Association of live microbes intake and risk of all-cause, cardiovascular disease, and cancer-related mortality in patients with chronic kidney disease.

Background: Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a prevalent chronic, non-communicable disease. The long-term health effects of dietary live microbes, primarily probiotics, on CKD patients remain insufficiently understood. This study aims to investigate the association between dietary intake of live microbes and long-term health outcomes among individuals with CKD.

Neoadjuvant chemoradiation with or without PD-1 blockade in locally advanced rectal cancer: a randomized phase 2 trial.

Radiotherapy displays unique antitumor synergism with immune checkpoint inhibitors, which is indicated by high pathological complete response (pCR) rates from single-arm trials of locally advanced rectal cancer (LARC). Here we test the efficacy and safety of the radiation-immune checkpoint inhibitor combination in patients with LARC in a phase 2, randomized trial conducted in eight major colorectal cancer centers in Beijing. In total, 186 eligible all-comer (proficient mismatch repair and deficient mismatch repair) participants were enrolled.

DNA-damage orchestrates self-renewal and differentiation via reciprocal p53 family and Hippo/Wnt/TGF-β pathway activation in embryonic stem cells.

The mechanism by which DNA-damage affects self-renewal and pluripotency remains unclear. DNA damage and repair mechanisms have been largely elucidated in mutated cancer cells or simple eukaryotes, making valid interpretations on early development difficult. Here we show the impact of ionizing irradiation on the maintenance and early differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs).

Development of nucleus-targeted histone-tail-based photoaffinity probes to profile the epigenetic interactome in native cells.

Dissection of the physiological interactomes of histone post-translational modifications (hPTMs) is crucial for understanding epigenetic regulatory pathways. Peptide- or protein-based histone photoaffinity tools expanded the ability to probe the epigenetic interactome, but in situ profiling in native cells remains challenging. Here, we develop a nucleus-targeting histone-tail-based photoaffinity probe capable of profiling the hPTM-mediated interactomes in native cells, by integrating cell-permeable and nuclear localization peptide modules into an hPTM peptide equipped with a photoreactive moiety.

METTL3 modulates colonic epithelium integrity via maintaining the self-renewal and differentiation of Lgr5+ stem cell.

The development and homeostasis of intestinal epithelium are mediated by actively proliferating Lgr5+ stem cells, which possess a remarkable self-renewal and differentiation capacity. Recently, our study demonstrated that m6A methylation was essential for the survival of colonic stem cells. Here, we show that METTL3 expression is downregulated in the colon mucosa in ulcerative colitis (UC) patients and strongly associated with the differentiation and maturation of goblet cells during inflammation.