Backgound: To figure out whether diabetes is a risk factor influencing the progression and prognosis of 2019 novel coronavirus disease .Methods: A total of 174 consecutive patients confirmed with COVID-19 were studied. Demographic data, medical history, symptoms and signs, laboratory findings, chest computed tomography (CT) as well the treatment measures were collected and analysed.Results: We found that COVID-19 patients without other comorbidities but with diabetes (n = 24) were at higher risk of severe pneumonia, release of tissue injuryrelated enzymes, excessive uncontrolled inflammation responses and hypercoagulable state associated with dysregulation of glucose metabolism. Furthermore, serum levels of inflammation-related biomarkers such as IL-6, C-reactive protein, serum ferritin and coagulation index, D-dimer, were significantly higher (P < .01) in diabetic patients compared with those without, suggesting that patients with diabetes are more susceptible to an inflammatory storm eventually leading to rapid deterioration of COVID-19.

To investigate the prevalence and diversity of Chlamydia spp. in domestic birds in China, oral and cloacal swabs of healthy chickens, ducks, geese and pigeons were collected nationwide from live-animal markets and examined by Chlamydia spp. 23 S rRNA gene FRET-PCR followed by high-resolution melting curve analysis and confirmatory sequencing. Overall, 26.2% of the birds (602/2,300) were positive for Chlamydia spp. and five Chlamydia spp. were identified. While occasional detection of C. suis and C. muridarum in poultry is reported here for the first time, the predominant chlamydial agent was C. gallinacea representing 63.8% of all positives (384/602) and 81.2% of positive chickens (359/442). Analysis of the C. gallinacea ompA phylogeny revealed at least 13 well segregated variants (serovars). Seven-month monitoring of C. gallinacea-infected chickens indicated that the infection was persistent. C. gallinacea-infected chickens remained without overt clinical disease, but showed body weight gains significantly reduced by 6.5–11.4% beginning in week 3 post-infection. This study indicates that C. gallinacea is the endemic chlamydial species in chickens, whereas C. psittaci dominates only in pigeons. Further studies are required to address the specific conditions under which C. gallinacea could act as an avian pathogen and possibly also a zoonotic agent.

Background Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) induced Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has posed a global threat to public health. The immune system is crucial in defending and eliminating the virus and infected cells. However, immune dysregulation may result in the rapid progression of COVID-19. Here, we evaluated the subsets, phenotypic and functional characteristics of natural killer (NK) and T cells in patients with COVID-19 and their associations with disease severity. Methods Demographic and clinical data of COVID-19 patients enrolled in Wuhan Union Hospital from February 25 to February 27, 2020, were collected and analyzed. The phenotypic and functional characteristics of NK cells and T cells subsets in circulating blood and serum levels of cytokines were analyzed via flow cytometry. Then the LASSO logistic regression model was employed to predict risk factors for the severity of COVID-19. Results The counts and percentages of NK cells, CD4 + T cells, CD8 + T cells and NKT cells were significantly reduced in patients with severe symptoms. The cytotoxic CD3 - CD56 dim CD16 + cell population significantly decreased, while the CD3 - CD56 dim CD16 - part significantly increased in severe COVID-19 patients. More importantly, elevated expression of regulatory molecules, such as CD244 and programmed death-1 (PD-1), on NK cells and T cells, as well as decreased serum cytotoxic effector molecules including perforin and granzyme A, were detected in patients with COVID-19. The serum IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-α were significantly increased in severe patients. Moreover, the CD3 - CD56 dim CD16 - cells were screened out as an influential factor in severe cases by LASSO logistic regression. Conclusions The functional exhaustion and other subset alteration of NK and T cells may contribute to the progression and improve the prognosis of COVID-19. Surveillance of lymphocyte subsets may in the future enable early screening for signs of critical illness and understanding the pathogenesis of this disease.

Background and aim: A novel coronavirus severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) caused pneumonia, Coronavirus Disease 2019 , broke out in Wuhan, China in December 2019, and spread all over the world. Patients with COVID-19 showed huge differences in the hospital stay, progression, and prognosis. As reported, the comorbidities may play an important role in COVID-19. Here, we aim to address the role of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in the progression and prognosis of COVID-19. Methods and results: Eighty-three confirmed COVID-19 patients were divided into CVD (n Z 42) and non-CVD (n Z 41) group according to their medical history. Medical records including demographic data, medical history, clinical characteristics, laboratory examinations, chest computed tomography (CT), and treatment measures were collected, analyzed, and compared between the two groups. COVID-19 patients with CVD showed (1) more severe pathological changes in the lungs, (2) elevated injury-related enzymes including a-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenase (HDBH), lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), g-glutamyltransferase (GGT), creatine kinase (CK), and alanine aminotransferase (ALT), (3) significantly increased uncontrolled inflammation related markers, such as c-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin (IL)-6, serum ferritin, erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR), and serum amyloid A (SAA), (4) serious hypercoagulable status reflected by increased D-dimer and serum fibrinogen (FIB), and (5) higher mortality, compared to COVID-19 patients without CVD. Conclusions: Our data indicated that CVD is a strong risk factor for rapid progression and bad prognosis of COVID-19. More intensive medical care should be applied to patients with CVD to prevent rapid deterioration of the disease.

Antimicrobial resistance against colistin has emerged worldwide and is threatening the efficacy of colistin treatment of multi-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. In this study, PCRs were used to detect mcr genes (mcr-1, mcr-2, mcr-3) in 213 anal and 1,339 nasal swabs from pigs (n = 1,454) in nine provinces of China, and 1,696 cloacal and 1,647 oropharyngeal samples from poultry (n = 1,836) at live-bird markets in 24 provinces. The mcr-1 prevalences in pigs (79.2%) and geese (71.7%) were significantly higher than in chickens (31.8%), ducks (34.6%) and pigeons (13.1%). The mcr-2 prevalence in pigs was 56.3%, significantly higher than in chickens (5.5%), ducks (2.3%), geese (5.5%) and pigeons (0%). The mcr-3 prevalences in pigs (18.7%), ducks (13.8%) and geese (11.9%) were significantly higher than in chickens (5.2%) and pigeons (5.1%). In total, 173 pigs and three chickens were positive for all three mcr genes. The prevalences of the mcr were significantly higher in nasal/oropharyngeal swabs than in the anal /cloacal swabs. Phylogenetic studies identified 33 new mcr-2 variants and 12 new mcr-3 variants. This study demonstrates high prevalences of mcr in pigs and poultry in China, and indicates there is need for more thorough surveillance and control programs to prevent further selection of colistin resistance.

In December 2019, an outbreak of pneumonia occurred in Wuhan, China, which was confirmed to be caused by a new coronavirus different from the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) and the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) (Jiang, Xia, Ying, & Lu, 2020; Tian, 2020). This virus is characterized by strong infectivity and a long incubation period after infection, and it was named as SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV) on 11 February 2020.

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Background In December 2019, a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) caused infectious disease, termed