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COVID-19 epidemic has brought uncertainty to each sector of the global economy, including the financial sector. The widely spread disease has a drastic effect, which massively created health and financial crisis and virtually pushed the economy to the brink of recession. The study focused on the financial development of China during the COVID-19 pandemic and analyzed the long-term and short-term impact of COVID-19, oil prices, gold prices, and global economic policy uncertainty on the financial development of the country. The QARDL model, Wald test, and Granger causality tests are employed to assess the daily data of variables from January 1, 2020, to March 15, 2021. The study’s empirical results revealed that an increase in the number of COVID-19 registered patients has an unprecedented negative effect on financial development, whereas the oil prices co-moved with the financial performance. On the other hand, gold prices and global economic policy uncertainty are negatively correlated with financial development. This study offers various policy recommendations to help the investors, government, and decision-makers to make better decisions for the improvement of the financial development of China.

Min Zhou,1,* Yadi Zhang,2,* Rui Tang,1 Haiyan Liu,1 Min Du,1 Zhi Gao,1 Zongshu Ji,1 Haoshu Fang3 1Neurocritical Care Unit, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, Division of Life Sciences and Medicine, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, 230001, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Respiratory Medicine, The Second People’s Hospital of Hefei and Hefei Hospital Affiliated with Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, 230011, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Pathophysiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, Anhui, 230032, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Haoshu FangDepartment of Pathophysiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Anhui Medical University, 81 Meishan Road, Hefei, Anhui, 230032, People’s Republic of ChinaTel +86 551-65161129Email fang.haoshu@hotmail.comBackground: High-mobility group box-1 protein (HMGB1) serves as the prototypic damage-associated molecular pattern molecule, and TLR4 is considered a receptor for HMGB1. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) play a crucial role in infectious diseases. The role of HMGB1 in the modulation of Tregs is of great interest.Methods: Serum HMGB1 and Treg proportions were detected in 58 patients with acute lung injury (ALI) and 36 healthy volunteers. The correlations of these parameters with disease severity were analyzed. The WT and TLR4-/- mice were administered HMGB1 by intratracheal injection. After 48 h, the mice were sacrificed. The morphological changes and wet/dry ratio of the lung were measured. Spleen CD4+CD25+ Tregs were sorted from spleen cells, the expression of FOXP3 and CTLA-4, and releasing of cytokines was detected. CD4+CD25+ Tregs were cocultured with effector T cells, the inhibitory effect, and release of cytokines was detected.Results: Significantly increased plasma levels of HMGB1 and reduced CD4+CD25+CD127low Tregs were detected