A new model for COVID-19 control and its implementation in the city of Honghu, China: a case report.

BACKGROUND: Novel coronavirus pneumonia has been the most serious worldwide public health emergency since being identified in December 2019. The rapid spread of the pandemic and the strong human to human infection rate of COVID-19 poses a great prevention challenge. There has been an explosion in the number of confirmed cases in several cities near Wuhan, including the highest in Honghu, Jinzhou. Owing to the limited admission capacity and medical resources, increasing numbers of suspected cases of COVID-19 infection were difficult to confirm or treat. CASE PRESENTATION: Following the arrival of the Guangdong medical aid team on 11 February, 2020, COVID-19 care in Honghu saw changes after a series of solutions were implemented based on the 'Four-Early' and 'Four-centralization' management measures. The 'Four-Early' measures are: early detection, early reporting, early quarantine, and early treatment for meeting an urgent need like the COVID-19 pandemic. 'Four-centralization' refers to the way in which recruited medical teams can make full use of medical resources to give patients the best treatment. These solutions successfully increased the recovery rate and reduced mortality among patients with COVID-19 in Honghu. CONCLUSIONS: This management strategy is called the 'Honghu Model' which can be generalized to enable the prevention and management of COVID-19 worldwide.

Knockdown of UACA inhibitsproliferation and invasion and promotes senescence of hepatocellular carcinoma cells.

Uveal autoantigen with coiled-coil domains and ankyrin repeats (UACA/Nucling), has been reported to be upregulated in various cancers. However, its expression and function have not been studied in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In the present study, expression of UACA was detected by reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) and the results revealed that UACA was upregulated in 23 cases of HCC compared with paired corresponding non-tumor liver tissues. In addition, the upregulation of UACA in HCC was further validated by analyzing the datasets from The Cancer Genome Atlas-Liver Hepatocellular Carcinoma (TCGA-LIHC) and GSE36376. Furthermore, knockdown of UACA suppressed the proliferative and invasive ability as well as inducing senescence of HCC cells. Besides, the expression level of UACA was positively associated with Hif1α (hypoxia-inducible factor 1α) in HCC datasets from TCGA-LIHC and GSE54236. Moreover, treatment with CoCl2 led to the increased expression and the localization alteration of UACA in HCC cells. In summary, UACA is upregulated in HCC and knockdown of UACA ameliorated malignant behaviors of HCC cells, and UACA was correlated with and under control of Hif1α.

[An analysis of the relationship between HBV DNA and HBeAg expression and mortality in 799 severe hepatitis patients].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between mortality and HBVDNA and HBeAg expression of severe hepatitis B patients. METHODS: The mortality rates of different types of severe hepatitis patients in our hospital during the last five years were analysed. HBV DNA was detected using the fluorescence quantitative PCR method and the HBeAg expression of severe hepatitis B was studied using a microparticle method. RESULTS: (1) Hepatitis B morbidity was 83.5% in each type of severe hepatitis, and severe chronic hepatitis B morbidity was 96.77% in each type of severe chronic hepatitis. (2) The mortality rate of those with HBV DNA more than 1 x 10(5) copies/ml was 53.25% and the mortality of those with HBV DNA less than 1 x 10(5) copies/ml was 34.50% (P less than 0.01). The HBeAg expression had no influence on the death rate. (3) The death rate descended to 30.38% from 54.64% (HBV DNA more than 1 x 10(5) copies/ml) when treated with Lamivudine (P less than 0.01). CONCLUSION: In severe hepatitis the quantity of virus carried in the patient is one of the key factors of mortality; antivirus treatment can lower mortality.

[Clinical investigation of famciclovir in chronic hepatitis B patients irresponsive to alpha interferon treatment].

OBJECTIVES: To evaluate the efficacy and safety of famciclovir on the decreasing levels of serum HBV-DNA and ALT and HBeAg/antiHBe seroconversion in chronic hepatitis B patients irresponsive to 3 months treatment with alpha interferon. METHODS: Two hundred and nineteen patients with chronic HBV infection, defined as positive HBsAg, HBeAg and HBV DNA, were enrolled and randomly half-and- half put into famciclovir and placebo groups. The two groups received either famciclovir 500 mg tid or a placebo treatment for 24 weeks, and then were followed-up for another 24 weeks with no treatment. RESULTS: At the end of 24 weeks, the log value of HBV DNA dropped from 6.54+/-1.26 to 5.70+/-2.03 in the famciclovirt group and were elevated from 6.30+/-1.32 to 6.51+/-1.65 in the placebo group (P < 0.01). The rate of cases with persistence HBV DNA dropped 2 log of quantity in the famciclovir group and was 28.28% (28/99); it was 9.47% (9/95) in the placebo group (P < 0.01). Those with persistence negative HBV DNA was 28.28% (28/99) in the flamciclovir treated group and 14.74% (14/95) in the placebo group (P < 0.05). Those persistently being HBeAg negative were 7.69% (7/91) in the famciclovir treated group and 3.33% (3/90) in the placebo group (P > 0.05). The HBeAg/antiHBe seroconversion was 4.40% (4/91) in the famciclovir group and 2.22% (2/90) in the placebo group (P > 0.05). The percentage of cases with normal of ALT level was 15.15% in the famciclovir group and 6.35% in the placebo group (P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Famciclovir is effective in inhibiting HBV DNA replication and in decreasing serum ALT levels. The rate of HBeAg/antiHBe seroconversion in the famciclovir treated group was similar to that of the placebo group. Famciclovir was well tolerated without severe adverse effects during our treatment.

[Dynamics of peripheral blood B lymphocytes and natural killer cells in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome].

OBJECTIVE: To study the dynamics of peripheral blood B lymphocytes and natural killer (NK) cells in patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). METHODS: The absolute numbers of peripheral blood B lymphocytes and NK cells in 602 serial samples from 240 patients with SARS were counted, using flow cytometry, and compared with that of normal population. RESULTS: The absolute numbers of peripheral blood B lymphocytes and NK cells in SARS patients were significantly lower than that of the normal population (P < 0.001) and were much lower in SARS patients with severe or extremely severe types, as compared with that of moderate or mild type cases (P < 0.001). The amount of B lymphocytes in recovery SARS patients increased at the 2nd week after onset, and gradually becoming normal at the 5th week of the disease onset. The number of NK cells was in the low level at onset, and keep decreasing at the 2nd week. However, it was increasing with the recovery of the disease, but did not reach to normal level at the 5th week after onset. CONCLUSION: The absolute numbers of peripheral blood B lymphocytes and NK cells were associated with the severity of the disease, and detection of these two kinds of cells was useful for predicting the prognosis of SARS.