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Limbal stem cells are essential for continuous corneal regeneration and injury repair. METTL3-catalyzed N6-methyladenosine (m6A) mRNA modifications are involved in many biological processes and play a specific role in stem cell regeneration, while the role of m6A modifications in corneal injury repair remains unknown. In this study, we generated a limbal stem cell-specific METTL3 knockout mouse model and studied the role of m6A in repairing corneal injury caused by alkali burn. The results showed that METTL3 knockout in the limbal stem cells promotes the in vivo cell proliferation and migration, leading to the fast repair of corneal injury. In addition, m6A modification profiling identified stem cell regulatory factors AHNAK and DDIT4 as m6A targets. Our study reveals the essential functions of m6A RNA modification in regulating injury repair and provides novel insights for clinical therapy of corneal diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Limbal stem cells are essential for continuous corneal regeneration and injury repair. METTL3-catalyzed N6-methyladenosine (m 6 A) mRNA modifications are involved in many biological processes and play a specific role in stem cell regeneration, while the role of m 6 A modifications in corneal injury repair remains unknown. In this study, we generated a limbal stem cell-specific METTL3 knockout mouse model and studied the role of m 6 A in repairing corneal injury caused by alkali burn. The results showed that METTL3 knockout in the limbal stem cells promotes the in vivo cell proliferation and migration, leading to the fast repair of corneal injury. In addition, m 6 A modification profiling identified stem cell regulatory factors AHNAK and DDIT4 as m 6 A targets. Our study reveals the essential functions of m 6 A RNA modification in regulating injury repair and provides novel insights for clinical therapy of corneal diseases., Competing Interests: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Yarong Dai et al.)

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a new type of pneumonia caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection. COVID-19 is affecting millions of patients, and the infected number keeps increasing. SARS-CoV-2 is highly infectious, has a long incubation period, and causes a relatively high death rate, resulting in severe health problems all over the world. Currently there is no effective proven drug for the treatment of COVID-19; therefore, development of effective therapeutic drugs to suppress SARS-CoV-2 infection is urgently needed. In this review, we first summarize the structure and genome features of SARS-CoV-2 and introduce its infection and replication process. Then, we review the clinical symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment options of COVID-19 patients. We further discuss the potential molecular targets and drug development strategies for treatment of the emerging COVID-19. Finally, we summarize clinical trials of some potential therapeutic drugs and the results of vaccine development. This review provides some insights for the treatment of COVID-19., (© 2020 The Author(s).)