Epidemiological characteristics of invasive Aspergillus isolates: Morphology, drug susceptibility, and mutations in azole drug targets.

Background: The global epidemiology of aspergillosis varies and is influenced by various factors. To elucidate the disease burden and identify effective control strategies, the epidemiological characteristics of Aspergillus infections have to be investigated. The aim of this study was to assess the epidemiological characteristics of various Aspergillus species, including their morphological features, species identification, and in vitro susceptibility to nine antifungal agents in a large tertiary hospital in northern China.

Maturation and persistence of CAR T cells derived from human pluripotent stem cells via chemical inhibition of G9a/GLP.

Elucidating mechanisms of T cell development can guide in vitro T cell differentiation from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) and facilitate off-the-shelf T cell-based immunotherapies. Using a stroma-free human iPSC-T cell differentiation platform, we screened for epigenetic modulators that influence T cell specification and identified the H3K9-directed histone methyltransferases G9a/GLP as repressors of T cell fate. We show that G9a/GLP inhibition during specific time windows of differentiation of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) skews cell fates toward lymphoid lineages.

Electronic interactions in Dirac fluids visualized by nano-terahertz spacetime interference of electron-photon quasiparticles.

Ultraclean graphene at charge neutrality hosts a quantum critical Dirac fluid of interacting electrons and holes. Interactions profoundly affect the charge dynamics of graphene, which is encoded in the properties of its electron-photon collective modes: surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs). Here, we show that polaritonic interference patterns are particularly well suited to unveil the interactions in Dirac fluids by tracking polaritonic interference in time at temporal scales commensurate with the electronic scattering.

Charge Transfer Plasmonics in Bespoke Graphene/α-RuCl Cavities.

Surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) provide a window into the nano-optical, electrodynamic response of their host material and its dielectric environment. Graphene/α-RuCl serves as an ideal model system for imaging SPPs since the large work function difference between these two layers facilitates charge transfer that hole dopes graphene with ∼ 10 cm free carriers. In this work, we study the emergent THz response of graphene/α-RuCl heterostructures using our home-built cryogenic scanning near-field optical microscope.

Bnip3lb-driven mitophagy sustains expansion of the embryonic hematopoietic stem cell pool.

Unlabelled: Embryonic hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) have the unique ability to undergo rapid proliferation while maintaining multipotency, a clinically-valuable quality which currently cannot be replicated in vitro. Here, we show that embryonic HSPCs achieve this state by precise spatio-temporal regulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) via Bnip3lb-associated developmentally-programmed mitophagy, a distinct autophagic regulatory mechanism from that of adult HSPCs. While ROS drives HSPC specification in the dorsal aorta, scRNAseq and live-imaging of zebrafish indicate that mitophagy initiates as HSPCs undergo endothelial-to-hematopoietic transition and colonize the caudal hematopoietic tissue (CHT).

Nomogram for predicting the risk of nosocomial infections among obstetric inpatients: a large-scale retrospective study in China.

Objective: This study aimed to develop and validate a nomogram for assessing the risk of nosocomial infections among obstetric inpatients, providing a valuable reference for predicting and mitigating the risk of postpartum infections.

Methods: A retrospective observational study was performed on a cohort of 28,608 obstetric patients admitted for childbirth between 2017 and 2022. Data from the year 2022, comprising 4,153 inpatients, were utilized for model validation.

ZEB1 Promotes Epithelial-Mesenchymal Transition of Endometrial Epithelial Cells and Plays a Critical Role in Embryo Implantation in Mice.

Zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 1 (ZEB1) promotes epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) in carcinogenesis, but its role in embryo implantation has not yet been well studied. In the present study we evaluated the hypothesis that ZEB1-induced EMT is essential for embryo implantation in vivo. Endometrial epithelium from female Kunming mice (non-pregnant, and pregnant from day 2.

The Generation and Characterization of Monoclonal Antibodies against the MPXV A29L Protein.

Mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) is a zoonotic disease caused by monkeypox virus (MPXV), a DNA virus belonging to the Orthopoxvirus genus, in the Poxviridae family. The disease constitutes a moderate risk to public health at the global level. The MPXV A29L protein plays a crucial role in coordinating virion assembly and facilitating important virus-host interactions.

Lysine acetyltransferase 14 mediates TGF-β-induced fibrosis in ovarian endometrioma via co-operation with serum response factor.

Background: Fibrogenesis within ovarian endometrioma (endometrioma), mainly induced by transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β), is characterized by myofibroblast over-activation and excessive extracellular matrix (ECM) deposition, contributing to endometrioma-associated symptoms such as infertility by impairing ovarian reserve and oocyte quality. However, the precise molecular mechanisms that underpin the endometrioma- associated fibrosis progression induced by TGF-β remain poorly understood.

Methods: The expression level of lysine acetyltransferase 14 (KAT14) was validated in endometrium biopsies from patients with endometrioma and healthy controls, and the transcription level of KAT14 was further confirmed by analyzing a published single-cell transcriptome (scRNA-seq) dataset of endometriosis.

Yingxiang Acupoint Embedding Improves Mucosal Barrier Function in Rats with Local Allergic Rhinitis.

Introduction: Epithelial barrier disruption is the initial cause of various diseases. We previously reported that acupoint catgut embedding (AE) improves tight junction proteins (TJs) in rats with allergic rhinitis. However, whether AE improves the epithelial barrier in local allergic rhinitis (LAR) remains unknown.

Classification and prediction of chemoradiotherapy response and survival from esophageal carcinoma histopathology images.

Whole slide imaging (WSI) of Hematoxylin and Eosin-stained biopsy specimens has been used to predict chemoradiotherapy (CRT) response and overall survival (OS) of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) patients. This retrospective study collected 279 specimens in 89 non-surgical ESCC patients through endoscopic biopsy between January 2010 and January 2019. These patients were divided into a CRT response group (CR + PR group) and a CRT non-response group (SD + PD group).

Glycemic load, but not glycemic index, is associated with an increased risk of ovarian cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

The association between glycemic index (GI),glycemic load (GL) and ovarian cancer risk remains unclear. Carbohydrate intake promotes insulin secretion, leading to cell proliferation and invasion. We hypothesized that high GI and GL intake may increase ovarian cancer risk.

Two-dimensional heavy fermions in the van der Waals metal CeSiI.

Heavy-fermion metals are prototype systems for observing emergent quantum phases driven by electronic interactions. A long-standing aspiration is the dimensional reduction of these materials to exert control over their quantum phases, which remains a significant challenge because traditional intermetallic heavy-fermion compounds have three-dimensional atomic and electronic structures. Here we report comprehensive thermodynamic and spectroscopic evidence of an antiferromagnetically ordered heavy-fermion ground state in CeSiI, an intermetallic comprising two-dimensional (2D) metallic sheets held together by weak interlayer van der Waals (vdW) interactions.

Phenotype plasticity and altered sensitivity to chemotherapeutic agents in aggressive prostate cancer cells.

In 2023, approximately 288,300 new diagnoses of prostate cancer will occur, with 34,700 disease-related deaths. Death from prostate cancer is associated with metastasis, enabled by progression of tumor phenotypes and successful extracapsular extension to reach Batson's venous plexus, a specific route to the spine and brain. Using a mouse-human tumor xenograft model, we isolated an aggressive muscle invasive cell population of prostate cancer, called DU145 with a distinct biophysical phenotype, elevated histone H3K27, and increased matrix metalloproteinase 14 expression as compared to the non-aggressive parent cell population called DU145.

Pyroptosis is involved in maternal nicotine exposure-induced metabolic associated fatty liver disease progression in offspring mice.

We have investigated whether inflammasomes and pyroptosis are activated in maternal nicotine exposure (MNE) offspring mice and whether they are involved in MNE-promoted metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) in adult offspring. We injected pregnant mice subcutaneously with saline vehicle or nicotine twice a day on gestational days 11-21. Offspring mice from both groups were fed with a normal diet (ND) or a high-fat diet (HFD) for 6 months at postnatal day 21 to develop the MAFLD model.

Development of functional resident macrophages in human pluripotent stem cell-derived colonic organoids and human fetal colon.

Most organs have tissue-resident immune cells. Human organoids lack these immune cells, which limits their utility in modeling many normal and disease processes. Here, we describe that pluripotent stem cell-derived human colonic organoids (HCOs) co-develop a diverse population of immune cells, including hemogenic endothelium (HE)-like cells and erythromyeloid progenitors that undergo stereotypical steps in differentiation, resulting in the generation of functional macrophages.

Visualizing moiré ferroelectricity via plasmons and nano-photocurrent in graphene/twisted-WSe structures.

Ferroelectricity, a spontaneous and reversible electric polarization, is found in certain classes of van der Waals (vdW) materials. The discovery of ferroelectricity in twisted vdW layers provides new opportunities to engineer spatially dependent electric and optical properties associated with the configuration of moiré superlattice domains and the network of domain walls. Here, we employ near-field infrared nano-imaging and nano-photocurrent measurements to study ferroelectricity in minimally twisted WSe.

Lowered expression level of INSC predicts poor prognosis in patients with colon cancer.

The aim of this study was to investigate the prognostic value of inscuteable spindle orientation adaptor protein (INSC) in colon cancer (CC). Firstly, transcriptional change of INSC was analysed using the data from public databases. Next, INSC protein expression was assessed by immunohistochemistry.

Infrared nano-imaging of Dirac magnetoexcitons in graphene.

Magnetic fields can have profound effects on the motion of electrons in quantum materials. Two-dimensional electron systems subject to strong magnetic fields are expected to exhibit quantized Hall conductivity, chiral edge currents and distinctive collective modes referred to as magnetoplasmons and magnetoexcitons. Generating these propagating collective modes in charge-neutral samples and imaging them at their native nanometre length scales have thus far been experimentally elusive.