The dysfunction of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) has been observed in coronavirus infection disease patients, but whether RAS inhibitors, such as angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEIs) and angiotensin II type 1 receptor blockers (ARBs), are associated with clinical outcomes remains unknown. COVID-19 patients with hypertension were enrolled to evaluate the effect of RAS inhibitors. We observed that patients receiving ACEI or ARB therapy had a lower rate of severe diseases and a trend toward a lower level of IL-6 in peripheral blood. In addition, ACEI or ARB therapy increased CD3 and CD8 T cell counts in peripheral blood and decreased the peak viral load compared to other antihypertensive drugs. This evidence supports the benefit of using ACEIs or ARBs to potentially contribute to the improvement of clinical outcomes of COVID-19 patients with hypertension.

Jigucao capsule is a well‐known Chinese patent medicine for the treatment of acute and chronic hepatitis and cholecystitis. The chemical components of Jigucao capsule were not clear resulting from the paucity of relevant studies, which hindered the research of the pharmacological mechanism, the comprehensive development, and utilization of Jigucao capsule in clinical studies. By establishing a high‐throughput ultra‐performance liquid chromatography quadrupole time of flight mass spectrometry in combination with intelligent UNIFI software data processing platform to automatically characterize and identify the chemical profile of Jigucao capsule, 144 compounds were determined rapidly, including 34 terpenoids, 25 flavonoids, 22 steroids, 21 phenylpropanoids, 10 glycosides, six alkaloids, 13 organic acids, and other 13 components. These compounds may be the active components of Jigucao capsule. In this study, a rapid and robust method for comprehensively analyzing the chemical composition of Jigucao capsule was described and established for the first time. The results will provide a reference for the quality control of Jigucao capsule and the establishment of a higher quality standard, as well as for the pharmacodynamic material basis research.

BackgroundTuberculosis (TB) remains a major public health concern on a global scale, especially in developing nations. So far, no formal guidelines are available for the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis pleurisy. The diagnosis of TB is worsened by the immense difficulty in differential determination of tuberculosis pleural effusion (TPE) and malignant pleural effusion (MPE). The purpose of this investigation is to assess the differential diagnostic efficiencies of the pleural IFN-γ release assay (IGRA) and widely-used biochemical parameters in the distinction analysis of TPE and MPE.MethodsA cohort of 222 patients with pleural effusion was examined, comprising of 143 TPE and 58 MPE patients. The patients were examined with IGRA, and the widely-used biomarkers in the pleural effusion and peripheral blood.ResultsOur results show that the TPE patients have significantly higher M. tuberculosis (Mtb) antigen-specific IFN-γ responses to ESAT-6 protein and peptide pool in the blood compared to MPE patients. TPE patients were also shown to have enriched Mtb antigen-specific IFN-γ responses in pleural effusion than in peripheral blood. Among the widely-used biomarkers, the adenosine deaminase (ADA) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) in pleural effusion were better biomarkers with high sensitivity and specificity to discriminate TPE and MPE. In addition, pleural IGRA could not be affected by the pleural adhesion, and the applications of the pleural IGRA together with ADA and CEA provide a promising approach for the TPE and MPE differential identification.ConclusionsOur study proposes that the integration of pleural IGRA and ADA, CEA detection could add to more effective diagnosis stratagems in the discernment between TPE and MPE.

Characterization of the lung microbiota could lead to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of pulmonary TB. Here, we applied the metagenomic shotgun sequencing instead of 16S rRNA sequencing method to characterize the lung microbiota using the BALF samples instead of sputum.