Tuning Nanostructure of Gels: From Structural and Functional Controls to Food Applications.

Various gels are integral for the food industry, providing unique textural and mechanical properties essential for the quality and functions of products. These properties are fundamentally governed by the gels' nanostructural organization. This review investigates the mechanisms of nanostructure formation in food gels, the methods for their characterization and control, and how precise tuning of these nanostructures enables targeted food applications.

Base excision repair in human cancer: Emerging diagnostic and therapeutic target.

DNA base excision repair (BER) is an evolutionarily conserved and essential DNA repair mechanism that acts as the major surveillance system for base lesions caused by endogenous and exogenous attacks. Therefore, BER is required for maintaining genomic stability under both physiological and pathological conditions. In this paper, we provide a brief review of the germline and somatic alterations of BER in cancer, with a particular focus on the core enzyme apurinic/ apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1), encoded by APEX1, and the mechanistic relationship to the development and treatment of cancer.

Property-Based Prediction Uncovers Intestinal Excretion as an Elimination Route of Small-Molecule Drugs.

Hepatic and renal pathways are traditionally considered the primary routes of drug clearance. However, emerging evidence highlights the significant role of direct intestinal excretion of unchanged drugs and metabolites. Intestinal excretion is often unrecognized due to complications arising from unabsorbed drugs and direct biliary excretion.

Metastable 1T-RhO with a Triangular Lattice: A Possible Quantum Spin Liquid Candidate.

The discovery of intrinsic magnetism in layered van der Waals (vdW) magnets has received intensive attention due to their fundamental importance in low-dimensional magnetism and potential device applications. To date, most vdW magnets contain 3d transition metals. Extending vdW magnetism to 4d and 5d transition metal systems is therefore of great interest as it offers opportunities to explore exotic magnetic behaviors arising from the interplay between electronic correlations and strong spin-orbit coupling (SOC).

A pivot joint steering mechanism for tip-everting soft growing robots.

Soft growing robots (SGRs) navigate confined environments by everting material from the tip while keeping the rest of the body stationary, enabling frictionless navigation. This opens up huge potential for inspection, search, and rescue tasks. However, controlling the direction of tip growth is still a challenge because of the ever-changing tip of the robot during tip growth.

Protective effects of curcumin on epileptic rodent models by alleviating oxidative stress and inflammation: a meta-analysis and mechanism exploration.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to systematically evaluate the therapeutic effect of curcumin on rodent epilepsy models through a meta-analysis of multiple animal experiments. It will also explore its potential mechanism of anti-oxidative stress and anti-inflammation to provide a theoretical basis for the application of curcumin in the clinical treatment of epilepsy.

Methods: A total of 23 eligible animal studies were identified by searching eight databases (up to March 2025), including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and CNKI, Wan Fang, VIP, CBM.

Correlation Between Lipid Accumulation Product and Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease in Chinese Adults with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus.

Objective: To evaluate the value and feasibility of the lipid accumulation product (LAP) in the prediction of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) in Chinese adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, we assessed the value of LAP and other novel indices in the prediction of MASLD in Chinese adults with T2DM in a total of 642 patients. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curves were plotted to assess the predictive ability of the indices for the occurrence of MASLD in T2DM.

Integrated metabolomic, transcriptomic and network analysis elucidates therapeutic mechanisms of spore oil against granulomatous pulmonary nodules.

Granulomatous pulmonary nodules represent a substantial health threat, with no available targeted therapies. Interventions based on medicinal plants approaches are pivotal for prevention and treatment. (GL) is a traditional botanical drug to treat inflammatory ailments.

Colon Enzyme-Activated Prebiotic Nanomedicine for Targeted Therapy of Inflammatory Bowel Disease.

Inflammatory bowel disease is commonly treated with conventional therapies that suffer from poor drug bioavailability and significant side effects. This work develops a nanoparticle system using inulin, a naturally occurring polysaccharide, to address these challenges. This colon-targeted oral drug delivery system enables precise and efficient treatment of IBD by leveraging the colon-specific degradation of inulin by the enzyme inulinase.

Loss of CD98HC phosphorylation by ATM impairs antiporter trafficking and drives glutamate toxicity in Ataxia telangiectasia.

Ataxia-telangiectasia is a rare genetic disorder characterized by neurological defects, immunodeficiency, cancer predisposition, radiosensitivity, decreased blood vessel integrity, and diabetes. ATM, the protein mutated in Ataxia-telangiectasia, responds to DNA damage and oxidative stress, but its functional relationship to the progressive clinical manifestation of this disorder is not understood. CD98HC chaperones cystine/glutamate and cationic/neutral amino acid antiporters to the cell membrane, and CD98HC phosphorylation by ATM accelerates membrane localization to acutely increase amino acid transport.

Multi-Feature Fusion Method Based on Adaptive Dilation Convolution for Small-Object Detection.

This paper addresses the challenge of small-object detection in traffic surveillance by proposing a hybrid network architecture that combines attention mechanisms with convolutional layers. The network introduces an innovative attention mechanism into the YOLOv8 backbone, which effectively enhances the detection accuracy and robustness of small objects through fine-grained and coarse-grained attention routing on feature maps. During the feature fusion stage, we employ adaptive dilated convolution, which dynamically adjusts the dilation rate spatially based on frequency components.

Synergistic and toxicity‑reducing effects of acteoside as an adjuvant therapy of oxaliplatin against hepatocellular carcinoma.

Oxaliplatin (OXA) is a first‑line chemotherapy agent for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC); however, its application is hindered by low therapeutic sensitivity and severe adverse effects. Acteoside (ACT) has both antitumor and hepatoprotective properties. Therefore, the present study investigated the mechanisms underlying the synergistic and toxicity‑reducing effects of ACT as an adjuvant to OXA in HCC therapy.

A facial structure sampling contrastive learning method for sketch facial synthesis.

Sketch face synthesis aims to generate sketch images from photos. Recently, contrastive learning, which maps and aligns information across diverse modalities, has found extensive application in image translation. However, when applying traditional contrastive learning to sketch face synthesis, the random sampling strategy and the imbalance between positive and negative samples result in poor performance of synthesized sketch images regarding local details.

Design and preliminary evaluation of a track-based robotic colonoscope with a shape-adaptable tip for propulsion.

This paper introduces a shape-adaptable robotic endoscope design, which combines an expansion mechanism and external drive system that provide tip insertion force and adjust the tip shape and size to different colon diameters. Expansion rate of 53% has been achieved in the expandable tip size, which corresponds to changes in the colon diameter. We tested the prototype locomotion in a pipe with different friction surface layers, including artificial bowel tissues, to assess propulsion force and normal force on the colon that can be achieved with the current design.

Clinical Characteristics of Miliary Pulmonary Tuberculosis in Pregnancy After In Vitro Fertilization-Embryo Transfer: A Retrospective Clinical Study.

Background And Aims: Miliary pulmonary tuberculosis (MPTB) is rare in patients treated with In Vitro fertilization-embryo transfer (IVF-ET), and can be life-threatening to pregnant women and fetuses. We aimed to describe the clinical characteristics of MPTB after IVF-ET and pregnancy outcomes to provide reference for early diagnosis and treatment.

Methods: Clinical data from patients who developed MPTB after IVF-ET from January 2018-December 2021 were retrospectively and statistically analyzed.

Regulation of the MAPK/ERK Pathway by miRNA-27b in Gastric Cancer: Diagnostic Implications and Therapeutic Potential of Aloin.

Background: Globally, gastric cancer (GC) ranks as the fourth most deadly and fifth most prevalent kind of cancer. Appropriate treatment methods, precise etiology, and molecular processes of GC are still unclear.

Methods: In silico and quantitative real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR)-based expression of miRNA-27b was quantified in GC cell lines (AGS, MKN-28, MKN-45, NCI-N87, SNU-1), and ROC curve analysis was done to evaluate their diagnostic efficiency.

Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1) prevents alopecia by promoting regeneration of hair follicles.

Hair follicle (HF) regeneration, which relies on the self-renewal and differentiation capacity of bulge cells, involves multiple molecular mechanisms. In this study, we found that Apurinic/apyrimidinic endonuclease 1 (APE1) acts as a positive regulator of spontaneous and depilation-induced HF regeneration. Loss of APE1 leads to hair thinning and delayed HF transition from telogen to anagen.

Enhanced Long-Term Antibacterial and Osteogenic Properties of Silver-Loaded Titanium Dioxide Nanotube Arrays for Implant Applications.

Objective: This study explored constructing silver-loaded titanium dioxide nanotube (TiO NT) arrays on titanium surfaces using anodic oxidation combined with ion implantation. We assessed the cytocompatibility, antibacterial properties, and osteogenic potential of these silver-loaded TiO NT arrays, along with the underlying mechanisms.

Methods: We utilized anodization to create TiO NT arrays and employed ion implantation to load silver ions, categorizing samples into groups NT-Ag-II-L, NT-Ag-II-M, and NT-Ag-II-H based on different Ag ion dosages.

Mechanism and design strategy of ice-phobic surface: A comprehensive review.

Ice accumulation on the surface can significantly impact the normal operation of industrial facilities and even lead to damage, resulting in economic losses. Modifying the physical structure and chemical state of the surface can effectively mitigate ice nucleation, growth, and adhesion processes. Building upon previous definitions of ice-phobic surfaces, this review provides a refined definition of ice-phobicity and reviews recent advancements in ice-phobic surfaces research.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of intracorporeal versus extracorporeal urinary diversion after robotic-assisted radical cystectomy in elderly patients with malignancy.

Recent studies have highlighted the progress of robotic-assisted radical cystectomy (RARC), yet information on intracorporeal (ICUD) and extracorporeal urinary diversion (ECUD), especially in elderly patients, remains limited. This review seeks to address this gap in the literature. A systematic literature review was conducted in PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases, following the PRISMA guidelines.

Orally Administrated Inulin-Modified Nanozymes for CT-Guided IBD Theranostics.

Background: Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease with no clinical cure. Excessive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) at the inflammatory sites leads to the onset and progression of IBD. And the current non-invasive imaging methods are not ideal for the diagnosis and monitoring of IBD.

Evaluation of commercial micro-flow liquid chromatography columns for mass spectrometry-based proteomics.

This study aimed to evaluate the separation efficiency and loading capacity of four commercially available micro-flow liquid chromatography (micro-flow LC) columns with 1.0 mm i.d.

Comparisons of open surgical repair, thoracic endovascular aortic repair, and optimal medical therapy for acute and subacute type B aortic dissection: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Various treatments have been employed in managing type B aortic dissection (TBAD), encompassing open surgical repair (OSR), thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR), and optimal medical therapy (OMT). Nonetheless, the determination of the most efficacious treatment protocol remains a subject of debate. We aim to compare the treatments in patients with acute and subacute TBAD using a meta-analytic approach.

Impaired hippocampal neurogenesis associated with regulatory ceRNA network in a mouse model of postoperative cognitive dysfunction.

Background: Postoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) represents a post-surgical complication that features progressive cognitive impairment and memory loss, often occurring in elderly patients. This study aimed to investigate the potential biological mechanisms underlying POCD.

Methods: Male C57BL/6 mice (2 and 17 months old) were randomly assigned to surgery or control groups.