Muscle fiber types switched during the development of experimental autoimmune myasthenia gravis via the PI3K/Akt signaling pathway.

As one of the largest organs of our human body, skeletal muscle has good research prospects in myasthenia gravis (MG), the symptoms of which include systemic skeletal muscle weakness. Skeletal muscle is composed of two types of muscle fibers. Different fiber subtypes can be converted into each other; however, the underlying mechanism is not yet clear.

Improved performances toward electrochemical carbon dioxide and oxygen reductions by iron-doped stannum nanoparticles.

The CO reduction reaction (CORR) and oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) show great promise for expanding the use of renewable energy sources and fostering carbon neutrality. Sn-based catalysts show CORR activity; however, they have been rarely reported in the ORR. Herein, we prepared a nitrogen-carbon structure loaded with Fe-doped Sn nanoparticles (Fe-Sn/NC), which has good ORR and CORR activity.

Norepinephrine promotes activated B cells to identify and kill effector CD8 T cells through FasL/Fas pathway in spleen mononuclear cells isolated from experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

It has been reported that the nervous system can regulate immune reactions through various mechanisms. However, the role of splenic sympathetic nerve activity in the autoimmune reactions during the pathogenesis of experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) remained unclear. Here, we blocked the activity of the splenic sympathetic nerve and found that the number of adaptive immune cells, such as CD4 T cells, CD8 T cells and B cells, were upregulated.

Construction of a Heterostructured Alloy-Molybdenum Nitride Catalyst for Enhanced NH Production via Nitrate Electrolysis.

Here, we reported a highly efficient nitrate electroreduction (NORR) electrocatalyst that integrated alloying and heterostructuring strategies comprising FeCo alloy and MoN (FeCo-MoN/NC). Notably, the maximum NH Faraday efficiency (FE) of 83.24%, NH yield of 12.

Tunable NiSe-NiSe Heterojunction for Energy-Efficient Hydrogen Production by Coupling Urea Degradation.

Urea-assisted water splitting is a promising energy-saving hydrogen (H) production technology. However, its practical application is hindered by the lack of high-performance bifunctional catalysts for urea oxidation reaction (UOR) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). Herein, a heterostructured catalyst comprising highly active NiSe and NiSe, along with a conductive graphene-coated nickel foam skeleton (NiSe-NiSe/GNF) is reported.

Recent achievements in noble metal-based oxide electrocatalysts for water splitting.

The search for sustainable energy sources has accelerated the exploration of water decomposition as a clean H production method. Among the methods proposed, H production water electrolysis has garnered considerable attention. However, the process of H production from water electrolysis is severely limited by the slow kinetics of the anodic oxygen evolution reaction and large intrinsic overpotentials at the anode; therefore, suitable catalysts need to be found to accelerate the reaction rate.

Coupling Nitrate-to-Ammonia Conversion and Sulfion Oxidation Reaction Over Hierarchical Porous Spinel MFeO (M═Ni, Co, Fe, Mn) in Wastewater.

The construction of coupled electrolysis systems utilizing renewable energy sources for electrocatalytic nitrate reduction and sulfion oxidation reactions (NORR and SOR), is considered a promising approach for environmental remediation, ammonia production, and sulfur recovery. Here, a simple chemical dealloying method is reported to fabricate a hierarchical porous multi-metallic spinel MFeO (M═Ni, Co, Fe, Mn) dual-functional electrocatalysts consisting of Mn-doped porous NiFeO/CoFeO heterostructure networks and Ni/Co/Mn co-doped FeO nanosheet networks. The excellent NORR with high NH Faradaic efficiency of 95.

Salvianic acid A ameliorates atherosclerosis through metabolic-dependent anti-EndMT pathway and repression of TGF-β/ALK5 signaling.

Background: Endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EndMT) has been identified as a key factor to the initiation and progression of the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis (AS). Salvianic acid A (SAAS) is the primary water-soluble bioactive ingredient found in Salvia miltiorrhiza, is renowned for its therapeutic effects on cardiovascular diseases. However, the efficacy and mechanisms of SAAS in treating EndMT-induced AS remain underexplored.

Intranasal delivery of mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes ameliorates experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis.

Background: Exosomes derived from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs-Exos) have shown therapeutic potential in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). As a non-invasive method of drug administration, intranasal delivery is anticipated to emerge as a novel option for the treatment of central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Therefore, this study aims to treat EAE by nasal exosomes and explore its specific mechanism, especially its impact on the blood-brain barrier (BBB).

Electrode informatics accelerated the optimization of key catalyst layer parameters in direct methanol fuel cells.

As the core component of direct methanol fuel cells, the catalyst layer plays the key role as a species, proton and electron transport channel. However, due to the complexity of the system, optimizing its performance involves a large number of experiments and high costs. In this study, finite element simulation combined with machine learning model was constructed to accelerate power density prediction and evaluate the influence of catalyst layer parameters on the maximum power density of direct methanol fuel cells.

Ultralow Dose Iron-Copper Bimetallic Single-Atom Nanozymes for Efficient Photothermal-Chemodynamic Antibacterial and Wound Healing.

The combination of photothermal and chemodynamic therapy (PTT-CDT) using single-atom nanozymes (SAzymes) shows great promise in combating pathogenic and drug-resistant bacteria. However, the photothermal conversion efficiency and catalytic activity of SAzymes with solely metal sites remain inadequate, often requiring high doses for effectiveness. Herein, a bimetallic single-atomic nanozymes with Fe and Cu active sites (FeCu BSNs) designed is reported for efficient treatment of bacterial infections through hyperthermia-amplified nanozyme catalysis strategy.

In-situ Reduced CuN Nanocrystals Enable High-Efficiency Ammonia Synthesis and Zinc-nitrate Batteries.

Nitrate reduction reaction (NORR) involves an 8-electron transfer process and competes with the hydrogen evolution reaction process, resulting in lower yields and Faraday efficiency (FE) in the process of NH synthesis. Especially, Cu-based catalysts (Cu and Cu) have been investigated in the field of NORR due to the energy levels of d-orbital and the least unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) π* of nitrate's orbital. Based on the above, we synthesized a Cu-based compound containing CuN (Cu) through a simple one-step pyrolysis method, applied it to electrocatalytic NORR, and tested the performance of the Zn-NO battery.

Enhanced Electrocatalytic Urea Synthesis over Iron-Doped InOOH Nanosheets under Ambient Conditions.

Ambient urea synthesis via C-N coupling from CO and nitrate reduction offers an attractive alternative to the Bosch-Meiser route, but it is hindered by the lack of efficient catalysts. Herein, we report that Fe-doped InOOH nanosheets effectively catalyze the coreduction of CO and nitrate, giving a high Faradaic Efficiency of 26.9%, a yield rate of 980.

Innovative Zinc Anodes: Advancing Metallurgy Methods to Battery Applications.

Aqueous zinc metal batteries (AZMBs) are emerging as a powerful contender in the realm of large-scale intermittent energy storage systems, presenting a compelling alternative to existing ion battery technologies. They harness the benefits of metal zinc's high safety, natural abundance, and favorable electrochemical potential (-0.762 V vs Standard hydrogen electrode, SHE), alongside an impressive theoretical capacity (820 mAh g and 5655 mAh cm).

Atmosphere Induces Tunable Oxygen Vacancies to Stabilize Single-Atom Copper in Ceria for Robust Electrocatalytic CO Reduction to CH.

Electrochemical carbon dioxide reduction (ECORR) shows great potential to create high-value carbon-based chemicals, while designing advanced catalysts at the atomic level remains challenging. The ECORR performance is largely dependent on the catalyst microelectronic structure that can be effectively modulated through surface defect engineering. Here, we provide an atmosphere-assisted low-temperature calcination strategy to prepare a series of single-atomic Cu/ceria catalysts with varied oxygen vacancy concentrations for robust electrolytic reduction of CO to methane.

Phosphorus-doped TiCT MXene nanosheets enabling ambient NH synthesis with high current densities.

Herein, we show that P-doped TiCT MXene nanosheets can effectively catalyze the NORR-to-NH conversion with a high faradaic efficiency of 95% and a yield rate of 5.39 mg h mg. Moreover, the catalyst achieves an impressive high current density of -1200 mA cm at a low potential of -1.

Boron-Doped TiCT MXene for Effective and Durable High-Current-Density Ammonia Synthesis.

Ammonia (NH) synthesis via the nitrate reduction reaction (NORR) offers a competitive strategy for nitrogen cycling and carbon neutrality; however, this is hindered by the poor NORR performance under high current density. Herein, it is shown that boron-doped TiCT MXene nanosheets can highly efficiently catalyze the conversion of NORR-to-NH at ambient conditions, showing a maximal NH Faradic efficiency of 91% with a peak yield rate of 26.2 mgh mg , and robust durability over ten consecutive cycles, all of them are comparable to the best-reported results and exceed those of pristine TiCT MXene.

Enhanced luminol electrochemiluminescence biosensing system based on highly dispersed bimetallic nanozyme coreaction accelerator and 3D DNA walker signal amplifier.

In this work, a platinum-nickel based nanozyme is prepared and used as a coreaction accelerator in the luminol-HO electrochemiluminescence (ECL) system to construct an ECL biosensor for dimethyl phthalate (DMP) detection. The PtNi/NC nanozyme possesses dispersed metal active sites, and the synergistic effect of Pt and Ni endows it with excellent catalytic performance, which effectively converts HO into more superoxide anions, and then significantly enhances the ECL intensity of the luminol system. The ECL mechanism is investigated by combining cyclic voltammetry and ECL with different types of free radical scavengers.

Ligand Effect of PdRu on Pt-Enriched Surface for Glucose Complete Electro-Oxidation to Carbon Dioxide and Abiotic Direct Glucose Fuel Cells.

The development of advanced electrocatalysts for the abiotic direct glucose fuel cells (ADGFCs) is critical in the implantable devices in living organisms. The ligand effect in the Pt shell-alloy core nanocatalysts is known to influence the electrocatalytic reaction in interfacial structure. Herein, we reported the synthesis of ternary Pt@PdRu nanoalloy aerogels with ligand effect of PdRu on Pt-enriched surface through electrochemical cycling.

Self-supported iron-doped cobalt-copper oxide heterostructures for efficient electrocatalytic denitrification.

The electrocatalytic reduction of nitrate ions (NO) to nitrogen gas (N) has emerged as an effective approach for mitigating nitrate pollution in water bodies. However, the development of efficient and highly selective cathode materials remains challenging. Conventional copper-based catalysts often exhibit low selectivity because they strongly adsorb oxygen.

FeCu bimetallic clusters for efficient urea production via coupling reduction of carbon dioxide and nitrate.

Urea electrosynthesis has appeared to meet the nitrogen cycle and carbon neutrality with energy-saving features. Copper can co-electrocatalyze among CO and nitrogen species to generate urea, however developing effective electrocatalysts is still an obstacle. Here, we developed a nitrogen-doped porous carbon loaded with FeCu clusters that convert CO and NO into urea, with the highest Faradaic efficiency of 39.

Urea Electrosynthesis from Nitrate and CO on Diatomic Alloys.

Urea electrosynthesis from co-electrolysis of NO and CO (UENC) offers a promising technology for achieving sustainable and efficient urea production. Herein, a diatomic alloy catalyst (CuPdRh-DAA), with mutually isolated Pd and Rh atoms alloyed on Cu substrate, is theoretically designed and experimentally confirmed to be a highly active and selective UENC catalyst. Combining theoretical computations and operando spectroscopic characterizations reveals the synergistic effect of Pd-Cu and Rh-Cu active sites to promote the UENC via a tandem catalysis mechanism, where Pd-Cu site triggers the early C-N coupling and promotes *CONO-to-*CONH steps, while Rh-Cu site facilitates the subsequent protonation step of *CONH to *COOHNH toward the urea formation.

Efficient Charge Separation in Ag/PCN/UPDI Ternary Heterojunction for Optimized Photothermal-Photocatalytic Performance via Tandem Electric Fields.

Charge separation driven by the internal electric field is a research hotspot in photocatalysis. However, it remains challenging to accurately control the electric field to continuously accelerate the charge transfer. Herein, a strategy of constructing a tandem electric field to continuously accelerate charge transfer in photocatalysts is proposed.

Recent Advances in Catalyst Design and Performance Optimization of Nanostructured Cathode Materials in Zinc-Air Batteries.

This review focuses on the advanced design and optimization of nanostructured zinc-air batteries (ZABs), with the aim of boosting their energy storage and conversion capabilities. The findings show that ZABs favor porous nanostructures owing to their large surface area, and this enhances the battery capacity, catalytic activity, and life cycle. In addition, the nanomaterials improve the electrical conductivity, ion transport, and overall battery stability, which crucially reduces dendrite growth on the zinc anodes and improves cycle life and energy efficiency.