: The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has rapidly evolved into a global pandemic. The substantial morbidity and mortality associated with the infection has prompted us to understand potential risk factors that can predict patient outcomes. Hypertension has been identified as the most prevalent cardiovascular comorbidity in patients infected with COVID-19 that demonstrably increases the risk of hospitalization and death. Initial studies implied that renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system inhibitors might increase the risk of viral infection and aggravate disease severity, thereby causing panic given the high global prevalence of hypertension. Nonetheless, subsequent evidence supported the administration of antihypertensive drugs and noted that they do not increase the severity of COVID-19 infection in patients with hypertension, rather may have a beneficial effect. To date, the precise mechanism by which hypertension predisposes to unfavorable outcomes in patients infected with COVID-19 remains unknown. In this mini review, we elaborate on the pathology of SARS-CoV-2 infection coexisting with hypertension and summarize potential mechanisms, focusing on the dual roles of angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 and the disorders of renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system in COVID-19 and hypertension. The effects of proinflammatory factors released because of immune response and gastrointestinal dysfunction in COVID-19 are also discussed.

Refractory periapical periodontitis, which is a persistent infection after root canal treatment, still has no effective treatment. Its most common pathogen is Enterococcus faecalis. Here, the precursor of phytosteroids, dioscin, is introduced to fight against the inflammation induced by Enterococcus faecalis. The findings suggest that dioscin inhibits the nuclear transport of NF‐κB and the expression of reactive oxygen species (ROS) induced by lipoteichoic acid from the Enterococcus faecalis. The decrease in mRNA and protein levels of NLRP3, Caspase‐1, and IL‐1β is observed in dioscin treated mouse macrophages. In the MC3T3‐E1 cells, dioscin also promotes the expression of osteogenic‐related factors, ALP, Runx2, and OCN. The increased formation of mineralized nodules after the application of dioscin further indicates that dioscin has the potential to promote osteogenesis. The above results suggest dioscin can be a potential root canal irrigation or root canal sealant for the treatment of refractory apical periodontitis.

PurposeNucleolar spindle-associated protein (NuSAP1) is an important mitosis-related protein, and aberrant NuSAP1 expression is associated with abnormal spindles and mitosis. This study investigated the prognostic value of NuSAP1 in breast cancer.MethodsTwo sets of tissue microarrays (TMAs) that included samples from 450 breast cancer patients were constructed, of which 250 patients were training set and the other 200 patients were validation set. Immunohistochemical staining was performed to determine the NuSAP1 levels. A Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to estimate the prognostic value of NuSAP1 in breast cancer. A stepwise Cox analysis was performed to construct a risk-prediction model for triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). All statistical analysis was performed with SPSS software.ResultsThere were 108 (43.5%) and 88 (44.0%) patients expressed NuSAP1 in the training set and validation set respectively. High levels of NuSAP1 expression were related to poor disease-free survival (DFS) in both training (P = 0.028) and validation (P = 0.006) cohorts, particularly in TNBC. With combination of two cohorts, both NuSAP1 (HR = 4.136, 95% CI: 1.956–8.747, P < 0.001) and BRCA1 (HR = 0.383, 95% CI: 0.160–0.915, P = 0.031) were independent prognostic indicators of DFS in TNBC. A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis revealed that the combination of NuSAP1 and BRCA1 significantly improved the prognostic power compared with the traditional model (0.778 versus 0.612, P < 0.001).ConclusionsOur study confirms the prognostic value of NuSAP1 in breast cancer. The combination of NuSAP1 and BRCA1 could improve the DFS prediction accuracy in TNBC.

BackgroundThe immunotherapy of Glioma has always been a research hotspot. Although tumor associated microglia/macrophages (TAMs) proves to be important in glioma progression and drug resistance, our knowledge about how TAMs influence glioma remains unclear. The relationship between glioma and TAMs still needs further study.MethodsWe collected the data of TAMs in glioma from NCBI Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) that included 20 glioma samples and 15 control samples from four datasets. Six genes were screened from the Differential Expression Gene through Gene ontology (GO) analysis, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis, protein–protein interaction (PPI) network and single-cell sequencing analysis. A risk score was then constructed based on the six genes and patients’ overall survival rates of 669 patients from The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA). The efficacy of the risk score in prognosis and prediction was verified in Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas (CGGA).ResultsSix genes, including CD163, FPR3, LPAR5, P2ry12, PLAUR, SIGLEC1, that participate in signal transduction and plasma membrane were selected. Half of them, like CD163, FPR3, SIGLEC1, were mainly expression in M2 macrophages. FPR3 and SIGLEC1 were high expression genes in glioma associated with grades and IDH status. The overall survival rates of the high risk score group was significantly lower than that of the low risk score group, especially in LGG.ConclusionJoint usage of the 6 candidate genes may be an effective method to diagnose and evaluate the prognosis of glioma, especially in Low-grade glioma (LGG).