Early boosting of p38 MAPK signaling pathway by lycorine hydrochloride potently inhibits PRRSV proliferation in primary and established cells.

Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) has caused tremendous economic losses in the swine industry since emerging in the late 1980s. Although vaccination has been widely used to control PRRS epidemics in Chinese pig farms, they provided limited protection against PRRSV transmission; moreover, no effective therapeutic drugs are available. Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop novel antiviral strategies to control PRRSV epidemics.

Macrophage cannibalism: efferocytosis in atherosclerosis.

Purpose Of Review: This review explores the evolving understanding of efferocytosis - the clearance of dead or dying cells by phagocytes - in the context of atherosclerosis. It highlights recent discovers in cell death modalities, impaired clearance mechanisms and emerging therapeutic strategies aimed at restoring efferocytosis to stabilize plaques and resolve inflammation.

Recent Findings: Recent studies have expanded the scope of efferocytosis beyond apoptotic cells to include other pro-inflammatory cell death modes, including pyroptosis, necroptosis and ferroptosis, revealing context-dependent clearance efficiency and immunological outcomes.

Small organic ligands for the ecdysone receptor - agrochemicals, gene switches, and beyond.

While pesticides are essential for the world to meet its increasing demand for food, off-target toxicity in humans and other species is an ongoing environmental issue. There is a strong motivation for developing more selective pesticides that can target pest insects, for example, while being benign for beneficial insects such as bees, and other nontarget species more generally. The ecdysone receptor is absent in vertebrates so constitutes a very useful target for green insecticides.

Design of Surfactant Molecules Under Performance Constraints.

The industrial applications of surfactant solutions are both numerous and extremely diverse, demonstrating the importance of these systems in everyday life and driving the need for a systematic approach to designing sustainable surfactant molecules adapted to the specific requirements of each application. Given the very large space of possible molecules, the identification of candidate surfactants that achieve a balance between the optimal physicochemical properties of the product and minimal environmental and health impacts is extremely challenging. In this work, a formulation and solution framework based on Computer-Aided Molecular Design is proposed for surfactant design.

NINJ1 oligomerises on large apoptotic cell-derived extracellular vesicles to regulate vesicle stability and cellular content release.

Billions of cells undergo apoptosis, a non-inflammatory form of programmed cell death, daily as part of normal development and homeostasis. Apoptotic cells undergo apoptotic cell disassembly to release large extracellular vesicles (EVs) called apoptotic bodies (ApoBDs) to promote dead cell clearance, or otherwise proceed to an inflammatory, lytic outcome (i.e.

Molecular basis of potent antiviral HLA-C-restricted CD8 T cell response to an immunodominant SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid epitope.

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern (VOC) is a major clinical threat; however, VOC remain susceptible to cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) recognition. Therefore, it is crucial to identify potent CTL responses targeting conserved epitopes across VOCs. Here, we demonstrate that the nucleocapsid (N) protein induces efficient CTL responses in early pandemic COVID-19 convalescent donors.

Ortho-Carborane-Supported Hypervalent Iodine(III) Reagents: A Scaffold for Enhanced Oxidative Capability.

The first C-bound ortho-carborane (oCb) supported hypervalent iodine(III) -IL type species are reported in RoCb-IL, for L = F and OTf, including two structurally verified -IF examples. Initial synthetic observations and supporting theoretical calculations suggest that the new oCb-IL type compounds will be more reactive than any known Ar-IL compound. This is exemplified by a previously unobserved oxidative demethylation of trimethylsilyl fluoride, suggesting that many substrates unreactive toward Ar-IL could be susceptible to oxidation by oCb-IL.

Mechanistic elucidation of enzymatic -glycosylation: facilitation by proton transfer to UDP-glucose.

-Glycosyltransferases have garnered attention owing to their ability to synthesize -glycosides with high conversion and selectivity in one-pot reactions. Their potential in rational enzyme engineering makes them valuable for the synthesis of diverse -glycosides. However, the detailed reaction mechanism remains unclear.

Intermittent fasting reprograms the brain proteome to prevent synaptic degeneration and cognitive impairment in vascular dementia.

Vascular dementia (VaD), driven by chronic cerebral hypoperfusion (CCH), leads to synaptic degeneration and cognitive decline, yet mechanisms linking vascular dysfunction to synaptic loss remain unclear. Intermittent fasting (IF) has emerged as a potential intervention, but its effects on synaptic integrity in VaD are unknown. This study aims to investigate the effects of IF against synaptic degeneration and cognitive impairment induced by CCH.

Probing defect formation in sulfur-annealed graphene for TMDC integration.

The integration of graphene with other 2D materials has been extensively studied over the past decade to realize high-performance devices unattainable with single materials. Graphene-transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) such as MoS, WS, MoSe, and WSe vertical heterostructures have demonstrated promise in numerous electronic and optoelectronic applications due to the wide bandgap range and strong light-matter interaction in TMDCs, and the ability to form electrostatically tunable junctions with graphene. However, conventional methods for TMDCs growth, including chemical vapor deposition (CVD), electrodeposition, and atomic layer deposition (ALD), require high temperatures, which can degrade graphene's electrical and structural properties.

On the Role of Spin-Orbit Coupling and State-Crossing Topography in the Nonradiative Decay of Ir(III) Complexes.

A pillar of our current understanding of the photoluminescence of Ir(III) complexes is the assumption that the population of triplet metal-centered states determines an efficient nonradiative decay to the ground state minimum. Based on that assumption, the energy separation between the emitting state and the minimum-energy crossing point of the triplet metal-centered and ground states has been employed as a key variable for evaluating the ability of Ir(III) complexes to decay nonradiatively. We demonstrate that the strong spin-orbit coupling between the triplet metal-centered and ground state of Ir(III) complexes, together with the sloped topography of their crossing, leads to a significant energy separation between the two states, resulting in a reduced rate of nonradiative ground state recovery.

Impact of Surface Biofouling on Controlled Drug Release from Conductive Polymer Films and Its Mitigation Using Lubricin (Proteoglycan 4) Antifouling Coatings.

Drug delivery platforms are frequently susceptible to nonspecific adsorption of biological materials upon contact with biological fluids that can interfere with the controlled release of drugs, affecting both the rate and amount of drug released. To improve the controlled release efficiency of drugs within biological environments, lubricin (also known as PRG4) antifouling coatings were applied to control the release of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) films doped with the model drug phenol red. Drug release experiments comparing uncoated and lubricin-coated PEDOT were performed in nonfouling PBS buffer to assess the impact of lubricin coating on the release of drug from the films, while identical experiments were performed in concentrated solutions of highly fouling proteins to investigate lubricin's capacity to mitigate the effects of surface biofouling on the drug release properties.

Accessing Metal-Containing Species in Tin-Lead Perovskite Precursor Solutions via Molecular Strategies Guided by the Hard-Soft Acid-Base Principle.

The properties of metal-centred species in metal halide perovskite precursor solutions substantially influence the formation and evolution of colloidal particles, which in turn dictate the crystallisation process and the film quality. In this work, we assess the "hard" and "soft" Lewis acid characteristics of Sn and Pb cations as a strategy to modulate the chemical environment of these metal-containing species in mixed-metal tin-lead perovskite precursor solutions. We observe enhanced simultaneous access to both metal centres upon adding compounds with functional groups suggested by the hard-soft acid-base principle.

Pyridocarbene-Based Tetradentate Pt(II) Complexes for Long Device Lifetime over 500 h in Blue Phosphorescent Organic Light-Emitting Diodes.

Blue phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes (PhOLEDs) face challenges in achieving high efficiency, color purity, and long device lifetime due to exciton quenching and high energy requirements. In this study, two tetradentate Pt(II) complexes, Pt-impy and Pt-Me-impy, are designed and synthesized by incorporating pyridocarbene in their ligands. Pyridocarbene enhances the electrochemical stability, strengthens triplet metal-to-ligand charge transfer characteristics, and improves the spin-orbit coupling, effectively shortening the exciton lifetime and minimizing the quenching effects.

Temporal and Sex-Dependent -Glycosylation Dynamics in Rat Serum.

We conducted systematic glycomic and glycoproteomic profiling to characterize the dynamic -glycosylation landscape of rat serum, with particular focus on sex- and time-dependent variations. MALDI-TOF-MS analysis revealed that rat serum -glycans are predominantly biantennary, disialylated complex-type structures with extensive -acetylation of Neu5Ac residues, especially in females. LC-MS/MS-based glycoproteomic analysis of albumin/IgG-depleted serum identified 87 glycoproteins enriched in protease inhibitors (e.

Discovery of a New Type of Terpene Synthase Coded by an Orphan Gene in a Giant Virus.

Giant viruses are mysterious entities that exist at the boundary between living and nonliving matters. One of the major mysteries surrounding the giant viruses is the function of their genes. Many of these genes are orphan genes, meaning their homologs cannot be found in other taxa, making it difficult to predict their functions.

In Situ Interface Reaction Enables Efficient Deep-Blue Perovskite Light-Emitting Diodes.

The development of blue perovskite light-emitting diodes (PeLEDs) is critical for advancing next-generation display technologies. However, the fabrication of high-quality mixed-halide blue perovskites remains challenging due to their intrinsic vulnerability to high defect densities, ion migration, and inefficient charge transport. To address this, we introduce a rapid in situ interface reaction at the buried interface between the perovskite layer and the underlying poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS) film.

Hormesis and brain diseases.

Hormesis, the concept that low doses of potentially harmful stressors can elicit adaptive, beneficial effects, plays a significant role in brain health and aging. Neurohormesis refers to the adaptive response of neurons to mild stress, activating pathways that enhance cellular repair. As the brain ages, it experiences disruptions in energy metabolism, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and chronic inflammation, all of which contribute to neurodegenerative diseases like stroke, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis (MS).

Fluorine position-dependent ionization dynamics and structural distortion in 2,3-difluoropyridine: a VUV-MATI and theoretical study.

Pyridine derivatives are integral to fields such as organic chemistry, materials science, and pharmaceuticals owing to their distinct electronic and structural properties. While fluorine substitution on the pyridine ring is known to modulate these properties, the specific effects of fluorine positioning-particularly at the and positions-on the molecular orbitals, ionization energies, and cationic structures remain insufficiently understood. In this study, we investigate the ionization-induced structural dynamics of 2,3-difluoropyridine (2,3-DFP), which incorporates both - and -fluorine substituents, using high-resolution vacuum ultraviolet mass-analyzed threshold ionization (VUV-MATI) spectroscopy in conjunction with Franck-Condon (FC) simulations and natural bond orbital analysis.

Direct Observation of the Exciton-Polaron in Single CsPbBr Quantum Dots.

The Outstanding optoelectronic properties of lead halide perovskites have been related to the formation of polarons. Nevertheless, the observation of the atomistic deformation brought about by one electron-hole pair in these materials has remained elusive. Here, we measure the transient structure of single CsPbBr quantum dots (QDs) after resonant excitation in the single exciton limit using serial femtosecond crystallography (SFX).

A cytokine-based designer enzyme with an abiological multinuclear metal center exhibits intrinsic and extrinsic catalysis.

A designer enzyme consisting of an abiological molecule incorporated into a natural protein has been developed as an exceptionally chemoselective catalyst, highlighting that the internal space of proteins is highly beneficial for enhancing catalytic performance. However, other features of proteins have received less attention in designer enzymes, for e.g.

Zebrafish Models of Induced Lymphangiogenesis: Current Advancements and Therapeutic Discovery.

Lymphangiogenesis, the formation of new lymphatic vessels, is essential for embryonic development and the maintenance of tissue fluid balance, as well as for responding to physiological challenges such as injury, inflammation, and oedema. This process is also aberrantly activated in pathological conditions including lymphatic anomalies and cancer. Understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms regulating induced lymphangiogenesis in various conditions is critical for the development of novel anti- or pro-lymphangiogenic therapeutic strategies.

Isolation and characterisation of Klebsiella pneumoniae bacteriophages vB_Kpn_Lilla1 and vB_Kpn_Lilla2.

Klebsiella pneumoniae is an opportunistic pathogen that is commonly associated with pulmonary infections. It is of particular concern due to its increasing resistance to antibiotics, particularly carbapenem. Alternative treatments for these bacterial infections are required, and phage application is an attractive option.

Chiral Metallic DM-EDT-TTF Radical Cation Salts: Anion Size-Dependent Structural and Electronic Transitions, Charge Ordering, and Chirality-Induced Spin Selectivity.

Both enantiomers () and () of the chiral mixed-valence radical cation salts (DM-EDT-TTF)XO (X = Cl or Re) have been prepared by electrocrystallization. Single-crystal high-quality synchrotron radiation data allowed for the very accurate determination of their 298 and 18 K structures. At room temperature, they crystallize in the enantiomorphic space groups 22 and 22 for the () and () enantiomers, respectively, while at 18 K, the structures have been solved in the and space groups, respectively.

A Scalable Synthetic Approach for Producing Homogeneous, Large Area 2D Highly Conductive Polymers.

The development of 2D materials is rapidly advancing beyond traditional graphene and metal oxides and into new functional organic materials including conducting polymers (CPs). Synthesizing 2D-CPs, typically achieved by polymerizing within a highly confined space (e.g.