Background:With the effective prevention and control of COVID -19 inChina, the number of cured cases increased significantly. Further monitoring of the disease prognosis and effective control of the "relapse" of the epidemic become the next focus of work. To analyse the clinical prognosis of discharged COVID-19 patients by monitoring their SAR-CoV-2 nucleic acid status, which may provide This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Accepted Articleevidence to establish discharge standards and follow-up management for COVID-19 patients. Methods: We included 13 discharged COVID-19 patients who were quarantined for 4-week at home. The patient's daily clinical signs were recorded and sputum and faecal specimens were regularly sent for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid. Results: The time between initial symptoms and meeting discharge criteria was 18 -44 days with an average of 25 ± 6 days. The faecal samples of two patients still tested positive after meeting discharge criteria and the sputum samples of four patients returned positive 5 -14 days after discharge. The rate of a recurring positive test result in samples from the respiratory system was 31%(4/13). Conclusion:Under the present discharge criteria, the high presence of SARS-CoV-2 nucleic acid in faecal and respiratory samples of discharged COVID-19 patients indicate potential infectivity. Therefore, we suggest that faecal virus nucleic acid should be tested as a routine monitoring index for COVID-19 and a negative result be added to the criteria. Simultaneously, we should strengthen the regular follow-up of discharged patients with continuous monitoring of the recurrence of viral nucleic acid. Mainly engaged in the laboratory diagnostic technology research of infectious diseases. Data sharingWith the permission of the corresponding authors, we can provide participant data without names and identifers, but not the study protocol, statistical analysis plan, or informed consent form. Data can be provided after the article is published.Once the data can be made public, the research team will provide an email address for communication. The corresponding authors have the right to decide whether to share the data or not based on the research objectives and plan provided. ContributorsAll the authors participated in generating the idea. Bin Li ＆ Guanhua Hou took part in samples collection. Youjiang Li, Yingping Wu, and Xiaodong Zhang tested all samples by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay.Yuangyuang Yu took part in data collection and interpretation. Youjiang

To conquer the worldwide outbreak of COVID-19 virus, a large number of studies have been carried out on COVID-19 infection, transmission and treatment. However, few studies have been conducted from the perspectives of circRNA and lncRNA, which are known to be involved in regulating many life activities, such as immune tolerance and immune escapes, and hence may provide invaluable information in the emerging COVID-19 infection and recurrence. Moreover, exosomes has been reported to play an important role in COVID-19 recurrence, and thus may interact with the expression of circRNA and lncRNA. In this work, we sequenced circRNA, lncRNA and mRNA from recurrent COVID-19 patients and healthy people, and compared the differences. GO and KEGG enrichment analysis show that differentially expressed circRNA and lncRNA are mainly involved in the regulation of host cell cycle, apoptosis, immune inflammation, signaling pathway and other processes. The comparison to exosomes related databases shows that there are 114 differentially expressed circRNA, and 10 differentially expressed lncRNA related to exosomes. These studies provide reference for exploring circRNA and lncRNA to study the infection mechanism of COVID-19, their diagnostic and therapeutic values, as well as the possibility to employ them as biomarkers.

Backgrounds: Previous reports of foreign-body ingestion focused primarily on accidental ingestion and very few studies focused on intentional ingestion of foreign body (FB) in China. Our study aimed to compare the prevalence of different age, gender, types, locations and management of FB ingested between intentional ingestion and accidental ingestion of FB in Northern China. Methods: A retrospective case series studied all patients with suspected FB ingestion in Digestive Endoscopy Center of Beijing Friendship Hospital, between January 2011 and January 2019. The patients were divided into 2 groups. Group A included the patients who intentionally ingested FBs, and Group B included the patients who accidentally ingested FBs. Patients' database (demographics, past medical history, characteristics of FB, endoscopic findings and treatments) were reviewed. Statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS software. Results: Group A consisted of 77 prisoners, 2 suspects and 11 psychologically disabled persons. Group B consisted of 1020 patients with no prisoners, suspects or psychologically disabled persons. In Group A, there were no food-related foreign bodies, and the majority of FBs were metallic objects (54.44%). However in Group B, food-related FBs were the most common (91.37%). In Group A, 58 cases (64.44%) were located in the stomach, while in Group B, 893 cases (87.55%) were located in the esophagus (P < 0.05). 1096 patients successfully underwent endoscopic removal and 14 failed, including 9 cases in Group A and 5 cases in Group B. The duration of FBs impaction was longer in Group A than that in Group B (P < 0.05). Conclusions: In our study, the patients who intentionally ingested FB were mainly prisoners, FBs were mostly sharp metallic objects, the duration of FBs impaction was longer, and the rate of successful endoscopic treatment was lower than that of the general population. Attention should be focused on these patients.

The altered expression of miRNAs is involved in carcinogenesis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), but whether miRNAs regulate COX-2 expression in ESCC is not clear. To this end, the expression levels of miR-26a and miR-144 in ESCC clinical tissues and cell lines were investigated by qRT-PCR. COX-2 and PEG2 were quantified by western blot and ELISA. Decrease in miR-26a and miR-144 expression in ESCC was found by a comparison between 30 pairs of ESCC tumor and adjacent normal tissues as well as in 11 ESCC cell lines (P < 0.001). Co-transfection of miR-26a and miR-144 in ESCC cell lines more significantly suppressed cell proliferation, migration, and invasion than did either miR-26a or miR-144 alone (all P < 0.001), as shown by assays of CCK8, migration and invasion and flow cytometry. The inhibitory effect of these two miRNAs in vivo was also verified in nude mice xenograft models. COX-2 was confirmed as a target of miR-26a and miR-144. In conclusion, miR-26a and miR-144 expression is downregulated in ESCC. Co-expression of miR-26a and miR-144 in ESCC cells resulted in inhibition of proliferation and metastasis in vitro and in vivo, suggesting that targeting COX-2 may be the mechanism of these two miRNAs.

In the intermediate term, the remission rate of symptoms associated with POEM therapy was better than that with PD for newly diagnosed achalasia, especially in patients with type III achalasia. The short-term outcomes of the two therapies were similar.

Kinetochore-associated proteins are critical components of mitotic checkpoints, which are essential for faithful chromosomal segregation and spindle assembly during cell division. Recent advances have demonstrated that kinetochore-associated proteins are upregulated and serve significant roles in the carcinogenesis of numerous types of cancer. However, the effects of kinetochore-associated protein 1 (KNTC1) on human cancer, particularly on esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), remain unclear. The present study revealed that KNTC1 was highly expressed in ESCC cell lines. Subsequently, lentivirus-mediated short hairpin RNAs were used to knockdown KNTC1 expression in human ESCC cell lines. Cell growth and viability were measured using multiparametric high-content screening and the MTT assay, respectively. Cell apoptosis was assessed by staining cells with Annexin V-allophycocyanin and was detected using FACScan flow cytometry. The results demonstrated that knockdown of KNTC1 effectively inhibited cell viability and increased apoptosis. In addition, a gene set enrichment analysis of online ESCC datasets indicated that KNTC1 overexpression was associated with increases in the mitotic spindle and hypoxia pathways, and decreases in the DNA repair and mismatch repair pathways. The findings of the present study suggested that KNTC1 may have an essential role in mediating cell viability and apoptosis in human ESCC cells and may serve as a novel therapeutic target for ESCC.

Background: Hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) and viral load are important clinical indicators for patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) infection treated with antiviral therapy. Few studies have evaluated viral sequence biomarkers predicting the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in the stage, which show a low serological response (HBsAg <100 IU/ml) and high viral levels (HBV DNA >2,000 IU/ml). Additionally, point mutations within the pre S/S regions of HBsAg have frequently been reported to be associated with diagnostic failure, vaccine escape and immunotherapy escape. However, the prevalence of escape mutations with low levels of HBsAg (<100 IU/ml) in inactive HBsAg carriers has not been systematically studied within the past decade. Methods: This study aims to determine the trend of the biological prevalence of escape mutations within the pre S/S regions of special model of inactive CHB infection. Increased diversity over the complete HBV genome at baseline was associated with evolutionary characteristics. We used Sanger sequencing, quantitative HBV serology (HBeAg and HBsAg) and liver function index (aspartate alanine aminotransferase, ALT; alanine aminotransferase, AST) to identify whether HBV genome sequences are associated with the serological response to long-term host immunity in special inactive CHB infection.Results: Compared to HBV in HCC, HBV sequencing analysis of 28 LR/RA CHB patients with genotypes B and C showed higher genetic diversity among four ORFs, but the two groups presented similar selective pressure. Seven positive selection sites in the pre-S1 region are potentially associated with immune evasion. These mutations in the pre-S/S region might be associated with the HCC phenotype of low HBsAg expression, with the P region possibly impacting high viral loads.Conclusion: According to the results of this study, LR/RA CHB is characterized by not only genetic diversity but also positive evolutionary pressure within the pre-S/S regions. Increased viral diversity across the HBV genome is also associated with low levels of HBsAg. In conclusion, the cumulative evolutionary changes in the HBV pre-S/S regions that facilitate immune evasion should be monitored individually. Due to the similarity of evolutionary characteristics in HCC, low serological responses and high viremia may be associated with the risk of HCC.

Neither 10-day Ecabet sodium-containing quadruple therapy or 10-day bismuth-containing quadruple therapy can be recommended as empiric therapy in cities with high antibiotic resistance rate of China.