Search

Objectives: Intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) is commonly used to treat severe COVID-19, although the clinical outcome of such treatment remains unclear. This study evaluated the effectiveness of IVIG treatment in severe COVID-19 patients., Methods: This retrospective multicentre study evaluated 28-day mortality in severe COVID-19 patients with or without IVIG treatment. Each patient treated with IVIG was matched with one untreated patient. Logistic regression and inverse probability weighting (IPW) were used to control confounding factors., Results: The study included 850 patients (421 IVIG-treated patients and 429 non-IVIG-treated patients). After matching, 406 patients per group remained. No significant difference in 28-day mortality was observed after IPW analysis (average treatment effect (ATE) = 0.008, 95% CI -0.081 to 0.097, p 0.863). There were no significant differences between the IVIG group and non-IVIG group for acute respiratory distress syndrome, diffuse intravascular coagulation, myocardial injury, acute hepatic injury, shock, acute kidney injury, non-invasive mechanical ventilation, invasive mechanical ventilation, continuous renal replacement therapy and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation except for prone position ventilation (ATE = -0.022, 95% CI -0.041 to -0.002, p 0.028)., Discussion: IVIG treatment was not associated with significant changes in 28-day mortality in severe COVID-19 patients. The effectiveness of IVIG in treating patients with severe COVID-19 needs to be further investigated through future studies., (Copyright © 2021. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Background: The outbreak of COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2 has been a pandemic. The objective of our study was to explore the association between sex and clinical outcomes in patients with COVID-19., Methods: Detailed clinical data including clinical characteristics, laboratory tests, imaging features and treatments of 1190 cases of adult patients with confirmed COVID-19 were retrospectively analyzed. Associations between sex and clinical outcomes were identified by multivariable Cox regression analysis., Results: There were 635 (53.4%) male and 555 (46.6%) female patients in this study. Higher rates of acute kidney injury (5.5% vs. 2.9%, p = 0.026), acute cardiac injury (9.1% vs. 4.3%, p = 0.001), and disseminated intravascular coagulation (2.5% vs. 0.7%, P = 0.024) were observed in males. Compared with female patients, male patients with COVID-19 had a higher inhospital mortality rate (15.7% vs. 10.3%, p = 0.005). However, Cox regression analysis showed that sex did not influence inhospital mortality of COVID-19 patients., Conclusions: Male sex was associated with a worse prognosis of COVID-19, but it seems not to be an independent prognostic factor., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are regulators of numerous cellular events; accumulating evidence indicates that miRNAs play a key role in a wide range of biological functions, such as cellular proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis in cancer. Down-regulated expression of miR-145 has been reported in colon cancer tissues and cell lines. The molecular mechanisms underlying miR-145 and the regulation of colon carcinogenesis remain unclear. In this study, we investigated the levels of miR-145 in human colon cancer cells using qRT-PCR and found markedly decreased levels compared to normal epithelial cells. We identified PAK4 as a novel target of miR-145 using informatics screening. Additionally, we demonstrated that miR-145 targets a putative binding site in the 3'UTR of PAK4 and that its abundance is inversely associated with miR-145 expression in colon cancer cells; we confirmed this relationship using the luciferase reporter assay. Furthermore, restoration of miR-145 by mimics in SW620 cells significantly attenuated cell growth in vitro, in accordance with the inhibitory effects induced by siRNA mediated knockdown of PAK4. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that miR-145 downregulates P-ERK expression by targeting PAK4 and leads to inhibition of tumor growth., (Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier Inc.)