L-arginine alleviates intervertebral disc degeneration by suppressing TRIB3/AKAP1-mediated Drp1 phosphorylation dysregulation and mitochondrial fragmentation.

Objective: To clarify therapeutic potential and underlying mechanism of L-arginine (L-arg) in intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD).

Design: Human nucleus pulposus (NP) samples (n=36) underwent metabolomics, L-arg quantification, and immunohistochemistry to characterize the relationship between L-arg metabolism and IDD severity. In vitro NP cell experiments integrated RNA-sequencing, Western blot, co-immunoprecipitation, and immunofluorescence colocalization to clarify the therapeutic effects and mechanism of L-arg.

Comparative clinical and imaging features of chronic nonspecific neck pain and degenerative cervical spondylosis: A retrospective propensity score-matched analysis.

Background: Cervical spine degeneration affects sagittal alignment, muscle morphology, intervertebral discs, and bone quality. Chronic nonspecific neck pain (CNSNP) may represent an early stage of degenerative cervical spondylosis (DCS), yet their differences remain unclear. This study intends to compare these features between CNSNP and DCS patients.

Catch me if you can: viral nucleic acids to host sensors.

The 2002 movie is a cat-and-mouse story in which Frank Abagnale Jr. successfully conned his way into several high-profile jobs while evading capture by FBI agent Carl Hanratty. Similarly, after entering host cells, viruses interact with or hijack host cellular machinery to replicate their genetical materials and assemble themselves for the next round of infection.

Projected spread models.

We present a disease transmission model that considers both explicit and non-explicit factors. This approach is crucial for accurate prediction and control of infectious disease spread. In this paper, we extend the spread model from our previous works (Ban et al.

Exploring the Potential Value of Modulation of Cell Death in Immunotherapy of Gynecological Tumors.

Cell death plays a pivotal role in a multitude of biological processes, including embryonic development, organ maintenance, aging, immune response, and autoimmunity. These processes are underpinned by distinct molecular mechanisms and have significant implications for biological systems. Currently, research on regulatory cell death (RCD) is primarily focused on apoptosis, necroptosis, pyroptosis, ferroptosis, cuproptosis, and autophagy.

Quinazoline Alkaloids for Plant Protection: Design, Synthesis, and Biological Evaluation of Novel Deoxyvasicinone Derivatives.

For many years, plant diseases brought about by viruses plus fungi have led to significant declines in crop yield as well as quality, highlighting the urgent need for the development of effective antiviral as well as fungicidal agents. Quinazolinone alkaloids have an important role in drug research and development (R&D). Herein, alkaloid deoxyvasicinone was chosen as the mother structure; deoxyvasicinone derivatives were designed, prepared, and evaluated for their antiviral and antifungal activities.

Low-frequency fiber-optic optoacoustic transducer arrays for large-area high-precision online non-destructive testing.

In Fiber-optic optoacoustic (FO-OA) non-destructive testing (NDT), expanding the ultrasonic detection range remains a critical challenge for large-area applications. While extending the detection range to larger scales necessitates addressing issues related to ultrasound intensity and propagation losses. Recent efforts have focused on enhancing ultrasound intensity, while methods to further extend the detection range by reducing ultrasound propagation losses are highly significant for ultrasonic NDT.

Identification of targetable vulnerabilities of PLK1-overexpressing cancers by synthetic dosage lethality.

Chromosomal instability (CIN) drives tumor heterogeneity, complicating cancer therapy. Although Polo-like kinase 1 (PLK1) overexpression induces CIN, direct inhibition of PLK1 has shown limited clinical benefits. We therefore performed a genome-wide synthetic dosage lethality (SDL) screen to identify effective alternative targets and validated over 100 candidates using in vivo and in vitro secondary CRISPR screens.

A novel role for Neurog2 in MYCN driven neuroendocrine plasticity of prostate cancer.

Neuroendocrine prostate cancer (NEPC) presents a formidable clinical challenge owing to its aggressive progression and resistance to conventional therapies. A key driver of NEPC is the overexpression of MYCN, a well-established oncogene associated with neuroendocrine tumors. However, efforts to directly inhibit the N-Myc protein encoded by this gene have resulted in limited success, thereby hindering therapeutic advancements.

The effect of a water-soluble β-glucan on intestinal immunity and microbiota in LPS-challenged piglets.

The intestine is the largest immune and barrier organ in the body, and diarrhea and even death during piglet development are related to dysfunction caused by intestinal barrier damage and inflammation. A water-soluble β-glucan produced by Agrobacterium ZX09 has been shown to have a beneficial effect on gastrointestinal health. The main objective of this study was to investigate whether pre-feeding β-glucan has a protective effect on LPS-induced immune stress in piglets.

Effects of peroxidized lipids on intestinal morphology, antioxidant capacity and gut microbiome in piglets.

This study investigated the effect of peroxidized lipids on piglets' growth performance, intestinal morphology, inflammatory reactions, oxidative stress in the liver, duodenum, jejunum, ileum, and colon, and ileal microbiota. Twenty piglets (Duroc × [Landrace × Yorkshire]; age = 21 d old, BW = 6.5 ± 1 kg) were randomly assigned to two groups with 10 replicates per group and one piglet per replicate.

Effect of Different Ratios of α-Lactalbumin to β-Casein in Infant Formula on True Ileal Digestibility and Intestinal Morphology of Suckling Piglets.

Breast milk (BM) is the optimal nutrition source for infants, providing highly digestible proteins. In contrast, the digestibility of proteins in infant formula (IF) varies, influenced by differences in proteins such as α-lactalbumin (α-La) and β-casein (β-CN). This study aimed to evaluate the true ileal digestibility (TID) of amino acids (AAs) in BM and IF with varying α-La and β-CN contents using neonatal piglets.

GLS1-mediated glutamine metabolism mitigates oxidative stress-induced matrix degradation, ferroptosis, and senescence in nucleus pulposus cells by modulating Fe homeostasis.

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is intricately linked to the pathogenesis of low back pain (LBP). The balance of nucleus pulposus (NP) cell and intervertebral disc (IVD) integrity is significantly supported by amino acid metabolism within an avascular milieu. However, the specific metabolic demands during the progression of IDD are not fully understood.

Multi-resonance emitters with room-temperature phosphorescence in amorphous state and excited by visible light.

Unlike boron, nitrogen-containing multi-resonance emitters with thermally activated delayed fluorescence, here we report boron, sulfur (B, S)-based multi-resonance emitters with room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) by inserting thiophene into a 5,9-dithia-13-boranaphtho[3,2,1-]anthracene skeleton that simultaneously realizes large singlet-triplet energy splitting and strong spin-orbital coupling, leading to efficient room-temperature phosphorescence in an amorphous state. Unlike most RTP emitters with ultraviolet excitation, the multi-resonance RTP emitters exhibit strong phosphorescence under daily-use blue/white LED lamps owing to their intense absorption in the visible-light region (400-486 nm). Meanwhile, such RTP behavior can be tuned by the number and fusing pattern of the thiophene moieties, with the emitters containing thiophene linked to boron atoms α-positions exhibiting bathochromatically shifted emissions and longer phosphorescence lifetimes (47.

The muscle-intervertebral disc interaction mediated by L-BAIBA modulates extracellular matrix homeostasis and PANoptosis in nucleus pulposus cells.

Upon engaging in physical activity, skeletal muscle synthesizes myokines, which not only facilitate crosstalk with various organs, including the brain, adipose tissue, bone, liver, gut, pancreas, and skin but also promote intramuscular signaling. Crosstalk is vital for maintaining various physiological processes. However, the specific interactions between skeletal muscle and intervertebral discs remain largely unexplored.

Cervical facet joint degeneration, facet joint angle, and paraspinal muscle degeneration are correlated with degenerative cervical spondylolisthesis at C4/5: a propensity score-matched study.

Background Context: Prior studies have hypothesized that degenerative cervical spondylolisthesis (DCS) may be influenced by loss of stability due to disc, facet joint or cervical alignment. Meanwhile, it is commonly believed that the facet joints and paraspinal muscles participate in maintaining cervical spine stability. However, the impact of paraspinal muscle morphology and detailed facet joint features on DCS requires further investigation.

Event-based asynchronous HDR imaging by temporal incident light modulation.

Dynamic range (DR) is a pivotal characteristic of imaging systems. Current frame-based cameras struggle to achieve high dynamic range imaging due to the conflict between globally uniform exposure and spatially variant scene illumination. In this paper, we propose AsynHDR, a pixel-asynchronous HDR imaging system, based on key insights into the challenges in HDR imaging and the unique event-generating mechanism of dynamic vision sensors (DVS).

IL-2-free tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy with PD-1 blockade demonstrates potent efficacy in advanced gynecologic cancer.

Background: Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy has been restricted by intensive lymphodepletion and high-dose intravenous interleukin-2 (IL-2) administration. To address these limitations, we conducted preclinical and clinical studies to evaluate the safety, antitumor activity, and pharmacokinetics of an innovative modified regimen in patients with advanced gynecologic cancer.

Methods: Patient-derived xenografts (PDX) were established from a local recurrent cervical cancer patient.

Umbilical cord blood-derived neutrophils possess higher viability than peripheral blood derived neutrophils.

Neutrophils, a primary type of immune cell, play critical roles in numerous biological processes. Both umbilical cord blood (UCB) and peripheral blood are rich in neutrophils. UCB is more abundant than peripheral blood, with cells generally at a more immature stage.

Purification and biochemical characterization of the G4 resolvase and DNA helicase FANCJ.

G-quadruplex (G4) DNA or RNA poses a unique nucleic acid structure in genomic transactions. Because of the unique topology presented by G4, cells have exquisite mechanisms and pathways to metabolize G4 that arise in guanine-rich regions of the genome such as telomeres, promoter regions, ribosomal DNA, and other chromosomal elements. G4 resolvases are often represented by a class of molecular motors known as helicases that disrupt the Hoogsteen hydrogen bonds in G4 by harnessing the chemical energy of nucleoside triphosphate hydrolysis.

Glutamine Mitigates Oxidative Stress-Induced Matrix Degradation, Ferroptosis, and Pyroptosis in Nucleus Pulposus Cells via Deubiquitinating and Stabilizing Nrf2.

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is closely related to low back pain, which is a prevalent age-related problem worldwide; however, the mechanism underlying IDD is unknown. Glutamine, a free amino acid prevalent in plasma, is recognized for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties in various diseases, and the current study aims to clarify the effect and mechanism of glutamine in IDD. A synergistic interplay was observed between pyroptosis and ferroptosis within degenerated human disc specimens.

Novel Risk Factors for Cervical Facet Joint Degeneration in the Subaxial Cervical Spine: Correlation with Cervical Sagittal Alignment and Bone Mineral Density.

Objective: The impact of cervical sagittal alignment on cervical facet joint degeneration (CFD) and the risk factors for CFD in patients with degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) were investigated in the current study.

Methods: A total of 250 surgical patients with DCM were recruited. The clinical data and radiographical characteristics, including CFD, cervical sagittal balance parameters, Hounsfield unit (HU) values, disc degeneration (DD), and modic change, were collected.

DDX41: exploring the roles of a versatile helicase.

DDX41 is a DEAD-box helicase and is conserved across species. Mutations in DDX41 have been associated with myeloid neoplasms, including myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia. Though its pathogenesis is not completely known, DDX41 has been shown to have many cellular roles, including in pre-mRNA splicing, innate immune sensing, ribosome biogenesis, translational regulation, and R-loop metabolism.

Structural distortion-induced monoclinic sodium iron hexacyanoferrate as a high-performance electrode for rocking-chair desalination batteries.

Sodium iron hexacyanoferrate (NaFeHCF) has been recognized as a promising Prussian blue analogue (PBA)-based electrode for electrochemical desalination; however, its application potential is limited by its unsatisfactory desalination capacity and cycling stability. Herein, the structurally distorted high-quality monoclinic NaFeHCF with fewer defects in the framework was synthesized by a crystal-controlled coprecipitation method tuning the crystallization reaction conditions and applied to seawater desalination. Physicochemical characterization and desalination experiments show that the NFHFC-2 with minimized defects possesses enhanced electrochemical activity of Fe and electrochemical kinetics, thus achieving higher desalination performance (specific capacity of 75.

Improving gut functions and egg nutrition with stevia residue in laying hens.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of stevia residue (STER) on the production performance, egg quality and nutrition, antioxidant ability, immune responses, gut morphology and microbiota of laying hens during the peak laying period. A total of 270 Yikoujingfen NO. 8 laying hens (35 wk of age) were randomly divided into 5 treatments.