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Background: COVID-19 Emerged as a novel zoonotic disease in late 2019 and quickly spread across Wuhan before spreading to other parts of China and rest of the world. Due to the rapid spread of the disease, local hospitals were inundated with COVID-19 patients putting a strain on the healthcare system. Little was known about the transmission and potential clinical management of COVID-19 at that time. Methods: A temporary COVID-19 hospital was built within one week. The confirmed COVID-19 cases were either directly recruited to the hospital or were transferred from other hospitals. Patients were admitted for both quarantine and treatment, as required. Data were collected as part of standard clinical care and retrospectively analyzed. Findings: A total of 2,959 patients were recruited during the operation period of this hospital between February 4, 2020, and April 8, 2020. These patients included 838 severe patients of which 72 were classified as critical, and 66 patients died. No infection was reported among healthcare workers. Interpretation: Setting up a dedicated hospital for COVID-19 provided a critical resource during the peak of the pandemic in Wuhan by enabling both quarantine and treatment for the infected patients. The mortality in this hospital was comparable to other hospitals at the time. These data suggest that this approach may prove beneficial in controlling infectious disease spread and limit mortality and prevent strain on existing healthcare system to enable them to care for non-COVID-19 patients. Funding Statement: This study was supported by funding from Beijing Nova Program Interdisciplinary Cooperation Project (DC; No. Z191100001119021), Chinese PLA General Hospital Youth Project (DC; No.QNF19074), Beijing Nova Program Project (DC; No. Z171100001117012), and China 13th Five-year National Key Grant (LXX; No.2018ZX09201013). Declaration of Interests: The authors declare that there are no competing interests. Ethics Approval Statement: This study was approved by the ethics committee of the Chinese PLA General Hospital, with a waiver of informed consent.

SRY-related high-mobility-group box 9 (SOX9) is a member of the SOX family of transcription factors. Accumulating evidence has shown that SOX9 plays a significant role in various malignancies. However, the role of SOX9 in nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) remains unknown. In the present study, up-regulation of SOX9 was observed in both NPC tissues and different NPC cells. Overexpression of SOX9 promoted NPC cell proliferation, migration and invasion. Conversely, knock down of SOX9 inhibited NPC proliferation, colony formation, migration and invasion. Mechanistically, SOX9 bound directly to the promoter region of BMP2 and increased BMP2 expression. In addition, overexpression of SOX9 activated the mTOR pathway partly through BMP2. Collectively, these results identify a novel role for SOX9 as a potential therapeutic marker for the prevention and treatment of NPC.