Prototheca wickerhamii Causing Toe Infection Presenting Initially as Gouty Arthritis: A Rare Case Report.

Prototheca, a genus of opportunistic pathogenic microalgae, can cause protothecosis in humans and animals, manifesting as cutaneous lesions or disseminated/systemic infections. This report describes a rare case of Prototheca wickerhamii toe infection in a 78-year-old Chinese male, presenting initially as gouty arthritis. The patient, who worked in fish farming with frequent water exposure, had a history of herpes zoster and hypertension.

Exploring why adolescents of disadvantaged family socio-economic status were more depressed than others: Serial mediations via personal psychological resources, loneliness, and school refusal functions.

Background: Disadvantageous family socio-economic status (DFSES) is a potential source of disparity in adolescent mental health. This study investigated the association between DFSES and probable depression and its mediation mechanisms via personal psychological resources (hope and resilience), loneliness, and school refusal functions.

Methods: A school-based anonymous survey was conducted among 8285 middle school students in China from February to March 2022; the response/eligible rate was 98.

Endogenous YAP/TAZ partitioning in TEAD condensates orchestrates the Hippo response.

YAP/TAZ are transcriptional co-activators that pair with transcription factor TEA/ATTS domains (TEADs) for modulating the Hippo pathway. Previous works propose the potential role of YAP/TAZ phase separation for transcriptional activation, yet the biomolecular basis of endogenous YAP/TAZ-TEAD condensates remains unclear. Here, we dissect their endogenous morphology, revealing that YAP/TAZ are client proteins recruited to TEAD condensates in various human cell lines.

Transcranial ultrasound localization microscopy of the rat brain with ray theory-based aberration correction.

Transcranial ultrasound localization microscopy (t-ULM) is faced with challenges posed by the skull, including acoustic attenuation and phase aberrations. There is a significant request for an efficient aberration correction method achieving a great balance between computational complexity and accuracy. In this study, the ray theory is first applied to in-vivo transcranial imaging to calculate the traveltime table in the inhomogeneous medium model of the imaging region.

Longitudinal trends in HIV/AIDS adults aged over 60 years: A multidimensional decomposition with global and regional comparisons, 1990-2021.

Background: Antiretroviral therapy has extended the lifespan of HIV/ADIS. However, research and policies mainly target younger groups, leaving gaps in the care for aging people living with HIV (PLHIV).

Methods: Using data from the 2021 Global Burden of Disease Study, this research evaluated the global, regional, and national burdens of HIV/AIDS in adults aged 60 and above from 1990 to 2021.

Decoding coal-induced pulmonary endothelial injury using single-cell omics.

Pulmonary endothelial injury is a critical factor in the pathogenesis and progression of coal pneumoconiosis. However, the precise mechanisms underlying this injury remain poorly understood. To address this, we established a coal pneumoconiosis mouse model by chronic intranasal coal dust exposure over 9 months.

Immunological heterogeneity in Ménière's disease: CD4+ T cell subset profiling reveals three distinct Immunophenotypes.

Background: Ménière's disease (MD) remains a heterogeneous disorder with unclear pathogenesis. While immune dysregulation has been implicated, the specific role of CD4+ T cell subsets and their clinical correlations in MD are poorly understood.

Methods: We performed comprehensive immune profiling of 30 MD patients and 27 healthy controls using flow cytometry to analyze six CD4+ T cell subsets (Th1, Th2, Th17, Treg, TGF-β+, TNF-α+) and multiplex cytokine analysis of 16 inflammatory mediators plus IgE.

Association of the PWWP-domain protein HUA2 and the H3K36 methylation in flowering time control.

Trimethylation of histone H3 at lys36 (H3K36me3) promotes gene transcription and governs plant development and plant responses to environmental cues. Yet, how H3K36me3 is translated into specific downstream events remains largely uninvestigated. Here, we report that the Arabidopsis PWWP-domain protein HUA2 binds methyl-H3K36 in a PWWP motif-dependent manner.

Obesity hinders the efficacy of adipose-derived stem cells for knee osteoarthritis by reducing the proportion of DPP4+ stem cells.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most prevalent and disabling joint disease, while adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) have emerged as a promising therapeutic option in pre-clinical studies. However, the therapeutic efficacy of ASCs may be influenced by the source of these cells, especially in obese patients. This study compared the effects of intra-articular injections of ASCs from wild-type (WT) and ob/ob (OB) mice.

Performance comparison of germline variant calling tools in sporadic disease cohorts.

Accurate variant calling is essential for next-generation sequencing (NGS)-based diagnosis of rare diseases, yet most benchmarking studies have focused on standard cell lines or trio-based samples, with limited relevance to sporadic cases. Here, we systematically compared the performance of DeepVariant and GATK HaplotypeCaller in two Chinese cohorts of patients with sporadic epilepsy (EP) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). DeepVariant exhibited higher precision and sensitivity in detecting single nucleotide variants (SNVs), while GATK showed a distinct advantage in identifying rare variants, which are often key to understanding the genetic basis of rare diseases.

A cohort of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for pediatric rare diseases (allo-HSCT-PRD): design and preliminary results.

Rare diseases in children have attracted widespread attention worldwide due to their rarity and difficulty in diagnosis and treatment. Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is emerging as a promising and curable therapy for multiple rare diseases. However, rare disease research in China is relatively backward, prompting us to construct the first cohort of allo-HSCT for pediatric rare diseases (allo-HSCT-PRD) involving those who underwent allo-HSCT at the Children's Hospital of Fudan University from 1 January 2014 to 31 October 2024.

Zwitterionic Sulfadiazine-Based Micelle Achieves Effective Drug Delivery to Glioblastoma by Overcoming Multiple Biological Barriers.

Multiple biological barriers severely restrict the delivery efficiency of nanoparticles (NPs) to tumors. To overcome biological barriers, traditional NPs usually require a complex design, which increases the difficulty of clinical translation. Therefore, there appears to be a dilemma between the complex biological barriers and clinical requirement for a simple molecular structure of NPs.

Chronically Stable, High-Resolution Micro-Electrocorticographic Brain-Computer Interfaces for Real-Time Motor Decoding.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) enable communication between individuals and computers or other assistive devices by decoding brain activity, thereby reconstructing speech and motor functions for patients with neurological disorders. This study presents a high-resolution micro-electrocorticography (µECoG) BCI based on a flexible, high-density µECoG electrode array, capable of chronically stable and real-time motor decoding. Leveraging micro-nano manufacturing technology, the µECoG BCI achieves a 64-fold increase in electrode density compared to conventional clinical electrode arrays, enhancing spatial resolution while featuring scalability.

Treatment of Acquired Dermal Macular Hyperpigmentation With Oral Isotretinoin: A Multi-Institutional Retrospective Study of 121 Cases.

The term acquired dermal macular hyperpigmentation (ADMH) was introduced to unify Riehl's melanosis (RM), lichen planus pigmentosus (LPP), and related entities. These are cosmetically distressing pigmentary disorders that pose therapeutic challenges. To investigate the efficacy and safety of oral isotretinoin in treating ADMH, we conducted a muticenter retrospective study of patients with ADMH treated with oral isotretinoin between 2014 and 2024.

Estrogen receptor beta in lateral habenula mediates antidepressant effects of estrogen in postpartum-hormone-withdrawal-induced depression.

Dramatic drop in reproductive hormone, especially estrogen level, from pregnancy to postpartum period is known to contribute to postpartum depression (PPD), but the underlying mechanism and the role of the estrogen receptors (ERs) in this process were unclear. Here, we used an estrogen-withdrawal-induced PPD model following hormone simulated pregnancy (HSP) in female Sprague-Dawley rats to induce depressive-like behaviors. After estrogen withdrawal, we observe an up-regulation of astrocyte-specific potassium channel (Kir4.

Impulsivity and neuroticism share distinct functional connectivity signatures with alcohol-use risk in youth.

Increases in impulsivity and negative affect (e.g., neuroticism) are common during adolescence and are both associated with risk for alcohol-use initiation and other risk behaviors.

Water-insensitive down-shifting nanoparticles for sensitive biosensing.

Conventional optical probes suffer from signal degradation in aqueous media, hindering sensitive biodetection. To overcome this, newly developed water-insensitive down-shifting nanoparticles (WINPs) possess superior photophysical properties in the NIR-I window, including high quantum yield and negligible thermal effects, permitting stable, high-contrast signal generation under low excitation power. This advantage facilitated a low-power lateral flow assay capable of highly sensitive avian influenza virus (AIV) detection in the opaque biological matrices (such as avian swabs), mitigating interference issues relying on visible-range signals.

Gut microbial production of imidazole propionate drives Parkinson's pathologies.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by the selective degeneration of midbrain dopaminergic neurons and aggregation of α-synuclein. Emerging evidence implicates the gut microbiome in PD, with microbial metabolites proposed as potential pathological mediators. However, the specific microbes and metabolites involved, and whether gut-derived metabolites can reach the brain to directly induce neurodegeneration, remain unclear.

Model-Informed Precision Dosing of Vancomycin in Chinese Adult Patients Receiving Renal Replacement Therapy: Systematic Evaluation of Published Pharmacokinetic Models and Dosing Regimen Simulations.

Objectives: The pharmacokinetics of renally cleared vancomycin are significantly altered in critically ill patients undergoing renal replacement therapy (RRT), affecting the achievement of therapeutic targets. We evaluated the predictive performance of RRT patient-based PopPK models for model-informed precision dosing and subsequently simulated optimal dosing regimens for this population.

Methods: Six adult PopPK models were systematically identified and evaluated using a dataset of 226 concentrations from 23 adult patients on RRT from two study centers.

DMBT1 promotes SARS-CoV-2 infection and its SRCR-derived peptide inhibits SARS-CoV-2 infection.

DMBT1 is a large scavenger receptor cysteine rich (SRCR) B protein that has been reported as a tumor suppressor gene and a co-receptor for HIV-1 infection. Here we found DMBT1 is a major mucosal protein bound to SARS-CoV-2. Overexpression of DMBT1 in 293T cells may enhanced infection by SARS-CoV-2 in ACE2 dependent manner.

KPNA2 Expression as a Biomarker for Immunosuppressive Microenvironment Predicting Response to TKI and Immunotherapy in Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Background: Immunotherapy (IO) combined with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) are now first-line therapy for advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), though reliable predictive biomarkers remain elusive. Recent evidence demonstrates that karyopherin α2 subunit (KPNA2), a nuclear transport regulator, plays key roles in tumorigenesis and therapy resistance.

Methods: Two cohorts were analyzed: an institutional cohort of metastatic RCC patients (ZS-MRCC) and the phase III JAVELIN Renal 101 trial cohort.

Sex differences in social anxiety: A longitudinal serial mediation via perceived stress and resilience among adolescents in China.

Background: Adolescent social anxiety is consequential. There is a substantial sex difference in the prevalence. Yet, the underlying mechanisms are almost unknown; no longitudinal studies have investigated this topic.

Acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain family member 4 (ACSL4)-targeting fluorescent probes for precision intraoperative visualization of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Purpose: This study aims to develop and validate a novel ACSL4-targeted fluorescent probe to enhance intraoperative visualization of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), emphasizing its binding affinity, specificity, and clinical applicability.

Methods: Transcriptomic sequencing data from TCGA, ICGC, CPTAC, and GSE25097 were analyzed to establish ACSL4 as a viable target for tumor visualization. An ACSL4-specific binding peptide (ABP) was identified using a combination of in vivo and in vitro phage display screening.

Blue light pollution induces dry eye by damaging conjunctival stem cells through cAMP-PKA-Pax6 signaling pathway.

Purpose: Blue light exposure constitutes a risk factor for dry eye. The research explores the influence of conjunctival stem cells (CjSCs) by blue light, elucidating the pathogenesis of blue light-induced dry eye.

Materials And Methods: Primary SD rat CjSCs and rats were irradiated with blue light at 460 nm.

Consensus statement on the multidisciplinary treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma with immune checkpoint inhibitors in China.

Introduction: This study aims to establish a multidisciplinary consensus on the treatment of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) in China, with a particular focus on the guidelines for the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) to ensure scientific and rational treatment protocols.

Methods: The consensus was formulated based on the 'guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of NPC (2024 edition)' issued by the Chinese Society of Clinical Oncology. The Delphi method was used to collect and consolidate expert opinions.