GLS1-mediated glutamine metabolism mitigates oxidative stress-induced matrix degradation, ferroptosis, and senescence in nucleus pulposus cells by modulating Fe homeostasis.

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is intricately linked to the pathogenesis of low back pain (LBP). The balance of nucleus pulposus (NP) cell and intervertebral disc (IVD) integrity is significantly supported by amino acid metabolism within an avascular milieu. However, the specific metabolic demands during the progression of IDD are not fully understood.

Multi-resonance emitters with room-temperature phosphorescence in amorphous state and excited by visible light.

Unlike boron, nitrogen-containing multi-resonance emitters with thermally activated delayed fluorescence, here we report boron, sulfur (B, S)-based multi-resonance emitters with room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) by inserting thiophene into a 5,9-dithia-13-boranaphtho[3,2,1-]anthracene skeleton that simultaneously realizes large singlet-triplet energy splitting and strong spin-orbital coupling, leading to efficient room-temperature phosphorescence in an amorphous state. Unlike most RTP emitters with ultraviolet excitation, the multi-resonance RTP emitters exhibit strong phosphorescence under daily-use blue/white LED lamps owing to their intense absorption in the visible-light region (400-486 nm). Meanwhile, such RTP behavior can be tuned by the number and fusing pattern of the thiophene moieties, with the emitters containing thiophene linked to boron atoms α-positions exhibiting bathochromatically shifted emissions and longer phosphorescence lifetimes (47.

The muscle-intervertebral disc interaction mediated by L-BAIBA modulates extracellular matrix homeostasis and PANoptosis in nucleus pulposus cells.

Upon engaging in physical activity, skeletal muscle synthesizes myokines, which not only facilitate crosstalk with various organs, including the brain, adipose tissue, bone, liver, gut, pancreas, and skin but also promote intramuscular signaling. Crosstalk is vital for maintaining various physiological processes. However, the specific interactions between skeletal muscle and intervertebral discs remain largely unexplored.

Cervical facet joint degeneration, facet joint angle, and paraspinal muscle degeneration are correlated with degenerative cervical spondylolisthesis at C4/5: a propensity score-matched study.

Background Context: Prior studies have hypothesized that degenerative cervical spondylolisthesis (DCS) may be influenced by loss of stability due to disc, facet joint or cervical alignment. Meanwhile, it is commonly believed that the facet joints and paraspinal muscles participate in maintaining cervical spine stability. However, the impact of paraspinal muscle morphology and detailed facet joint features on DCS requires further investigation.

Event-based asynchronous HDR imaging by temporal incident light modulation.

Dynamic range (DR) is a pivotal characteristic of imaging systems. Current frame-based cameras struggle to achieve high dynamic range imaging due to the conflict between globally uniform exposure and spatially variant scene illumination. In this paper, we propose AsynHDR, a pixel-asynchronous HDR imaging system, based on key insights into the challenges in HDR imaging and the unique event-generating mechanism of dynamic vision sensors (DVS).

IL-2-free tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte therapy with PD-1 blockade demonstrates potent efficacy in advanced gynecologic cancer.

Background: Tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy has been restricted by intensive lymphodepletion and high-dose intravenous interleukin-2 (IL-2) administration. To address these limitations, we conducted preclinical and clinical studies to evaluate the safety, antitumor activity, and pharmacokinetics of an innovative modified regimen in patients with advanced gynecologic cancer.

Methods: Patient-derived xenografts (PDX) were established from a local recurrent cervical cancer patient.

Umbilical cord blood-derived neutrophils possess higher viability than peripheral blood derived neutrophils.

Neutrophils, a primary type of immune cell, play critical roles in numerous biological processes. Both umbilical cord blood (UCB) and peripheral blood are rich in neutrophils. UCB is more abundant than peripheral blood, with cells generally at a more immature stage.

Purification and biochemical characterization of the G4 resolvase and DNA helicase FANCJ.

G-quadruplex (G4) DNA or RNA poses a unique nucleic acid structure in genomic transactions. Because of the unique topology presented by G4, cells have exquisite mechanisms and pathways to metabolize G4 that arise in guanine-rich regions of the genome such as telomeres, promoter regions, ribosomal DNA, and other chromosomal elements. G4 resolvases are often represented by a class of molecular motors known as helicases that disrupt the Hoogsteen hydrogen bonds in G4 by harnessing the chemical energy of nucleoside triphosphate hydrolysis.

Glutamine Mitigates Oxidative Stress-Induced Matrix Degradation, Ferroptosis, and Pyroptosis in Nucleus Pulposus Cells via Deubiquitinating and Stabilizing Nrf2.

Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is closely related to low back pain, which is a prevalent age-related problem worldwide; however, the mechanism underlying IDD is unknown. Glutamine, a free amino acid prevalent in plasma, is recognized for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties in various diseases, and the current study aims to clarify the effect and mechanism of glutamine in IDD. A synergistic interplay was observed between pyroptosis and ferroptosis within degenerated human disc specimens.

Novel Risk Factors for Cervical Facet Joint Degeneration in the Subaxial Cervical Spine: Correlation with Cervical Sagittal Alignment and Bone Mineral Density.

Objective: The impact of cervical sagittal alignment on cervical facet joint degeneration (CFD) and the risk factors for CFD in patients with degenerative cervical myelopathy (DCM) were investigated in the current study.

Methods: A total of 250 surgical patients with DCM were recruited. The clinical data and radiographical characteristics, including CFD, cervical sagittal balance parameters, Hounsfield unit (HU) values, disc degeneration (DD), and modic change, were collected.

DDX41: exploring the roles of a versatile helicase.

DDX41 is a DEAD-box helicase and is conserved across species. Mutations in DDX41 have been associated with myeloid neoplasms, including myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia. Though its pathogenesis is not completely known, DDX41 has been shown to have many cellular roles, including in pre-mRNA splicing, innate immune sensing, ribosome biogenesis, translational regulation, and R-loop metabolism.

Structural distortion-induced monoclinic sodium iron hexacyanoferrate as a high-performance electrode for rocking-chair desalination batteries.

Sodium iron hexacyanoferrate (NaFeHCF) has been recognized as a promising Prussian blue analogue (PBA)-based electrode for electrochemical desalination; however, its application potential is limited by its unsatisfactory desalination capacity and cycling stability. Herein, the structurally distorted high-quality monoclinic NaFeHCF with fewer defects in the framework was synthesized by a crystal-controlled coprecipitation method tuning the crystallization reaction conditions and applied to seawater desalination. Physicochemical characterization and desalination experiments show that the NFHFC-2 with minimized defects possesses enhanced electrochemical activity of Fe and electrochemical kinetics, thus achieving higher desalination performance (specific capacity of 75.

Improving gut functions and egg nutrition with stevia residue in laying hens.

This study aimed to investigate the effect of stevia residue (STER) on the production performance, egg quality and nutrition, antioxidant ability, immune responses, gut morphology and microbiota of laying hens during the peak laying period. A total of 270 Yikoujingfen NO. 8 laying hens (35 wk of age) were randomly divided into 5 treatments.

An Accurate Estimate of the Amino Acid Content of Human Milk Collected from Chinese Women Adjusted for Differences in Amino Acid Digestibility.

Background: The amino acid (AA) composition of human milk is used to define the AA requirements of the infant. Thus, it is important that estimates of composition be as complete and accurate as possible. When determining AA composition using standard hydrolysis methods, some AAs are progressively destroyed while others are incompletely released.

Helicases in R-loop Formation and Resolution.

With the development and wide usage of CRISPR technology, the presence of R-loop structures, which consist of an RNA-DNA hybrid and a displaced single-strand (ss) DNA, has become well accepted. R-loop structures have been implicated in a variety of circumstances and play critical roles in the metabolism of nucleic acid and relevant biological processes, including transcription, DNA repair, and telomere maintenance. Helicases are enzymes that use an ATP-driven motor force to unwind double-strand (ds) DNA, dsRNA, or RNA-DNA hybrids.

Carbazole-Decorated Organoboron Emitters with Low-Lying HOMO Levels for Solution-Processed Narrowband Blue Hyperfluorescence OLED Devices.

The hyperfluorescence has drawn great attention in achieving efficient narrowband emitting devices based on multiple resonance thermally activated delayed fluorescence (MR-TADF) emitters. However, achieving efficient solution-processed pure blue hyperfluorescence devices is still a challenge, due to the unbalanced charge transport and serious exciton quenching caused by that the holes are easily trapped on the high-lying HOMO (the highest occupied molecular orbital) level of traditional diphenylamine-decorated emitters. Here, we developed two narrowband blue organoboron emitters with low-lying HOMO levels by decorating the MR-TADF core with weakly electron-donating carbazoles, which could suppress the hole trapping effect by reducing the hole traps between host and MR-TADF emitter from deep (0.

MUC16 stimulates neutrophils to an inflammatory and immunosuppressive phenotype in ovarian cancer.

Background: MUC16 (CA125) is a commonly used tumor marker for ovarian cancer screening and reported to be an immunosuppressive factor by acting on the sialic acid-binding immunoglobulin-like lectin-9 (Siglec-9) on the surface of natural killer cells (NK cells), B cells, and monocytes. However, the role of MUC16 on neutrophils in the tumor microenvironment remains to be further explored.

Methods: The correlation between the proportion and count of peripheral blood cells, serum inflammatory-related factors and serum MUC16 (CA125) level in patients was constructed based on clinical samples.

Identification of TRPM2 as a prognostic factor correlated with immune infiltration in ovarian cancer.

Introduction: Ovarian cancer (OC) is one of the most common gynecologic malignant cancers with the current survival rate remaining low. TRPM2 has been reported as a survival predictor in various cancers but not in OC. The aim of this study is to explore the role and its underlying mechanism of TRPM2 in OC.

A multimodal imaging-based classification for pediatric diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas.

Object: Pediatric diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a radiologically heterogeneous disease entity, here we aim to establish a multimodal imaging-based radiological classification and evaluate the outcome of different treatment strategies under this classification frame.

Methods: This retrospective study included 103 children diagnosed with DIPGs between January 2015 and August 2018 in Beijing Tiantan Hospital (Beijing, China). Multimodal radiological characteristics, including conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), diffuse tensor imaging/diffuse tensor tractography (DTI/DTT), and positron emission tomography (PET) were reviewed to construct the classification.

Topological and random spread models with frozen symbols.

When a symbol or a type has been "frozen" (namely, a type of which an individual only produces one individual of the same type), its spread pattern will be changed and this change will affect the long-term behavior of the whole system. However, in a frozen system, the ξ-matrix and the offspring mean matrix are no longer primitive so that the Perron-Frobenius theorem cannot be applied directly when predicting the spread rates. In this paper, our goal is to characterize these key matrices and analyze the spread rate under more general settings both in the topological and random spread models with frozen symbols.

Pan-cancer integrated bioinformatics analysis reveals cuproptosis related gene FDX1 is a potential prognostic and immunotherapeutic biomarker for lower-grade gliomas.

FDX1 participates in cuproptosis, a copper-dependent cell death mode, which might influence tumor progressions like ferroptosis and pyroptosis. However, the role of FDX1 in tumors remains to be explored. This study investigated FDX1 expression features, and correlations to prognosis, tumor stages, immune microenvironment, and cuproptosis from a pan-cancer perspective based on integrated bioinformatics.

Synthetic lethal interactions of DEAD/H-box helicases as targets for cancer therapy.

DEAD/H-box helicases are implicated in virtually every aspect of RNA metabolism, including transcription, pre-mRNA splicing, ribosomes biogenesis, nuclear export, translation initiation, RNA degradation, and mRNA editing. Most of these helicases are upregulated in various cancers and mutations in some of them are associated with several malignancies. Lately, synthetic lethality (SL) and synthetic dosage lethality (SDL) approaches, where genetic interactions of cancer-related genes are exploited as therapeutic targets, are emerging as a leading area of cancer research.

Mathematical analysis of topological and random m-order spread models.

This paper focuses on the analysis of two particular models, from deterministic and random perspective respectively, for spreading processes. With a proper encoding of propagation patterns, the spread rate of each pattern is discussed for both models by virtue of the substitution dynamical systems and branching process. In view of this, we are empowered to draw a comparison between two spreading processes according to their spreading models, based on which explanations are proposed on a higher frequency of a pattern in one model than the other.

C-methionine PET imaging characteristics in children with diffuse intrinsic pontine gliomas and relationship to survival and H3 K27M mutation status.

Purpose: This study aimed to describe C-methionine (C-MET) PET imaging characteristics in patients with paediatric diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) and correlate them with survival and H3 K27M mutation status.

Methods: We retrospectively analysed 98 children newly diagnosed with DIPG who underwent C-MET PET. PET imaging characteristics evaluated included uptake intensity, uniformity, metabolic tumour volume (MTV), and total lesion methionine uptake (TLMU).

The Effect of an Essential Oil Blend on Growth Performance, Intestinal Health, and Microbiota in Early-Weaned Piglets.

Essential oils (EO) are promising feed additives for their antibacterial, antioxidant, and immune-enhancing abilities with low toxicity. Carvacrol, thymol, and cinnamaldehyde are commonly used to synthesize EO. However, few studies focus on combining these three EO in early-weaned piglets.