EphrinB2 alleviates tubulointerstitial fibrosis in diabetic kidney disease.

Background: Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is characterized by progressive fibrosis, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial dysfunction, contributing to renal dysfunction. EphrinB2, a cell surface protein, has been implicated in tissue repair and fibrosis, but its role in DKD remains poorly understood. This study investigates the impact of EphrinB2 expression on renal fibrosis, mitochondrial dynamics, and cellular signaling pathways in DKD.

Pharmacological role of MLN4924 in cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury.

Background: Cisplatin-induced acute kidney injury (Cis-AKI) is a major complication that limits the clinical use of cisplatin, largely due to its cytotoxic effects on renal tubular epithelial cells. Recent studies have shown that MLN4924, a NEDD8-activating enzyme inhibitor, can modulate key cellular processes such as apoptosis, autophagy, and DNA damage repair. However, its precise role and regulatory mechanisms in the context of Cis-AKI remain largely undefined.

Uncovering key markers and therapeutic targets for renal fibrosis in diabetic kidney disease through bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing.

Background: Diabetic kidney disease (DKD) is the major cause of chronic kidney failure, with tubulointerstitial fibrosis playing a crucial role in disease development. Identifying fibrosis-related genes is crucial for improving diagnosis and developing novel therapies due to the necessity for early detection and effective treatments.

Methods: Genes associated with fibrosis were identified by WGCNA, and a FibrosisScore model was constructed based on ssGSEA scores from two DKD datasets.

Monitoring Abundance and Activity of Electrochemically Inactive Protein in a Single Cell by an Atomically Precise Metal Cluster-Based Electrochemical Sensor.

The analysis of tumor metastasis-associated proteins is of vital importance for monitoring tumor evolution and evaluating therapeutic outcomes of protein-targeted drugs. However, electrochemically analyzing both the abundance and activity of these electrochemically inactive proteins in single living cells remains an unresolved challenge. Here, we develop an electrochemical sensor composed of a nanoelectrode functionalized by atomically precise metal clusters with excellent electrocatalytic activity.

EphrinB2 Ameliorates Renal Fibrosis by Inhibiting the TGF-β/Smad3 Signaling Pathway and the Inflammation Response.

Background: EphrinB2 is known to play a variety of roles in the pathological process of fibrosis in the heart, skin, and retina, according to current research. However, the role of Ephrin- B2 in renal fibrosis remains to be clarified.

Objective: We aimed to investigate the role of EphrinB2 in the renal fibrosis model and its underlying mechanisms.

Ionizable lipid nanoparticles enhance lung delivery of gold nanoclusters for improving acute lung injury alleviation.

Acute lung injury (ALI) is one of the most common and highly prevailing respiratory system diseases. However, there is still a lack of effective specialized medicines for the treatment of ALI. Biocompatible gold nanoclusters (AuNCs) have shown great potential in alleviating ALI, but their lung-targeted delivery needs to be enhanced.

S1R mediates NRF2 dependent ferroptosis of renal tubular epithelial cells to promote renal fibrosis in diabetic nephropathy.

: Tubulointerstitial fibrosis is a key pathological aspect of diabetic nephropathy (DN) linked to reduced kidney function. Recent research has identified varied functions of the sigma-1 receptor (S1R) in the pathological fibrosis processes of cardiac, pulmonary, and trabecular meshwork tissues. Nonetheless, the specific roles of S1R in renal fibrosis remain inadequately understood.

Advances in precise synthesis of metal nanoclusters and their applications in electrochemical biosensing of disease biomarkers.

Metal nanoclusters (NCs), comprising tens to hundreds of metal atoms, are condensed matter with concrete molecular structures and discrete energy levels. Compared to metal atoms and nanoparticles, metal NCs exhibit unique physicochemical properties, especially fascinating electrocatalytic activities. This review focuses on recent progress in the precise synthesis of metal NCs and their applications in electrochemical analysis of various disease biomarkers.

Environmental Low-Dose Radiation Activates Th1 Immunity through the Mitochondria-STING Pathway.

The presence of low-dose radiation (LDR) in the environment has become more prevalent. However, the effect of LDR exposure on the immune system remains elusive. Here, we interestingly found that LDR specifically elevated the percentage of CD4IFNγ Th1 splenocytes, both in vitro and in vivo, without affecting the percentage of CD8IFNγ Tc1 cells and regulatory T cells.

Drug nanocrystals: Surface engineering and its applications in targeted delivery.

Drug nanocrystals have received significant attention in drug development due to their enhanced dissolution rate and improved water solubility, making them effective in overcoming issues related to drug hydrophobicity, thereby improving drug bioavailability and treatment effectiveness. Recent advances in preparation techniques have facilitated research on drug surface properties, leading to valuable surface engineering strategies. Surface modification can stabilize drug nanocrystals, making them suitable for versatile drug delivery platforms.

Disturbing microtubule-endoplasmic reticulum dynamics by gold nanoclusters for improved triple-negative breast cancer treatment.

Microtubules are highly dynamic structures, and their dynamic instability is indispensable for not only cell growth and movement, but also stress responses, such as endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress. Docetaxel, a microtubule targeting agent (MTA), is the first-line drug for cancer treatment by simultaneously promoting microtubule dysregulation- and ER stress-induced cell death. However, it also causes adverse effects and drug resistance, especially in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) with a poor prognosis and high mortality rate.

β-galactosidase instructed in situ self-assembly fluorogenic probe for prolonged and accurate imaging of ovarian tumor.

Fluorescent probes are essential for optical imaging and have been extensively employed for precise cancer diagnosis studies. β-galactosidase (β-gal) serves as a primary biomarker for ovarian cancer and has been utilized to develop imaging probes for accurate tumor diagnosis. However, traditional small molecular probes have limitations in terms of rapid diffusion and metabolic clearance from the target lesion, resulting in a short imaging window and compromised tumor-to-background ratios (TBR).

Induction of Non-Canonical Ferroptosis by Targeting Clusters Suppresses Glioblastoma.

Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is the most aggressive brain tumor. There is a pressing need to develop novel treatment strategies due to the poor targeting effect of current therapeutics. Here, a gold cluster coated with optimized GBM-targeting peptide is engineered, namely NA.

Site-Specific Cascade-Activatable Fluorogenic Nanomicelles Enable Precision and Accuracy Imaging of Pulmonary Metastatic Tumor.

The precise localization of metastatic tumors with subtle growth is crucial for timely intervention and improvement of tumor prognosis but remains a paramount challenging. To date, site-specific activation of fluorogenic probes for single-stimulus-based diagnosis typically targets an occult molecular event in a complex biosystem with limited specificity. Herein, we propose a highly specific site-specific cascade-activated strategy to enhance detection accuracy, aiming to achieve the accurate detection of breast cancer (BC) lung metastasis in a cascade manner.

A probe for NIR-II imaging and multimodal analysis of early Alzheimer's disease by targeting CTGF.

To date, earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is still challenging. Recent studies revealed the elevated expression of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) in AD brain is an upstream regulator of amyloid-beta (Aβ) plaque, thus CTGF could be an earlier diagnostic biomarker of AD than Aβ plaque. Herein, we develop a peptide-coated gold nanocluster that specifically targets CTGF with high affinity (KD ~ 21.

Organ-Targeted Ionizable Lipid Nanoparticles Facilitate Sequence-Activated Fluorogenic Probe for Precise Imaging of Inflammatory Liver Disease.

Activatable near-infrared (NIR) fluorogenic probes offer a potent tool for real-time, in situ detection of hepatic biomarkers, significantly advancing the precision in diagnosing inflammatory liver disease (ILD). However, the limited distribution of small molecule fluorogenic probes in the liver and their rapid clearance impair the accuracy of fluorescence imaging and in ILD diagnosis. In this study, an effective utilization of ionizable lipid nanoparticles (iLNPs) is presented as liver-targeted carriers for efficient delivery of fluorogenic probes, aiming to overcome biodistribution barriers and achieve accurate detection of hepatic biomarkers.

An Efficient Strategy for Constructing Fluorescent Nanoprobes for Prolonged and Accurate Tumor Imaging.

Activatable near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent probes possess advantages of high selectivity, sensitivity, and deep imaging depth, holding great potential in the early diagnosis and prognosis assessment of tumors. However, small-molecule fluorescent probes are largely limited due to the rapid diffusion and metabolic clearance of activated fluorophores . Herein, we propose an efficient and reproducible novel strategy to construct activatable fluorescent nanoprobes through bioorthogonal reactions and the strong gold-sulfur (Au-S) interactions to achieve an enhanced permeability and retention (EPR) effect, thereby achieving prolonged and high-contrast tumor imaging .

Enhancing Liver Delivery of Gold Nanoclusters via Human Serum Albumin Encapsulation for Autoimmune Hepatitis Alleviation.

Peptide-protected gold nanoclusters (AuNCs), possessing exceptional biocompatibility and remarkable physicochemical properties, have demonstrated intrinsic pharmaceutical activity in immunomodulation, making them a highly attractive frontier in the field of nanomedicine exploration. Autoimmune hepatitis (AIH) is a serious autoimmune liver disease caused by the disruption of immune balance, for which effective treatment options are still lacking. In this study, we initially identified glutathione (GSH)-protected AuNCs as a promising nanodrug candidate for AIH alleviating in a Concanavalin A (Con A)-induced mice model.

One-Base-Gap Circular Probe-Mediated Dual Amplification for Isothermal Detection of N-Methyladenosine Modifications.

N-Methyladenosine (mA) stands out as the predominant internal modification in mammalian RNA, exerting crucial regulatory functions in the metabolism of mRNA. Currently available methods have been limited by an inability to quantify mA modification at precise sites. In this work, we screened a Bst 2.

Visual genetic typing of glioma using proximity-anchored in situ spectral coding amplification.

Gliomas are histologically and genetically heterogeneous tumors. However, classical histopathological typing often ignores the high heterogeneity of tumors and thus cannot meet the requirements of precise pathological diagnosis. Here, proximity-anchored in situ spectral coding amplification (ProxISCA) is proposed for multiplexed imaging of RNA mutations, enabling visual typing of brain gliomas with different pathological grades at the single-cell and tissue levels.

Colon-Accumulated Gold Nanoclusters Alleviate Intestinal Inflammation and Prevent Secondary Colorectal Carcinogenesis via Nrf2-Dependent Macrophage Reprogramming.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is one of the main factors leading to colitis-associated colorectal cancer (CAC). Therefore, it is critical to develop an effective treatment for IBD to prevent secondary colorectal carcinogenesis. M2 macrophages play crucial roles in the resolution phase of intestinal inflammation.

The role of m6A methylation in prenatal maternal psychological distress and birth outcome.

Background: Prenatal maternal psychological distress (PMPD) is a known risk factor for adverse birth outcomes. N6-methyladenosine RNA (m6A) methylation is crucial in moderating RNA biology. This study aimed to evaluate the relationships between PMPD, birth outcomes, and placental m6A methylation.

Fabrication of modified electrode by reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and polyaniline (PANI) for enhancing azo dye decolorization in bio-electrochemical systems (BESs).

Bio-electrochemical systems (BESs) have attracted wide attention in the field of wastewater treatment owing to their fast electron transfer rate and high performance. Unfortunately, the low electro-chemical activity of carbonaceous materials commonly used in BESs remains a bottleneck for their practical applications. Especially, for refractory pollutants remediation, the efficiency is largely limited by the cathode property in term of (bio)-electrochemical reduction of highly oxidized functional groups.