The Application Prospects and Challenges of Mesenchymal Stem Cell-Derived Exosomes in Spinal Cord Injury Repair.

Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a severe, disabling condition for which current treatments are largely insufficient in restoring neurological function. Despite advances in surgical and pharmacological interventions, no effective treatment currently exists to reverse neurological deficits caused by SCI. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), especially human umbilical cord-derived MSCs (hucMSCs), have shown promise in tissue regeneration due to their multipotency and low immunogenicity.

Mitochondrial sORF-Encoded Peptide MODICA Protects the Heart From Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiac Injury by Suppressing VDAC Oligomerization.

Background: Doxorubicin (DOX) cardiotoxicity increases cardiovascular risk in cancer patients, mainly through mitochondrial damage. However, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear, and whether mitochondrial short open reading frame-encoded peptides can mitigate DOX-induced cardiotoxicity is unknown.

Methods: Five adeno-associated viruses expressing mitochondrial short open reading frame-encoded peptides under the cardiac troponin T promoter, including MODICA (mito-SEP protector against DOX-induced cardiac injury), were screened in a DOX-induced cardiotoxicity mouse model (n=3-5 per group).

SOX2 drives esophageal squamous carcinoma by reprogramming lipid metabolism and histone acetylation landscape.

SOX2 is a potent oncodriver for various squamous cancers, but the underlying mechanism is largely unknown. Here we uncover a role of SOX2 in promoting global histone acetylation in esophageal squamous cancer cells (ESCCs). Mechanistic studies reveal that SOX2 promotes global histone acetylation in an AKT-independent manner, and does so by promoting histone acetylation at both SOX2 binding and non-SOX2 binding sites, and accounts for the formation of about half of the super-enhancers.

Abnormal structural changes and disturbed functional connectivity in patients with Crohn's disease and abdominal pain: a voxel-based morphometry and functional magnetic resonance imaging study.

Background: Abdominal pain is a prevalent and debilitating manifestation of Crohn's disease (CD) that significantly impacts the lives of those affected. The neurological pathways responsible for abdominal pain in patients with CD remain unidentified. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to characterize the structural alterations in the brain and associated functional connectivity (FC) in patients with CD and abdominal pain.

Synergistic exacerbation of periprosthetic osteolysis by inflammatory bowel disease and titanium ions: Impaired osteogenesis of BMSCs via PI3K/AKT signaling.

Periprosthetic osteolysis remains a major cause of implant failure, driven by inflammatory responses to titanium (Ti) wear particles and ions. Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), a systemic chronic inflammatory condition, exacerbates bone loss, yet its synergistic effects with Ti ions on periprosthetic osteolysis remain unexplored. Here, we investigated how IBD and Ti ions impair bone-implant integration by disrupting osteogenesis via the PI3K/AKT pathway.

Condition-triggered single-to-double peak transition of CPDs for visual detection of water content in DMSO.

Herein, we have synthesized blue fluorescent carbonized polymer dots (CPDs) a facile hydrothermal method using -aminophenol and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid. The reduced density gradient (RDG) analysis reveals that the supramolecular interactions between hydrogen-bonded polyamide chains result in a strong blue emission, whereas the orange emission arises from the hydrogen-bond-induced excited-state intramolecular proton transfer (ESIPT) between the CPDs and water. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations have confirmed that phenolic hydroxyl groups play a key role in the fluorescence redshift as the synthesis temperature increases.

Recombinant human collagen type III microgel: an advanced injectable dermal filler for rejuvenating aging skin.

Skin aging, characterized by reduced collagen regeneration, chronic inflammation and heightened skin cancer risk, poses a significant challenge. Collagen-based materials, employed as dermal fillers to smooth wrinkles, have attained extensive utilization. Nevertheless, traditional animal-derived collagen protein primarily presents concerns pertaining to disease risks, potential immunological reactions, and batch instability.

Combined Flt3L and CD40 agonism restores dendritic cell-driven T cell immunity in pancreatic cancer.

T cell-directed immunotherapies have largely failed to slow progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) because of poor tumor antigenicity and an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. We hypothesized that conventional dendritic cell (cDC) suppression in PDAC may further impair tumor immunity. We found that low tissue expression of Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 ligand (Flt3L) partially underlies cDC deficits.

Strong Nucleating Effect of Si-Containing Tri-Block Oligomers on Poly(Ethylene Terephthalate).

The development of a silane coupling agent with an aminopropyl structure as a nucleating agent for poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) is reported in this study. The tri-block oligomers nucleating agent was formed by 1,3-bis(3-aminopropyl)-1,1,3,3-tetramethyldisiloxane/oxalic acid/low molecular weight PET (LPOBD). It was subsequently cross-linked with tetraethyl orthosilicate to form LPOBD-T.

High-Compressive-Strength Silicon Carbide Ceramics with Enhanced Mechanical Performance.

This study demonstrates the successful fabrication of high-performance reaction-bonded silicon carbide (RBSC) ceramics through an optimized liquid silicon infiltration (LSI) process employing multi-modal SiC particle gradation and nano-carbon black (0.6 µm) additives. By engineering porous preforms with hierarchical SiC distributions and tailored carbon sources, the resulting ceramics achieved a compressive strength of 2393 MPa and a flexural strength of 380 MPa, surpassing conventional RBSC systems.

Inverse design of terahertz metasurfaces for multi-channel holographic imaging based on the modified gradient descent method.

In recent years, research on terahertz metasurfaces has made significant progress and is evolving towards multifunctional integration. Traditional forward design methods have gradually exposed efficiency bottlenecks in multifunctional design due to their high computational complexity. The proposal of the inverse design paradigms has brought revolutionary breakthroughs in the design efficiency of multifunctional metasurfaces and greatly reduced the design threshold.

Autophagy in PE: Dispute, Role and Potential Target.

PE is a life-threatening pregnancy disorder that can lead to adverse events for both the fetus and the mother. Autophagy is a cellular process involved in cellular renovation and maintaining homeostasis. There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that autophagy in trophoblasts plays a significant role in the development and pathogenesis of PE.

Structural and mechanistic insights into the transcriptional regulation of chromosomal T6SS by large conjugative plasmid-encoded TetRs in Acinetobacter baumannii.

The type VI secretion system (T6SS) is a highly sophisticated nanomachine widely used by bacteria to achieve competitive advantage, important for survival and pathogenicity. In Acinetobacter baumannii, the large conjugative plasmid pAB3 encodes two TetR-family transcriptional regulators, TetR1 and TetR2, that play crucial roles in restricting T6SS function and promoting recipient survival after conjugation. Using X-ray crystallography, we demonstrate that the plasmid-encoded TetRs are structurally homologous but distinct in DNA sequence binding preferences, which we have also mapped out using chromatin immunoprecipitation and validated with electrophoretic mobility shift assay and isothermal titration calorimetry.

Unveiling the Temporal Dynamics and Molecular Regulation Profiles of Neutrophil Extracellular Traps Following Spinal Cord Injury.

Background: Spinal cord injury (SCI) initiates secondary inflammatory processes that exacerbate tissue damage, with neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) playing a significant role in amplifying these cascades. This study aimed to explore the temporal dynamics and key regulatory genes of NET formation in SCI to identify therapeutic targets.

Methods: We integrated two transcriptomic datasets from the GEO database to identify differentially expressed NETs-related genes (NRGs) in SCI.

Feasibility and safety of endoscopic full-thickness resection of large gastric subepithelial lesions outside the operating room: 10 years of experience in a large tertiary hospital in China.

Background: Several studies have confirmed the safety and efficacy of endoscopic full-thickness resection (EFTR) of gastric subepithelial lesions (SELs), but many hospitals need to perform EFTR procedures in the operating room.

Objective: The objective was to evaluate the safety and feasibility of EFTR of large (≥ 3 cm) gastric SELs outside the operating room based on our 10 years of experience.

Methods: Patients with large gastric SELs who received EFTR from January 2013 to August 2023 were included.

20E-induced expression facilitates developmental transitions depending on chromosome accessibility of enhancers.

Transcription factors and histone modification-mediated chromatin accessibility coordinately regulate spatiotemporal expression of genes that control growth and development. It is well documented that juvenile hormone-activated Kr-h1 antagonizes 20-hydroxyecdysone (20E)-induced expression of the pupal specifier to sustain larval status in holometabolous insects. Here, we revealed that during the larval-prepupal transition in , the 20E-activated axis is a prerequisite for wing disc morphogenesis.

Dissection of the gene regulatory network underlying sexual maturity divergence in Jining Bairi chickens through integrated RNA-seq and WGCNA analysis.

Sexual maturity is a pivotal reproductive trait in laying hens because it is directly related to egg production. The age at first egg is a definitive indicator of sexual maturity attainment in laying hens. Most Chinese indigenous chicken breeds exhibit a late onset of lay, significantly affecting their egg-laying performance.

Treatment of Ideberg type IV glenoid fracture via a non-dissecting and non-transected approach to the deltoid, infraspinatus, and teres minor muscles: A case report.

Introduction And Importance: Scapular fractures are infrequent injuries, accounting for 0.5 % - 2.2 % of all fractures.

Uric acid mediates the association of alpha-1 acid glycoprotein with gallstones in adult women in the United States.

Gallstones are a common biliary disorder whose pathogenesis may involve alpha-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP), an acute phase inflammatory protein. Serum uric acid (SUA) is the end product of purine metabolism and is associated with a variety of chronic diseases. We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of 1,652 adult women from the 2017-2020 NHANES database to explore the association between AGP levels and gallstone risk and the potential mediating role of SUA.

URFM: A general Ultrasound Representation Foundation Model for advancing ultrasound image diagnosis.

Ultrasound imaging is critical for clinical diagnostics, providing insights into various diseases and organs. However, artificial intelligence (AI) in this field faces challenges, such as the need for large labeled datasets and limited task-specific model applicability, particularly due to ultrasound's low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). To overcome these, we introduce the Ultrasound Representation Foundation Model (URFM), designed to learn robust, generalizable representations from unlabeled ultrasound images, enabling label-efficient adaptation to diverse diagnostic tasks.

Accelerating Effects of Poloxamer and Its Structural Analogs on the Crystallization of Nitrendipine Polymorphs.

Surfactants can be added into polymer-amorphous drug systems to further enhance solubility. However, this may cause amorphous drugs to become physically unstable, and the inherent mechanism at play here is not fully understood. We explored the effects of poloxamer, a poly (ethylene oxide)-poly (propylene oxide)-poly (ethylene oxide) (PEO-PPO-PEO) triblock copolymer surfactant, and its segments on the nucleation and growth kinetics of amorphous nitrendipine (NTP) from the melt through polarized light microscopy.

A Multiple Environmental Parameters and Molecular Fingerprints Contribution model for prediction of Gibbs free energy.

Accurate prediction of thermodynamic parameters in biochemical reactions is essential for understanding and designing metabolic systems. Most existing methods for predicting the Gibbs free energy of biochemical reactions often neglect the environmental influences on Gibbs free energy such as pH, temperature and ionic strength, and lack efficient feature selection mechanisms, resulting in suboptimal predictive accuracy. In this paper, a Convolutional Neural Network Based Model with Multiple Environmental Parameters and Molecular Fingerprint Contribution (MEFC-CNN) is proposed to address these problems.

Synthesis and antibacterial activities of quercetagetin derivatives.

The global rise of bacterial drug resistance has prompted growing attention towards the development of novel antibacterial lead compounds. This work reports the synthesis and characterisation of a series of quercetagetin derivatives () using comprehensive spectroscopic techniques (H/³C NMR, HRMS). Antimicrobial screening against four bacterial strains (, , and ) identified compound as the most potent agent, exhibiting an MIC of 16 µg/mL against .

Changes in white matter microstructure in the brain of patients with inflammatory bowel disease are associated with abdominal pain.

Introduction: In recent years, interest in the brain-gut axis has increased, and interactions between the brain and the gut may be closely related to recurrent clinical symptoms in patients with inflammatory bowel disease. We aimed to investigate the changes in white matter microstructure in the brain of patients and their relationships with clinical symptoms.

Methods: A total of 96 patients with inflammatory bowel disease and 47 healthy controls were recruited for this study.