Lab on a single microbead: An enzyme-free strategy for the sensitive detection of microRNA via efficient localized catalytic hairpin assembly.

Background: Accurate quantification of microRNA (miRNA) is of great significance because it provides opportunities for the accurate early diagnosis of a series of human diseases including cancers. Currently, complicated nucleic acid amplification technologies are always required for the highly sensitive miRNA detection. The introduction of nucleic acid signal amplification coupled with various enzymes will inevitably lead to tedious work and increase the complexity of the analysis process.

Systematic dissection of pleiotropic loci and critical regulons in excitatory neurons and microglia relevant to neuropsychiatric and ocular diseases.

Advancements in single-cell multimodal techniques have greatly enhanced our understanding of disease-relevant loci identified through genome-wide association studies (GWASs). To investigate the biological connections between the eye and brain, we integrated bulk and single-cell multiomic profiles with GWAS summary statistics for eight neuropsychiatric and five ocular diseases. Our analysis uncovered five latent factors explaining 61.

Legumes reduce the effects of salt stress on co-existing grass.

Nitrogen (N) fixing legumes typically enhance the ability of coexisting non-N-fixing species to resist disease and drought, but whether legumes enhance their ability to resist salt stress remains unknown, restricting our ability to explore the potential of legumes to rehabilitate salt-affected ecosystems. We conducted a simulation experiment to examine whether and how legumes influence the response of coexisting grass to salt stress. We compared the effects of salt stress on the plant biomass, root cell viability, antioxidant enzyme activities, soil extracellular enzyme activities and microbial functional gene abundances associated with N and phosphorus (P) cycling between pure grass communities and legume-grass mixtures.

Peptide hormones in plants.

Peptide hormones are defined as small secreted polypeptide-based intercellular communication signal molecules. Such peptide hormones are encoded by nuclear genes, and often go through proteolytic processing of preproproteins and post-translational modifications. Most peptide hormones are secreted out of the cell to interact with membrane-associated receptors in neighboring cells, and subsequently activate signal transductions, leading to changes in gene expression and cellular responses.

Targeting immune cellular populations and transcription factors: unraveling the therapeutic potential of JQF for NAFLD.

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) constitutes the most prevalent chronic liver disease worldwide. Progression to non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), the immune cell reservoir within the liver undergoes remodeling, exacerbating liver inflammation and potentially leading to liver fibrosis. Jiangtang Qingre Formula (JQF) is an effective prescription for the clinical treatment of NAFLD.