COVID-19 has broken out since the end of December 2019 and is still spreading rapidly, which has been listed as an international concerning public health emergency. We found the Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 contains a furin cleavage site, which did not exist in any other betacoronavirus subtype B. Based on a series of analysis, we speculate that the presence of a redundant furin cut site in its Spike protein is responsible for SARS-CoV-2’s stronger infectious than other coronaviruses, which leads to higher membrane fusion efficiency. Subsequently, a library of 4,000 compounds including approved drugs and natural products were screened against furin through structure-based virtual screening and then assayed for their inhibitory effects on furin activity. Among them, an anti-parasitic drug, Diminazene , showed the highest inhibition effects on furin with an IC 50 of 5.42 ± 0.11 μM, which might be used for the treatment of COVID-19.

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Background: Organ-specific response patterns reported in previous studies indicate different response toward immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients with different metastatic sites. This study aims to compare the efficacy of ICIs with conventional therapy in NSCLC patients with bone, brain or liver metastases. Materials and Methods: MEDLINE, Embase, and CENTRAL were searched for studies comparing ICIs with conventional therapy in NSCLC patients with bone, brain or liver metastases. The pooled hazard ratio (HR) of overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) among included studies was analyzed using the random effects model. Results: Eight studies consisting of 988 NSCLC patients were included, 259 with brain metastases and 729 with liver metastases. No available study with bone metastases information was identified. For patients with brain metastases, ICIs significantly improved their OS (HR, 0.57; P = 0.007). For patients with liver metastases, both OS (HR, 0.72; P = 0.006), and PFS (HR, 0.72; P = 0.004) improvements were observed in the ICI treatment arm. Subgroup analysis was conducted based on target of ICIs and treatment regimen. PD-1 inhibitors could benefit patients with liver or brain metastases on OS and PFS (brain metastases: OS, HR, 0.43; P < 0.001; liver metastases: PFS, HR, 0.52; P = 0.003; OS, HR, 0.66; P = 0.001), while PD-L1 inhibitors could not. Patients with brain metastases could only gain OS improvement from ICIs combined with chemotherapy (HR, 0.41; P = 0.001), but for patients with liver metastases, the benefit was detected using ICIs single agent (HR, 0.68; P = 0.012) or ICIs combined with chemotherapy plus anti-VEGF therapy (HR, 0.52; P = 0.005). Conclusion: ICIs could significantly improve OS in NSCLC patients with brain or liver metastases compared with conventional therapy. Patients with brain metastases could only gain OS benefit from ICIs combined with chemotherapy, while those with liver metastases obtained superior OS from ICIs single agent or ICIs combined with chemotherapy plus anti-VEGF therapy.

The most recent version of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Clinical Practice Guidelines for the diagnosis, treatment and follow-up of squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) of the oral cavity, larynx, oropharynx and hypopharynx was published in 2020. It was therefore decided by both the ESMO and the Korean Society of Medical Oncology (KSMO) to convene a special, virtual guidelines meeting in July 2021 to adapt the ESMO 2020 guidelines to consider the potential ethnic differences associated with the treatment of SCCs of the head and neck (SCCHN) in Asian patients. These guidelines represent the consensus opinions reached by experts in the treatment of patients with SCCHN (excluding nasopharyngeal carcinomas) representing the oncological societies of Korea (KSMO), China (CSCO), India (ISMPO), Japan (JSMO), Malaysia (MOS), Singapore (SSO) and Taiwan (TOS). The voting was based on scientific evidence and was independent of the current treatment practices and drug access restrictions in the different Asian countries. The latter was discussed when appropriate. This manuscript provides a series of expert recommendations (Clinical Practice Guidelines) which can be used to provide guidance to health care providers and clinicians for the optimisation of the diagnosis, treatment and management of patients with SCC of the oral cavity, larynx, oropharynx and hypopharynx across Asia.

3-Phosphoglycerate dehydrogenase (PHGDH) has been reported to associate with tumorigenesis in many cancers. IoxA, a natural withanolide obtained from dietary tomatillo (Physalis ixocarpa), was identified as the novel natural PHGDH inhibitor with high targeting and low toxicities for treatment of pancreatic cancers.