 patients exhibited mild or moderate symptoms. Nine patients were unconfirmed until a third nucleic acid test; 38 cases had a history of chronic diseases. The main clinical manifestations of the patients were fever and cough, which accounted for 63 (78.75%) and 51 (63.75%) cases, respectively. Only 3 patients (3.75%) showed liver dysfunction. Imaging examination showed that 55 patients (68.75%) showed abnormal density shadow and 25 cases (31.25%) had no abnormal density shadow in the parenchyma of both lungs. Currently, 21 cases have been discharged from the hospital, and no patient died. The average length of stay for discharged patients was 8 days. Conclusions: Compared with the cases in Wuhan, the cases in Jiangsu exhibited mild or moderate symptoms and no obvious gender susceptibility. The proportion of patients having liver dysfunction and abnormal CT imaging was relatively lower than that in Wuhan. Notably, infected patients may be falsely excluded based on 2 consecutively negative respiratory pathogenic nucleic acid test results.

Liver diseases in COVID-19: Etiology, treatment and prognosis

Vaginal microbiome is mutually beneficial to the host and has a significant impact on health and disease. Candida species, including Candida albicans, are part of the mucosal flora of most healthy women. Under suitable conditions, they can live in the vulvovaginal mucosa, resulting in symptomatic vulvovaginal candidiasis (VVC). Based on the analysis of 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequences, great progress has been made in exploring the composition and structure of vaginal bacterial community. Moreover, researchers have conducted several studies on whether vaginal microbiome will change during VVC infection. In addition, it has been reported that vaginal colonization of probiotics in vaginal microorganisms, especially Lactobacillus, can effectively reduce the risk of VVC and treat VVC. This review aims to summarize the changes of vaginal microflora during VVC infection, and further point out the possibility of using lactic acid bacteria as probiotics to treat VVC, so as to reduce the adverse consequences of VVC infection and reduce the expensive treatment cost.

To explore the effect of insulin‐like growth factor 2 mRNA‐binding protein 2 (IGF2BP2) on colorectal cancer (CRC) by recognizing the m6A modification of YAP mRNA thus activating ErbB2 expression. High expressions of IGF2BP2, YAP, and ErbB2 promoted the proliferation, migration and invasion of CRC cells and reduced their apoptosis. IGF2BP2 recognized the m6A on YAP mRNA and promoted the translation of mRNA. YAP regulated ErbB2 expression by promoting TEAD4 enrichment in ErbB2 promoter region. Therefore, IGF2BP2 promoted the expression of ErbB2 to enhance the proliferation, invasion and migration of CRC cells, to repress cell apoptosis, and to promote solid tumor formation in nude mice. IGF2BP2 activates the expression of ErbB2 by recognizing the m6A of YAP, thus affecting the cell cycle of CRC, inhibiting cell apoptosis, and promoting proliferation.

Tumor is one of the important factors affecting human life and health in today’s world, and scientists have studied it extensively and deeply, among which autophagy and JAK/STAT3 signaling pathway are two important research directions. The JAK/STAT3 axis is a classical intracellular signaling pathway that assumes a key role in the regulation of cell proliferation, apoptosis, and vascular neogenesis, and its abnormal cell signaling and regulation are closely related to the occurrence and development of tumors. Therefore, the JAK/STAT3 pathway in tumor cells and various stromal cells in their microenvironment is often considered as an effective target for tumor therapy. Autophagy is a process that degrades cytoplasmic proteins and organelles through the lysosomal pathway. It is a fundamental metabolic mechanism for intracellular degradation. The mechanism of action of autophagy is complex and may play different roles at various stages of tumor development. Altered STAT3 expression has been found to be accompanied by the abnormal autophagy activity in many oncological studies, and the two may play a synergistic or antagonistic role in promoting or inhibiting the occurrence and development of tumors. This article reviews the recent advances in autophagy and its interaction with JAK/STAT3 signaling pathway in the pathogenesis, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of tumors.