Inhaled Corticosteroids and COVID-19 Risk and Mortality: A Nationwide Cohort Study.

Inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) could increase both the risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and experiencing poor outcomes. To compare the clinical outcomes between ICS users and nonusers, COVID-19-related claims in the Korean Health Insurance Review and Assessment database were evaluated. To evaluate susceptibility to COVID-19 among patients with COPD or asthma, a nested case-control study was performed using the same database. In total, 7341 patients were confirmed to have COVID-19, including 114 ICS users and 7227 nonusers. Among 5910 patients who were hospitalized, death was observed for 9% of ICS users and 4% of nonusers. However, this association was not significant when adjusted for age, sex, region, comorbidities, and hospital type (aOR, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.43-2.07). The case-control analysis of COPD compared 640 cases with COVID-19 to 2560 matched controls without COVID-19, and the analysis of asthma compared 90 cases with COVID-19 to 360 matched controls without COVID-19. Use of ICS was not significantly associated with COVID-19 among patients with COPD (aOR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.46-2.25) or asthma (aOR, 0.38; 95% CI, 0.13-1.17). Prior ICS use was not significantly associated with COVID-19 in patients with COPD or asthma, nor with clinical outcomes among patients with COVID-19.

Constitutive activation of alternative nuclear factor kappa B pathway in canine diffuse large B-cell lymphoma contributes to tumor cell survival and is a target of new adjuvant therapies.

Activation of the classical nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NFκB) pathway is a common molecular event observed in both human and canine diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Although the oncogenic potential of the alternative NFκB pathway (ANFκBP) has also been recently identified in DLBCL, its precise role in tumor pathogenesis and potential as a treatment target is understudied. We hypothesized that up-regulation of the ANFκBP plays an important role in the proliferation and survival of canine DLBCL cells, and we demonstrate that the ANFκBP is constitutively active in primary canine DLBCL samples and a cell line (CLBL1). We further demonstrate that a small interfering RNA inhibits the activation of the NFκB pathway and induces apoptosis in canine DLBCL cells. In conclusion, the ANFκBP facilitates survival of canine DLBCL cells, and thus, dogs with spontaneous DLBCL can provide a useful large animal model to study therapies targeting the ANFκBP.