The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the result of an infection with the new virus, SARS-CoV-2, is rapidly spreading worldwide.

Background: This study aimed to explore the improvement effect of miR-874 on retinopathy in diabetic rats by NF-κB signaling pathway.Methods: Ten healthy Sprague-Dawley rats were taken as the control group. Sixty streptozotocin (60 mg/kg)-induced diabetes model rats were randomly divided into model group (without any treatment), negative control (NC) agomir group (injection of overexpressed NC vector), miR-874 agomir group (injection of miR-874 mimic), miR-874 anti-agomir group (injection of miR-874 inhibitor), EVP4593 group (injection of NF-κB signaling pathway antagonist EVP4593), and miR-874 anti-agomir + EVP4593 group (injection of miR-874 inhibitor and EVP4593). All injection was via caudal vein.Results: miR-874 could target the degradation of p65. Compared with control group, there were signi cantly reduced miR-874 expression, increased VEGF and Ang2 protein expressions, lowered enddiastolic velocity and peak systolic velocity of central retinal artery (CRA), and blood velocity of central retinal vein and CRA, heightened plasma viscosity, blood viscosity and erythrocyte sedimentation rate at all shear rates, decreased capillary pericytes, increased vascular endothelial cells, and ascended p65 expression in the retina of rats in model group (all P < 0.05). It showed that pathological changes were happened on the retina of diabetes rats. These indexes showed the same results after miR-874 was inhibited (all P < 0.05). However, these indexes showed the opposite results in miR-874 agomir group and EVP4593 group compared with model group (all P < 0.05). EVP4593 could alleviate the aggravation of retinopathy caused by the inhibition of miR-874 in diabetes rats.Conclusions: miR-874 mediates NF-κB signaling pathway by targeting the degradation of p65 to further improve the retina of diabetes rats, showing the improvement effect of miR-874 on diabetic retinopathy in rats.

Novel Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) has spread rapidly around the world. Individuals with immune dysregulation and/or on immunosuppressive therapy, such as rheumatic patients, are considered at greater risk for infections. However, the risks of patients with each subcategory of rheumatic diseases have not been reported. Here, we identified 100 rheumatic patients from 18,786 COVID‐19 patients hospitalized in 23 centers affiliated to Hubei COVID‐19 Rheumatology Alliance between January 1 and April 1, 2020. Demographic information, medical history, length of hospital stay, classification of disease severity, symptoms and signs, laboratory tests, disease outcome, computed tomography, and treatments information were collected. Compared to gout and ankylosing spondylitis (AS) patients, patients with connective tissue disease (CTD) tend to be more severe after COVID‐19 infection (p = 0.081). CTD patients also had lower lymphocyte counts, hemoglobin, and platelet counts (p values were 0.033, < 0.001, and 0.071, respectively). Hydroxychloroquine therapy and low‐ to medium‐dose glucocorticoids before COVID‐19 diagnosis reduced the progression of COVID‐19 to severe/critical conditions (p = 0.001 for hydroxychloroquine; p = 0.006 for glucocorticoids). Our data suggests that COVID‐19 in CTD patients may be more severe compared to patients with AS or gout.