A Three-Tiered Hierarchical Computational Framework Bridging Molecular Systems and Junction-Level Charge Transport.

The nonequilibrium Green's function (NEGF) method combined with ab initio calculations has been widely used to study charge transport in molecular junctions. However, the significant computational demands of high-resolution calculations for all device components pose challenges in simulating junctions with complex molecular junction structures and understanding the functionality of molecular devices. In this study, we developed a series of computational methods capable of effectively handling the molecular Hamiltonian, electrode electronic structures, and their interfacial coupling at different theoretical levels.

FAPs orchestrate homeostasis of muscle physiology and pathophysiology.

As a common clinical manifestation, muscle weakness is prevalent in people with mobility disorders. Further studies of muscle weakness have found that patients with muscle weakness present with persistent muscle inflammation, loss of muscle fibers, fat infiltration, and interstitial fibrosis. Therefore, we propose the concept of muscle microenvironment homeostasis, which explains the abnormal pathological changes in muscles through the imbalance of muscle microenvironment homeostasis.

Alterations of gut virome with close interaction in the progression of estrogen deficiency-induced osteoporosis.

Previous research has established a link between gut microbiota and osteoporosis (OP) advancement. However, there remains a limited understanding of the crucial contribution of the gut virome in the onset and progression of OP. We employed metagenomic shotgun sequencing and gut virome sequencing to process the ovariectomy (OVX)-induced OP murine model, which revealed significant disparities in bacteriome and virome compositions between subjects with OP and healthy controls.

Hyperuricemia and elevated uric acid/creatinine ratio are associated with stages III/IV periodontitis: a population-based cross-sectional study (NHANES 2009-2014).

Objectives: To explore the association between hyperuricemia and having periodontitis.

Materials And Methods: A representative cross-sectional dataset of 10,158 adults was extracted from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 2009-2014. The association between hyperuricemia (the primary exposure) and having periodontitis (outcome) were evaluated using weighted logistic regression models.

Krüppel-like factors family in health and disease.

Krüppel-like factors (KLFs) are a family of basic transcription factors with three conserved Cys2/His2 zinc finger domains located in their C-terminal regions. It is acknowledged that KLFs exert complicated effects on cell proliferation, differentiation, survival, and responses to stimuli. Dysregulation of KLFs is associated with a range of diseases including cardiovascular disorders, metabolic diseases, autoimmune conditions, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases.

Gut microbially produced tryptophan metabolite melatonin ameliorates osteoporosis via modulating SCFA and TMAO metabolism.

Osteoporosis (OP) is a severe global health issue that has significant implications for productivity and human lifespan. Gut microbiota dysbiosis has been demonstrated to be closely associated with OP progression. Melatonin (MLT) is an important endogenous hormone that modulates bone metabolism, maintains bone homeostasis, and improves OP progression.

Gold nanoparticles exhibit anti-osteoarthritic effects via modulating interaction of the "microbiota-gut-joint" axis.

Osteoarthritis (OA) is a common degenerative joint disease that can cause severe pain, motor dysfunction, and even disability. A growing body of research indicates that gut microbiota and their associated metabolites are key players in maintaining bone health and in the progression of OA. Short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) are a series of active metabolites that widely participate in bone homeostasis.

Interleukin-22 inhibits cardiac fibrosis by regulating fibroblast metabolic reprogramming in myocardial infarction.

Cardiac fibrosis, a significant characteristic of cardiovascular diseases, leads to ventricular remodeling and impaired cardiac function. In this study, we aimed to investigate the role of Interleukin-22 (IL-22) in myocardial fibrosis following myocardial infarction (MI) and to explore the underlying metabolic mechanisms. Here we analyzed the single-cell sequencing data and found that the level of aerobic glycolysis was significantly higher in cardiac fibrosis in MI patient, which we validated through in vivo experiments.

Exosomal miR-223-3p from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells targets HDAC2 to downregulate STAT3 phosphorylation to alleviate HBx-induced ferroptosis in podocytes.

Hepatitis B virus associated-glomerulonephritis (HBV-GN) is one of the major secondary renal diseases in China, and microRNAs (miRNAs) in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes (BMSC-Exo) can attenuate HBV-X protein (HBx)-induced ferroptosis in renal podocytes, but the exact mechanism remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the protective mechanism of miR-223-3p in BMSC-Exo in HBx-induced ferroptosis in podocytes. The study employed human renal podocyte cells (HPCs), bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs), as well as kidney tissue from C57BL/6 mice and HBx transgenic mice.

Dynamic chromatin accessibility landscapes of osteoblast differentiation and mineralization.

Bone acts as a self-healing organ, which undergoes continuous regeneration process that is tightly regulated by the cooperation of osteoclasts with the capability of bone resorption and osteoblasts with the capability of bone formation. Generally, bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) differentiated to final osteoblasts have been considered as critical role in bone remodeling. In this regard, several transcription factors (TFs) whose binding sites are initially hidden deep within accessible chromatin that participate in modulating osteoblast differentiation and bone matrix mineralization.

Bile acid metabolism regulatory network orchestrates bone homeostasis.

Bile acids (BAs), synthesized in the liver and modified by the gut microbiota, have been widely appreciated not only as simple lipid emulsifiers, but also as complex metabolic regulators and momentous signaling molecules, which play prominent roles in the complex interaction among several metabolic systems. Recent studies have drawn us eyes on the diverse physiological functions of BAs, to enlarge the knowledge about the "gut-bone" axis due to the participation about the gut microbiota-derived BAs to modulate bone homeostasis at physiological and pathological stations. In this review, we have summarized the metabolic processes of BAs and highlighted the crucial roles of BAs targeting bile acid-activated receptors, promoting the proliferation and differentiation of osteoblasts (OBs), inhibiting the activity of osteoclasts (OCs), as well as reducing articular cartilage degradation, thus facilitating bone repair.

Calycosin inhibits triple-negative breast cancer progression through down-regulation of the novel estrogen receptor-α splice variant ER-α30-mediated PI3K/AKT signaling pathway.

Background: Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous carcinoma characterized by the most aggressive phenotype among all breast cancer subtypes. However, therapeutic options for TNBC patients have limited clinical efficacy due to lack of specific target and efficient targeted therapeutics.

Aim: To investigate the biological characteristics of a novel estrogen receptor (ER)-α splice variant ER-α30 in breast cancer cells, and its possible role in the anticancer effects of calycosin, a typical phytoestrogen derived from the herbal plant Astragalus membranaceus, against TNBC.

Bone marrow mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes protect podocytes from HBx-induced ferroptosis.

Introduction: Hepatitis B virus-associated glomerulonephritis (HBV-GN) is a common secondary kidney disease in China, the pathogenesis of which is not completely clear, and there is still a lack of effective treatment.

Methods: The mechanism of exosomes derived from bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs) was investigated by using HBx-transfected human renal podocytes. Cell viability was detected by CCK8 assay.

Gold-nanosphere mitigates osteoporosis through regulating TMAO metabolism in a gut microbiota-dependent manner.

Osteoporosis (OP) is a metabolic bone disease characterized by decreased bone mass and increased bone fragility. The imbalance of bone homeostasis modulated by osteoclasts and osteoblasts is the most crucial pathological change in osteoporosis. As a novel treatment strategy, nanomedicine has been applied in drug delivery and targeted therapy due to its high efficiency, precision, and fewer side effects.

HBx-induced PLAR overexpression mediates podocyte pyroptosis through the ROS-NLRP3 signaling pathway.

Introduction: Hepatitis B virus-associated glomerulonephritis (HBV-GN) is one of the main types of secondary glomerular diseases, and podocyte injury is an important pathogenic mechanism of HBV-GN, participating in the occurrence and development of HBV-GN. However, the specific mechanism of podocyte injury remains to be studied.

Methods: Human renal podocytes cultured were divided into six groups.

Neurocognitive Dynamics of Prosodic Salience over Semantics during Explicit and Implicit Processing of Basic Emotions in Spoken Words.

How language mediates emotional perception and experience is poorly understood. The present event-related potential (ERP) study examined the explicit and implicit processing of emotional speech to differentiate the relative influences of communication channel, emotion category and task type in the prosodic salience effect. Thirty participants (15 women) were presented with spoken words denoting happiness, sadness and neutrality in either the prosodic or semantic channel.

Ginkgo Leaf Inspired Fabrication of Micro/Nanostructures and Demonstration of Flexible Enzyme-Free Glucose Sensors.

Flexible enzyme-free glucose sensors have attracted widespread attention due to their importance and potential applications in clinical diagnosis, flexible wearable devices, and implanted devices in vivo. At present, there are still major problems in fabricating flexible enzyme-free glucose sensors with low detection limits, high stability, and high sensitivity at low cost, hindering their practical application. Here, we report a facile strategy for the fabrication of flexible non-enzymatic glucose sensors using ginkgo leaf as a template.

Delayed diagnosis of complex glycerol kinase deficiency in a Chinese male infant: a case report.

Background: Xp21 contiguous gene deletion syndrome is a rare genetic metabolic disorder with poor prognosis in infants, involving deletions of one or more genes in Xp21. When deletions of adrenal hypoplasia (AHC), Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), and chronic granulomatosis (CGD) loci are included, complex glycerol kinase deficiency (CGKD) can be diagnosed. We present a case of CGKD that was initially misdiagnosed and died during treatment in our hospital in terms of improving our understanding of the clinical features and diagnosis of this disease, as well as highlighting the need for more precise dosing of corticosteroid replacement therapy.

MicroRNA-223 downregulation promotes HBx-induced podocyte pyroptosis by targeting the NLRP3 inflammasome.

Hepatitis B virus (HBV) and its related protein, HBV X (HBx), play an important role in podocyte injury in HBV-associated glomerulonephritis (HBV-GN). The microRNA MiR-223 is expressed in several diseases, including HBV-associated disease, while the nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome plays a major role in pyroptosis. In this study, we investigated the function and mechanism of action of miR-223 in HBx-induced podocyte pyroptosis.

Hepatitis B virus X mediates podocyte pyroptosis by regulating the ROS/NLRP3 signaling pathway in hepatitis B virus-associated glomerulonephritis.

Objectives: This study was designed to investigate whether HBx-induced podocyte injury is related to the nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor protein 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome and the specific mechanism of the oxidative stress pathway in hepatitis B virus-associated glomerulonephritis (HBV-GN).

Materials And Methods: The HBx gene was overexpressed in renal podocytes to mimic HBV-GN. Podocyte morphology was observed under a scanning electron microscope.

The crucial mechanism and therapeutic implication of RNA methylation in bone pathophysiology.

Methylation is the most common posttranscriptional modification in cellular RNAs, which has been reported to modulate the alteration of RNA structure for initiating relevant functions such as nuclear translocation and RNA degradation. Recent studies found that RNA methylation especially N6-methyladenosine (mA) regulates the dynamic balance of bone matrix and forms a complicated network in bone metabolism. The modulation disorder of RNA methylation contributes to several pathological bone diseases including osteoporosis (OP), osteoarthritis (OA), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), and so on.

Modulation of SIRT6 activity acts as an emerging therapeutic implication for pathological disorders in the skeletal system.

The skeletal system is a dynamically balanced system, which undergoes continuous bone resorption and formation to maintain bone matrix homeostasis. As an important ADP-ribosylase and NAD-dependent deacylase, SIRT6 (SIR2-like protein 6) is widely expressed on various kinds of bone cells, such as chondrocytes, osteoblasts, osteoclasts. The aberration of SIRT6 impairs gene expression (e.