The novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‐CoV‐2) has spread globally to over 200 countries with more than 23 million confirmed cases and at least 800,000 fatalities as of 23 August 2020. Declared a pandemic on March 11 by World Health Organization, the disease caused by SARS‐CoV‐2 infection, called coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19), has become a global public health crisis that challenged all national healthcare systems. This review summarized the current knowledge about virologic and pathogenic characteristics of SARS‐CoV‐2 with emphasis on potential immunomodulatory mechanism and drug development. With multiple emerging technologies and cross‐disciplinary approaches proving to be crucial in our global response against COVID‐19, the application of PROteolysis TArgeting Chimeras strategy, CRISPR‐Cas9 gene editing technology, and Single‐Nucleotide‐Specific Programmable Riboregulators technology in developing antiviral drugs and detecting infectious diseases are proposed here. We also discussed the available but still limited epidemiology of COVID‐19 as well as the ongoing efforts on vaccine development. In brief, we conducted an in‐depth analysis of the pathogenesis of SARS‐CoV‐2 and reviewed the therapeutic options for COVID‐19. We also proposed key research directions in the future that may help uncover more underlying molecular mechanisms governing the pathology of COVID‐19.

Aim: Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) displays both shared and ethnicity-specific molecular characteristics. Using transcriptomic data from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA), we compared gene expression profiles between Asian and Caucasian HCC patients. Methods: Gene expression profiles were analyzed using the PyDESeq2 implementation of DESeq2, applying size factor normalization and dispersion estimation. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified with thresholds of false discovery rate (FDR) of < 0.05 and |log2FC| ≥ 1.0. Gene annotation, visualization, and pathway enrichment were conducted using Sanbomics, seaborn, and gene set enrichment analysis (GSEA) via the GSEApy package. Results: A total of 387 and 250 genes were commonly upregulated and downregulated, respectively, in both populations, including the upregulations of GPC3 and PLVAP and the downregulations of FCN3 and OIT3, indicating their potential as universal HCC markers. Conversely, 16 genes were upregulated in Asians but downregulated in Caucasians, and 25 showed the reverse pattern. Asian-specific upregulation of AKR1B10, UBE2C, and S100P suggests links to viral etiology and immune modulation, while MDK, LCN2, and NQO1 were upregulated in Caucasians, implicating proliferative and metabolic roles. Functional enrichment analysis revealed distinct immune and metabolic pathways. Asians showed elevated ubiquitin ligase activity and suppressed inflammatory responses, while Caucasians exhibited enhanced cytokine signaling, complement activation, and xenobiotic metabolism. Conclusions: These findings highlight key molecular differences in HCC across ethnicities and emphasize the value of TCGA data for identifying both shared targets and population-specific therapeutic strategies. Understanding these differences is crucial for advancing precision oncology and developing tailored interventions.