Beyond the Amyloid Core: Modulation of Aggregate Conformational Diversity by Mutations in the Noncore Regions.

Emerging evidence underscores the regulatory roles of nonamyloidogenic regions in controlling the aggregation dynamics and cytotoxicity of amyloidal proteins, but the mechanism remains unclear. Herein we investigated how flanking sequences modulate the conformational heterogeneity in the p53 238-262 amyloid segment using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). By comparing the wild-type (wt) and three pathogenic mutations (R248W, R248Q, R249S) in the noncore regions, we reveal that flanking alterations remodel β-sheet aggregates and induce conformational plasticity in β-strand ensembles through the generation of novel conformational substates and selective elimination of existing conformational substates.

[Forty years of construction and innovative development of scientific regulation system of traditional Chinese medicine in China].

Since the promulgation of the first Drug Administration Law of the People's Republic of China 40 years ago in 1984, China has undergone four main stages in the traditional Chinese medicine(TCM) regulation: the initial establishment of TCM regulation rules(1984-1997), the formation of a modern TCM regulatory system(1998-2014), the reform of the review and approval system for new TCM drugs(2015-2018), and the construction of a scientific regulation system for TCM(2019-2024). Over the past five years, a series of milestone achievements of TCM regulation in China have been achieved in the six aspects, including its strategic objectives and the establishment of a science-based regulatory system, the reform of the review and approval system for new TCM drugs, the optimization and improvement of the TCM standard system and its formation mechanism, comprehensive enhancement of regulatory capabilities for TCM safety, international harmonization of TCM regulation and its role in promoting innovation. Looking ahead, centered on advancing TCMRS to establish a sound regulatory framework tailored to the unique characteristics of TCM, TCM regulation will evolve into new reform patterns, advancing and extending across eight critical fronts, including the legal framework and policy architecture, the review and approval system for new TCM drugs, the quality standard and management system of TCM, the comprehensive quality & safety regulation and traceability system, the research and transformation system for TCMRS, AI-driven innovations in TCM regulation, the coordination between high-quality industrial development and high-level regulation, and the leadership in international cooperation and regulatory harmonization.

Silencing AsLBD38 enhances nitrogen metabolism by repressing AsNRT2.4 in oat (Avena sativa L.) with mesoporous silica nanoparticle delivery systems.

Nitrogen(N) represents an essential macronutrient that fundamentally governs plant growth and development, while nitrogen use efficiency (NUE) optimization has emerged as a crucial strategy for sustainable intensification of agricultural production systems. Enhancing NUE in oat cultivars remains a significant challenge with limited mechanistic understanding. To unravel the regulatory networks involved in N stress adaptation, we conducted RNA sequencing on oat seedlings subjected to graded N treatments.

A Comprehensive Lateral Flow Strip Assay for On-Site mRNA Vaccine Quality Control in Decentralized Manufacturing.

The rapid adoption of mRNA-based vaccines highlights the critical need for on-site quality control (QC) methods, particularly in low-income countries with decentralized manufacturing. Existing techniques, such as liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and capillary electrophoresis (CE), are resource-intensive, requiring specialized equipment and expertise. To address this, a comprehensive lateral flow strip assay (LFSA) has been developed to evaluate key mRNA quality attributes-5' capping efficiency, integrity, and lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) encapsulation efficiency.

Unraveling Li Desolvation on Solid Electrolyte Interphase by Ab Initio Metadynamics.

Desolvation is an important step before the solvated ions can intercalate into the electrode material. This interfacial process involves different desolvation stages, physical phases, and intertwined kinetics and thermodynamics. Thus, the impacts of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) components on Li desolvation remain poorly understood at a molecular scale though conventional simulations strive to accurately capture complex interfacial electronic interactions during desolvation.

Dual Doping of Ruthenium and Iridium in Octahedral Sites of Spinel CoO Nanoflowers for Enhanced PEM Water Electrolysis.

In acid proton exchange membrane water electrolysis (PEMWE), exploring highly active and durable oxygen evolution reaction (OER) electrocatalysts remains a great challenge. Herein, a durable Ru and Ir co-doped spinel cobalt oxide (RuIr-CoO) nanoflower electrocatalyst with low precious metal loading (Ru 2.7 wt% and Ir 0.

Lateral Flow Immunoassay for Rapid and Sensitive Detection of dsRNA Contaminants in In Vitro-Transcribed mRNA Products.

Double-stranded RNA (dsRNA), often generated as a by-product during in vitro transcription, poses a significant challenge to therapeutic applications of mRNA. In this chapter, we present a rapid and sensitive lateral flow strip assay (LFSA) utilizing colloidal gold nanoparticles for detecting dsRNA contaminants in in vitro-transcribed mRNA. The assay delivers results within 15 min and achieves a limit of detection (LOD) of 69.

Disassembly of chiral hydrogen-bonded frameworks into single-unit organometallic helices for enantioselective amyloid inhibition.

Chiral nanostructures hold transformative potential across diverse fields, yet their assembly construction remains hindered by the high entropic barrier of dissymmetric building units. Inspired by biological structural dynamics, we construct two chiral copper-based hydrogen-bonded frameworks [D(L)-Cu-crystals] via hydrogen-bonded assembly using chiral metal-organic helical as the building unit. Single-crystal X-ray diffraction elucidates hierarchical chirality evolution from asymmetric coordinations to helical chains and framework packing.

Rational Design of Morphology Transformable Oligopeptide Self-Assembly for Specifically Inducing Lysosomal Membrane Permeabilization of Tumor Cell.

Engineering the functional peptide self-assembly has been proven effective for drug delivery, creating three-dimensional cell culture media and developing new strategies for disease therapy. However, there are few reports on using peptide assemblies as nanotechnological tools to explore the processes and mechanisms of biology. In this work, to investigate tumor lysosomal membrane permeabilization (LMP)-induced effect, which is considered as a promising but not well-defined strategy for treatment of cancers, we established a tumor-specific LMP model by rational construction of a pH-responsive morphology transformable self-assembly of amphiphilic oligopeptide (AOP), containing -[Arg-Gly-Asp]- (RGD) sequence.

Roadmap for Photonics with 2D Materials.

Triggered by advances in atomic-layer exfoliation and growth techniques, along with the identification of a wide range of extraordinary physical properties in self-standing films consisting of one or a few atomic layers, two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), and other van der Waals (vdW) crystals now constitute a broad research field expanding in multiple directions through the combination of layer stacking and twisting, nanofabrication, surface-science methods, and integration into nanostructured environments. Photonics encompasses a multidisciplinary subset of those directions, where 2D materials contribute remarkable nonlinearities, long-lived and ultraconfined polaritons, strong excitons, topological and chiral effects, susceptibility to external stimuli, accessibility, robustness, and a completely new range of photonic materials based on layer stacking, gating, and the formation of moiré patterns. These properties are being leveraged to develop applications in electro-optical modulation, light emission and detection, imaging and metasurfaces, integrated optics, sensing, and quantum physics across a broad spectral range extending from the far-infrared to the ultraviolet, as well as enabling hybridization with spin and momentum textures of electronic band structures and magnetic degrees of freedom.

Metabolic syndrome: molecular mechanisms and therapeutic interventions.

Metabolic syndrome (MetS, MS) is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by central obesity, insulin resistance, dyslipidemia, and imbalance of glucose homeostasis. Studies have revealed that the molecular mechanism of MetS may be related to adipose dysfunction, insulin resistance, chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, the gut microbiota and epigenetic modifications. At present, the clinical treatment of MetS is limited to lifestyle changes and targeted drugs for a single risk factor, which makes it difficult to achieve the desired effects.

Decoupling three-dimensional rotational diffusion of anisotropic nanoparticles using small-angle approximation.

Accurately characterizing the three-dimensional rotational dynamics of anisotropic nanoparticles remains challenging due to the limitations of both experimental techniques and conventional simulation methods, which often fail to capture the intricate details of rotational motion. We propose a small-angle approximation method to decouple the nanoparticle rotational dynamics about each of its three principal axes, while simultaneously resolving decoupled angular displacements. Validation through rotational autocorrelation functions and scaling analyses confirms that the proposed method accurately captures rotational diffusion coefficients for both nanorods and nanosheets in unentangled polymer melts.

Reconfigurable Counterion Gradient around Charged Metal Nanoparticles Enables Self-Rectifying and Volatile Artificial Synapse.

Developing a device that faithfully replicates the characteristics of biological synapses is a prerequisite for the hardware implementation of neuromorphic computing. An electronic device fabricated with metallic materials, instead of traditional semiconductors, is "genetically" impossible since the field applied to the metal is screened, leading to insensitive modulation in material conductance. Herein, these two independent or uncorrelated "challenges" can be addressed by using metal nanoparticles decorated with charged molecules.

A non-destructive red blood cell retrofit strategy to construct photothermal nanoparticles for cancer therapy.

Natural red blood cells (RBCs) have been recognized as highly promising drug delivery vehicles for cancer therapy, owing to their intrinsic biocompatibility, large capacity, and prolonged circulation lifetime. Traditionally, drugs are introduced into RBCs through membrane penetration or hitchhiking techniques, which often result in drug leakage or desorption and consequently adverse effects. In this study, we developed a non-destructive RBCs retrofit strategy for in situ polymerizing dopamine (DA) into polydopamine (PDA) nanoparticle within RBCs (cell membrane-polydopamine, CM-PDA).

2 × 2 Charge Density Wave in FeNbSe Stabilized by Disordered Intercalation.

The complex interplay between electronic and lattice degrees of freedom underlies a rich variety of emergent phenomena in quantum materials, particularly charge density waves (CDWs). Understanding the distinct roles of electron carriers and structural order in CDW formation is crucial for elucidating the underlying mechanisms and enabling control over material properties. The intertwined effects of charge doping and structural periodicity make it challenging to isolate the individual contributions to lattice modulations.

Study of concentration dependent microstructures and dynamic behaviors of aqueous CaCl2 solutions via deep potential with electrostatic interactions.

Salt solutions have long been a subject of scientific interest owing to their significant role in various applications. Despite advances in experimental techniques and simulation methods, contradictions persist in describing the solvation structure and dynamic behavior of ions and water molecules in salt solutions, especially for non-monovalent salt solutions. In this study, we focus on the aqueous CaCl2 system and developed an advanced machine learning force field that incorporates electrostatic interactions, enabling high-accuracy molecular dynamics simulations at the SCAN functional level on nanosecond timescales.

Asymmetric Stress Engineering of Dense Dislocations in Brittle Superconductors for Strong Vortex Pinning.

Large lossless currents in high-temperature superconductors (HTS) critically rely on dense defects with suitable size and dimensionality to pin vortices, with dislocations being particularly effective due to their 1D geometry to interact extensively with vortex lines. However, in non-metallic compounds such as HTS with rigid lattices, conventional deformation methods typically lead to catastrophic fracture rather than dislocation-mediated plasticity, making it a persistent challenge to introduce dislocations at high density. Here, an asymmetric stress field strategy is proposed using extrusion to directly nucleate a high density of dislocations in HTS by activating shear-driven lattice slip and twisting under superimposed hydrostatic compression.

Single-Crystal Structure Determination of Superconducting LaNiO under High Pressure.

Ruddlesden-Popper nickelates have attracted enormous attention since the discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in bilayer LaNiO under high pressure. However, the crystal structure under high pressure remains elusive due to the lack of single crystal diffraction data. Here, high-pressure superconductivity with a superconducting onset temperature approaching 30K and a zero-resistance state at 7K at 53.

A medium-bandgap acceptor incorporating a novel electron-rich building block enables efficient organic photovoltaics.

Organic photovoltaics (OPVs) have emerged as a highly promising renewable energy technology due to their solution-processability, mechanical flexibility, and potential for low-cost manufacturing. Despite remarkable progress, further improving the power conversion efficiencies (PCEs) remains a critical challenge for their commercial applications. The incorporation of medium-bandgap non-fullerene acceptors (NFAs) as third components in ternary OPV devices has proven particularly effective in enhancing device performance.

Near-infrared photon-triggered CH-to-CHOH conversion over plasmonic oxyselenides.

The direct oxidation of methane into methanol exploiting O as oxidant offers an ideal route for methane utilization. Although the reaction is strongly preferred in thermodynamics, conventional catalytic systems always demand intense energy input like high temperatures or high-energy photons (>2.8 eV) to conquer the large kinetic barrier in the conversion process.

A Spatiotemporally Controllable DNA Hydrogel Mesh for Focused Antimetastasis Therapy of Cancer.

Cancer is one of the most commonly diagnosed diseases with high mortality, and approximately 50% of patients are prone to present metastasis after various treatments. The shedding of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) during tumor therapy is the root cause of metastasis. In this work, we proposed a focused antimetastasis therapy strategy based on a spatiotemporally controllable DNA hydrogel mesh (SNARE: just like a turtle trapped in the jar) in vivo.

In-Sensor Compressed Imaging with Reconstruction-Free Recognition via Ferroelectric Photodiodes.

The transition from human-centric to machine-centric vision systems demands innovative imaging architectures. Compressed imaging, using key mathematical transformations to capture essential visual information during sampling, is suited for sensor-level integration to minimize data redundancy. Here, we propose an efficient machine vision strategy that connects in-sensor compressed imaging with neural networks.

Giant Magneto-Exciton Coupling in 2D van der Waals CrSBr.

Controlling magnetic order via external fields or heterostructures enables precise manipulation and tracking of spin and exciton information, facilitating the development of high-performance optical spin valves. However, the weak magneto-optical signals and instability of two-dimensional (2D) antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials have hindered comprehensive studies on the coupling between magnetic order and excitons in bulk-like systems. Here, we leverage magneto-optical spectroscopy to provide direct insight into the spin-flip and complex spin-canting behavior in thick-layered CrSBr under nonextreme temperature conditions (80 K).

STM Investigation of Multicomponent Supramolecular Nanostructures Built by Aromatic Acid Derivatives and Coronene.

This work studied the interfacial coassembly behaviors of the aromatic acid 5',5⁗-([2,2'-bithiophene]-5,5'-diyl)bis([1,1':3',1″-terphenyl]-4,4″-dicarboxylic acid) (HBDETP) with the introduced tetracarboxylic acid derivative (3',5'-bis(6-carboxynaphthalen-2-yl)-[1,1'-biphenyl]-3,5-dicarboxylic acid (BCBDA) or 5',5⁗-(ethyne-1,2-diyl)bis([1,1':3',1″-terphenyl]-4,4″-dicarboxylic acid) (EBTD)) and coronene (COR). Intermolecular interactions and the formation mechanisms of the coassembly structures were investigated via scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory (DFT). HBDETP dimers were retained and formed hydrogen bonds with BCBDA or EBTD molecules, leading to the structural transformation of HBDETP into a nanoporous structure.

Superlubricity Between Alkane Molecules and Graphite: Effect of Alkane Chain Length.

Graphite used as an oil lubricant additive demonstrates superior friction-reducing capability, but the optimal oil molecular structure for achieving the best lubrication state remains debated. In this study, the synergistic lubrication between alkane molecules with different chain lengths and graphite is investigated and compared using atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Superlubricity occurred in the hexadecane environment with an extremely low friction coefficient of 0.