Estimation of COVID-19 prevalence in Italy, Spain, and France.

Ever since its discovery by Windhaus, the importance of the active metabolite of vitamin D (1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3; 1,25-(OH)2D3) has been ever expanding. In this review, the attention is shifted towards the importance of the extra-skeletal effects of vitamin D, with special emphasis on the immune system. The first hint of the significant role of vitamin D on the immune system was made by the discovery of the presence of the vitamin D receptor on almost all cells of the immune system. In vitro, the overwhelming effect of supra-physiological doses of vitamin D on the individual components of the immune system is very clear. Despite these promising pre-clinical results, the translation of the in vitro observations to solid clinical effects has mostly failed. Nevertheless, the evidence of a link between vitamin D deficiency and adverse outcomes is overwhelming and clearly points towards avoidance of vitamin D deficiency especially in early life.

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Vitamin D's Effect on Immune Function.

In this study, confirmed COVID-19 cases of Denmark, Belgium, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Finland, Switzerland and Turkey were modeled with Auto-Regressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA), Nonlinear Autoregression Neural Network (NARNN) and Long-Short Term Memory (LSTM) approaches. Six model performance metric were used to select the most accurate model (MSE, PSNR, RMSE, NRMSE, MAPE and SMAPE). According to the results of the first step of the study, LSTM was found the most accurate model. In the second stage of the study, LSTM model was provided to make predictions in a 14-day perspective that is yet to be known. Results of the second step of the study shows that the total cumulative case increase rate is expected to decrease slightly in many countries.

Comparative analysis and forecasting of COVID-19 cases in various European countries with ARIMA, NARNN and LSTM approaches

Mathematical modeling and the transmission dynamics in predicting the Covid-19 - What next in combating the pandemic

Cd immobilization and soil quality under Fe–modified biochar in weakly alkaline soil

Relationship of meteorological factors and human brucellosis in Hebei province, China.

Associations of Vitamin D Receptor Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms with Susceptibility to Systemic Sclerosis.

Fibrosis is characterised by excessive deposition of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and develops because of fibroblast differentiation during the process of inflammation. There are few effective treatment options for this diseases due to the aetiology of fibrosis is not completely clarified. Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs), a type of ncRNA with a length of greater than 200 nucleotides without evident protein coding function, are important regulators of most biological and pathological processes, including participation, regulation or mediation of disease development. Among them, H19 is recently discovered as a class of lncRNAs which is related to fibrotic disease and inflammation. These observations implied a potential role for H19 as a promising therapeutic targets for treatment of fibrotic diseases. In this review, we will describe the characteristics of H19 and summarise recent advances in the mechanisms of H19 in the process of fibrosis. Finally, we will succinctly discuss the recent progress of the involvement of H19 in the development and pathogenesis of fibrosis diseases.

Long non coding RNA H19: An emerging therapeutic target in fibrosing diseases.

The aim of this review is to explore whether patients with autoimmune diseases (AIDs) were at high risk of infection during the COVID-19 epidemic and how severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic affected immune system. A systematic literature search was performed using the foreign databases (NCBI, web of science, EBSCO, ELSEVIER ScienceDirect) and Chinese databases (WanFang, CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure), VIP, CBM) to locate all relevant publications (up to January 10, 2021). The search strategies used Medical Search Headings (MeSH) headings and keywords for “COVID-19” or “SARS-CoV-2” or “coronavirus” and “autoimmune disease”. This review evaluates the effect of SARS-CoV-2 on the immune system through ACE-2 receptor binding as the main pathway for cell attachment and invasion. It is speculated that SARS-COV-2 infection can activate lymphocytes and inflammatory response, which may play a role in the clinical onset of AIDs and also patients were treated with immunomodulatory drugs during COVID-19 outbreak. Preliminary studies suggested that the risk of developing severe forms of COVID-19 in patients with AIDs treated with immunomodulators or biologics might not increase. A large number of samples are needed for further verification, leading to an excessive immune response to external stimuli. The relationship between autoimmune diseases and SARS-CoV-2 infection is complex. During the COVID-19 epidemic, individualized interventions for AIDs should be provided such as Internet-based service.

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COVID-19 illness and autoimmune diseases: recent insights.

Aim To examine the associations between female menstrual or reproductive factors and the development of systemic sclerosis (SSc) in China. Methods In this hospital-based case-control study, for each subject, data on reproductive and menstrual factors such as number of births, abortions, and age at menarche were obtained by structured questionnaire. Risk estimates, measured by the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI), were obtained by unconditional logistics regression. Furthermore, meta-analysis was performed and pooled OR with 95% CI for the number of pregnancies and abortions were calculated. Results There were 166 SSc and 392 female controls seen during the study period. The results showed women with late menarche age (≥17 years) were less likely than those with earlier age at menarche to develop SSc (OR 0.347, 95% CI 0.174-0.693) and compared with women without abortion, women with abortion (1 time) were at reduced risk of developing SSc (P = .036). After adjusting for potential confounders such as occupation and body mass index (BMI), late age at menarche (≥17 years) was associated with a decreased risk of SSc (OR 0.187, 95% CI 0.068-0.513), but abortions were not significantly related to SSc. The meta-analysis revealed there was no association between SSc and abortions or number of pregnancies. No significant publication bias was observed (P > .05). Conclusion Late age at menarche was associated with a reduced risk of SSc but abortion may not be an independent risk factor for SSc. Further investigations are required to verify our findings.

Xiao-Dong Yin

Papers

Relationship of meteorological factors and human brucellosis in Hebei province, China.

Associations of Vitamin D Receptor Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms with Susceptibility to Systemic Sclerosis.

Long non coding RNA H19: An emerging therapeutic target in fibrosing diseases.

COVID-19 illness and autoimmune diseases: recent insights.

The association between reproductive factors and systemic sclerosis in Chinese women: A case-control study and meta-analysis