Self-healing and hyperelastic magneto-iono-elastomers through molecular confinement of magnetic anions.

Magneto-responsiveness in living organisms, exemplified by migratory birds navigating vast distances, offers inspiration for soft robots and human-computer interfaces. However, achieving both high magneto-responsiveness and resilient mechanical properties in synthetic materials has been challenging. Here, we develop magneto-iono-elastomers (MINEs), combining exceptional magnetization [2.

Self-healing actuatable electroluminescent fibres.

Alternating-current electroluminescent fibres are promising candidates as light sources for smart textiles and soft machines. However, physical damage from daily use causes device deterioration or failure, making self-healable electroluminescent fibres attractive. In addition, soft robots could benefit from light-emitting combined with magnetically actuated functions.

Hernandezine acts as a CDK4 suppressor inhibiting tumor growth by the CDK4/PKM2/NRF2 axis in colon cancer.

Background: The cyclin-dependent kinase 4 (CDK4) interacts with its canonical and non-canonical substrates modulating the cell cycle in tumor cells. However, the potential substrates and the beyond-cell-cycle-regulated functions of CDK4 in colon cancer (CC) are still unknown. Hernandezine (HER) is previously verified to induce G0/G1 phase arrest and autophagic cell death in human cancer cells, which implies that HER might target G0/G1 phase-related proteins, including CDK4.

Soft Robotics: A Route to Equality, Diversity, and Inclusivity in Robotics.

Robotics is entering our daily lives. The discipline is increasingly crucial in fields such as agriculture, medicine, and rescue operations, impacting our food, health, and planet. At the same time, it is becoming evident that robotic research must embrace and reflect the diversity of human society to address these broad challenges effectively.

Telocinobufagin, a PLK1 suppressor that inhibits tumor growth and metastasis by modulating CDC25c and CTCF in HNSCC cells.

Background: The high metastasis and mortality rates of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) urgently require new treatment targets and drugs. A steroidal component of ChanSu, telocinobufagin (TBG), was verified to have anti-cancer effects in various tumors, but its activity and mechanism in anti-HNSCC were still unknown.

Purpose: This study tried to demonstrate the anti-tumor effect of TBG on HNSCC and verify its potential mechanism.

Self-Healable and 4D Printable Hydrogel for Stretchable Electronics.

Materials with high stretchability and conductivity are used to fabricate stretchable electronics. Self-healing capability and four-dimensional (4D) printability are becoming increasingly important for these materials to facilitate their recovery from damage and endow them with stimuli-response properties. However, it remains challenging to design a single material that combines these four strengths.

Procyanidin C1 inhibits tumor growth and metastasis in colon cancer via modulating miR-501-3p/HIGD1A axis.

Introduction: Although colon (COAD) and rectal adenocarcinoma (READ) combined to refer to colorectal cancer (CRC), substantial clinical evidence urged that CRC should be treated as two different cancers due to compared with READ, COAD showed higher morbidity and worse 5-year survival.

Objectives: This study has tried to screen for the crucial gene that caused the worse prognosis and investigate its mechanism for mediating tumor growth and metastases in COAD. Meanwhile, the potential anti-COAD compound implicated in this mechanism was identified and testified from 1,855 food-borne chemical kits.

Shen-Qi-Jiang-Tang granule ameliorates diabetic nephropathy via modulating tumor necrosis factor signaling pathway.

Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Shen-Qi-Jiang-Tang granule (SQJTG), a classic traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) prescription, has been widely used in clinical for diabetes, especially type Ⅱ diabetes. Previous anti-diabetic studies stumbled across that SQJTG has a potential kidney protective effect on diabetic nephropathy (DN). However, the protective mechanism of SQJTG on DN still needs to be explored.

[Therapeutic effect of Jingfang Granules on CCl_4-induced liver fibrosis in mice and its mechanism].

To investigate the therapeutic effect of Jingfang Granules on carbon tetrachloride(CCl_4)-induced liver fibrosis in mice and its mechanism. Forty-nine 8-week-old male C57 BL/6 J mice were randomly divided into a blank group, a CCl_4 group, a silybin group(positive control, 100 mg·kg~(-1))+CCl_4, a Jingfang high-dose(16 g·kg~(-1)) group, a Jingfang high-dose(16 g·kg~(-1))+CCl_4 group, a Jingfang medium-dose(8 g·kg~(-1))+CCl_4 group, and a Jingfang low-dose(4 g·kg~(-1))+CCl_4 group, with 7 mice in each group. The mice in the blank group and Jingfang high-dose group were intraperitoneally injected olive oil solution, and mice in other groups were intraperitoneally injected with 10% CCl_4 olive oil solution(5 mL·kg~(-1)) to induce liver fibrosis, twice a week with an interval of 3 d, for 8 weeks.

Gut microbiota dysbiosis as an inflammaging condition that regulates obesity-related retinopathy and nephropathy.

Diabetes-specific microvascular disease is a leading cause of blindness, renal failure and nerve damage. Epidemiological data demonstrated that the high morbidity of T2DM occurs as a result of obesity and gradually develops into serious complications. To date, the mechanisms that underlie this observation are still ill-defined.

Dynamic Modeling of Intrinsic Self-Healing Polymers Using Deep Learning.

The properties of self-healing polymers are traditionally identified through destructive testing. This means that the mechanics are explored in hindsight with either theoretical derivations and/or simulations. Here, a self-healing property evolution using energy functional dynamical (SPEED) model is proposed to predict and understand the mechanics of self-healing of polymers using images of cuts dynamically healing over time.

Harnessing the circular economy to develop sustainable soft robots.

Fully recyclable and degradable materials have been used for the development of soft devices for omnidirectional sensing and actuation.

Pretreatment for alleviation of RO membrane fouling in dyeing wastewater reclamation.

Adsorption and coagulation were commonly used to alleviate reverse osmosis (RO) membrane fouling caused by dissolved organic matters (DOM), but the effects of changed composition and structure of DOM in dyeing wastewater after adsorption and coagulation on RO membrane fouling have seldom been studied. This study aimed at resolving the mechanism how the RO membrane fouling during dyeing wastewater treatment was alleviated by using adsorption and coagulation. The dyeing wastewater caused serious RO membrane fouling.

Scaling Metal-Elastomer Composites toward Stretchable Multi-Helical Conductive Paths for Robust Responsive Wearable Health Devices.

Stretchable electronics have advanced rapidly and many applications require high repeatability and robustness under various mechanical deformations. It has been described here that how a highly stretchable and reliable conductor composite made from helical copper wires and a soft elastomer, named eHelix, can provide mechanically robust and strain-insensitive electronic conductivity for wearable devices. The reversibility of the mechanical behavior of the metal-elastomer system has been studied using finite element modeling methods.

Development of an Ultrastretchable Double-Network Hydrogel for Flexible Strain Sensors.

The weak mechanical properties of hydrogels due to the inefficient dissipation of energy in the intrinsic structures limit their practical applications. Here, a double-network (DN) hydrogel has been developed by integrating an ionically cross-linked agar network, a covalently cross-linked acrylic acid (AAC) network, and the dynamic and reversible ionically cross-linked coordination between the AAC chains and Fe ions. The proposed model reveals the mechanisms of the improved mechanical performances in the DN agar/AAC-Fe hydrogel.

Progress and Roadmap for Intelligent Self-Healing Materials in Autonomous Robotics.

Robots are increasingly assisting humans in performing various tasks. Like special agents with elite skills, they can venture to distant locations and adverse environments, such as the deep sea and outer space. Micro/nanobots can also act as intrabody agents for healthcare applications.

Near-hysteresis-free soft tactile electronic skins for wearables and reliable machine learning.

Electronic skins are essential for real-time health monitoring and tactile perception in robots. Although the use of soft elastomers and microstructures have improved the sensitivity and pressure-sensing range of tactile sensors, the intrinsic viscoelasticity of soft polymeric materials remains a long-standing challenge resulting in cyclic hysteresis. This causes sensor data variations between contact events that negatively impact the accuracy and reliability.

Application quantitative proteomics approach to identify differentially expressed proteins associated with cardiac protection mediated by cycloastragenol in acute myocardial infarction rats.

Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is an acute heart disease. Cycloastragenol, as a natural product, inhibits inflammation and protects cardiomyocytes. Cycloastragenol (Y006) modulates inflammation in AMI is not known.

MicroRNA-31/184 is involved in transforming growth factor-β-induced apoptosis in A549 human alveolar adenocarcinoma cells.

Aims: TGF-β-induced alveolar epithelial cells apoptosis were involved in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). This study aimed to explore potential targets and mechanisms of IPF.

Main Methods: mRNA and microRNA arrays were used to analyze differentially expressed genes and miRNAs.

A transparent, self-healing and high-κ dielectric for low-field-emission stretchable optoelectronics.

Stretchable optoelectronic materials are essential for applications in wearable electronics, human-machine interfaces and soft robots. However, intrinsically stretchable optoelectronic devices such as light-emitting capacitors usually require high driving alternating voltages and excitation frequencies to achieve sufficient luminance in ambient lighting conditions. Here, we present a healable, low-field illuminating optoelectronic stretchable (HELIOS) device by introducing a transparent, high permittivity polymeric dielectric material.

Toxicity Study of 28-Day Subcutaneous Injection of Arctigenin in Beagle Dogs.

Our previous studies have investigated the systematic pharmacokinetic characteristics, biological activities, and toxicity of arctigenin. In this research, the potential toxicities of arctigenin in beagle dogs were investigated repeated 28-day subcutaneous injections. Beagle dogs were randomly divided into control, vehicle [polyethylene glycol (PEG)], and arctigenin 6, 20, 60 mg/kg treated groups.

A neuro-inspired artificial peripheral nervous system for scalable electronic skins.

The human sense of touch is essential for dexterous tool usage, spatial awareness, and social communication. Equipping intelligent human-like androids and prosthetics with electronic skins-a large array of sensors spatially distributed and capable of rapid somatosensory perception-will enable them to work collaboratively and naturally with humans to manipulate objects in unstructured living environments. Previously reported tactile-sensitive electronic skins largely transmit the tactile information from sensors serially, resulting in readout latency bottlenecks and complex wiring as the number of sensors increases.

Microbial transglutaminase induced controlled crosslinking of gelatin methacryloyl to tailor rheological properties for 3D printing.

Gelatin methacryloyl (GelMA) is a versatile biomaterial that has been shown to possess many advantages such as good biocompatibility, support for cell growth, tunable mechanical properties, photocurable capability, and low material cost. Due to these superior properties, much research has been carried out to develop GelMA as a bioink for bioprinting. However, there are still many challenges, and one major challenge is the control of its rheological properties to yield good printability.