Although type 2 diabetes (T2D) is a major comorbidity of novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the impact of blood glucose control on the degree of medical interventions required and on all-cause mortality of patients with COVID-19 and pre-existing T2D remains unclear. Here, Zhu et al. report that among $7,300 individuals with COVID-19 (among which nearly 1,000 had T2D) in Hubei Province, China, those with T2D had significantly increased medical interventions and mortality risk. But among the patients with T2D, those with well-controlled blood glucose regulation (upper limit % 10 mmol/L) fared much better than those with poorly controlled blood glucose (upper limit > 10 mmol/L). These findings provide clinical evidence correlating more proper blood glucose control with improved outcomes in patients with COVID-19.

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There are many potential applications of 'intelligent' aqueous polymer systems in medicine, biotechnology, industry and in environmental problems. Many of these polymer systems undergo reversible phase transitions--for example, abrupt changes in volume--in response to external stimuli such as temperature, pH or the nature of the solvent. Most of the polymers studied previously are responsive to only one kind of stimulus. But for some applications, independent responsiveness to several factors, such as temperature and pH, may be required. Here we describe a polymer that undergoes marked solubility changes in water in response to temperature and/or pH changes. The polymer is prepared by grafting temperature-sensitive side chains onto a pH-sensitive backbone. We also find that block copolymers, in which the temperature- and pH-sensitive units alternate along the chain, show similar behaviour.

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Highlights d Statin treatment among 13,981 patients with COVID-19 was retrospectively studied d Statin use in this cohort was associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality d Adding an ACE inhibitor or an ARB did not affect statinassociated outcome in the cohort d The benefit of statins among this cohort may be due to immunomodulatory benefits

Background and Aims: COVID-19 is a dominant pulmonary disease, with multisystem involvement, depending upon co morbidities. Its pro le in patients with pre-existing chronic liver disease (CLD) is largely unknown. We studied the liver injury patterns of SARS-Cov-2 in CLD patients, with or without cirrhosis. Methods: Data was collected from 13 Asian countries on patients with CLD, known or newly diagnosed, with con rmed COVID-19. Result: Altogether, 228 patients [185 CLD without cirrhosis and 43 with cirrhosis] were enrolled, with comorbidities in nearly 80%. Metabolism associated fatty liver disease (113, 61%) and viral etiology (26, 60%) were common. In CLD without cirrhosis, diabetes [57.7% vs 39.7%, OR=2.1(1.1-3.7), p=0.01] and in cirrhotics, obesity, [64.3% vs. 17.2%, OR=8.1(1.9-38.8), p=0.002) predisposed more to liver injury than those without these. Forty three percent of CLD without cirrhosis presented as acute liver injury and 20% cirrhotics presented with either acute-on-chronic liver failure [5(11.6%)] or acute decompensation [4(9%)]. Liver related complications increased (p<0.05) with stage of liver disease; a Child-Turcotte Pugh score of 9 or more at presentation predicted high mortality [AUROC-0.94, HR=19.2(95CI 2.3-163.3), p<0.001, sensitivity 85.7% and speci city 94.4%). In decompensated cirrhotics, the liver injury was progressive in 57% patients, with 43% mortality. Rising bilirubin and AST/ALT ratio predicted mortality among cirrhosis. Conclusions: SARS-Cov-2 infection causes signi cant liver injury in CLD patients, decompensating one fth of cirrhosis, and worsening the clinical status of the already decompensated. The CLD patients with diabetes and obesity are more vulnerable and should be closely monitored.

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Stimuli-responsive polymers exhibit reversible phase changes in response to changes in environmental factors such as pH or temperature. Conjugating such polymers to antibodies and proteins provides molecular systems for applications such as affinity separations, immunoassays and enzyme recovery and recycling. Here we show that conjugating a temperature-sensitive polymer to a genetically engineered site on a protein allows the protein's ligand binding affinity to be controlled. We synthesized a mutant of the protein streptavidin to enable site-specific conjugation of the responsive polymer near the protein's binding site. Normal binding of biotin to the modified protein occurs below 32 degrees C, whereas above this temperature the polymer collapses and blocks binding. The collapse of the polymer and thus the enabling and disabling of binding, is reversible. Such environmentally triggered control of binding may find many applications in biotechnology and biomedicine, such as the control of enzyme reaction rates and of biosensor activity, and the controlled release of drugs.