NDR2 is critical for osteoclastogenesis by regulating ULK1-mediated mitophagy.

Bone homeostasis primarily stems from the balance between osteoblasts and osteoclasts, wherein an augmented number or heightened activity of osteoclasts is a prevalent etiological factor in the development of bone loss. Nuclear Dbf2-related kinase (NDR2), also known as STK38L, is a member of the Hippo family with serine/threonine kinase activity. We unveiled an upregulation of NDR2 expression during osteoclast differentiation.

Preparation of Mechanically Stable Self-Assembled Peptides Hydrogels.

Peptide hydrogels are highly hydrophilic, three-dimensional network gels formed by the self-assembly of nanofibers or polymers, creating water-locking networks. Their morphology closely resembles that of the extracellular matrix, allowing them to exhibit both the biological functions of peptides and responsive gelation properties. These unique characteristics have led to their extensive application in tissue engineering, three-dimensional cell culture, cancer therapy, regenerative medicine, and other biomedical fields.

Injectable hydrogel encapsulating siMMP13 with anti-ROS and anti-apoptotic functions for osteoarthritis treatment.

Background: Osteoarthritis (OA) is a degenerative joint disease characterized by the progressive degeneration of articular cartilage, leading to pain, stiffness, and loss of joint function. The pathogenesis of OA involves multiple factors, including increased intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS), enhanced chondrocyte apoptosis, and disturbances in cartilage matrix metabolism. These processes contribute to the breakdown of the extracellular matrix (ECM) and the loss of cartilage integrity, ultimately resulting in joint damage and dysfunction.

Non-unique Hamiltonians for discrete symplectic dynamics.

An outstanding property of any Hamiltonian system is the symplecticity of its flow, namely, the continuous trajectory preserves volume in phase space. Given a symplectic but discrete trajectory generated by a transition matrix applied at a fixed time-increment (τ > 0), it was generally believed that there exists a unique Hamiltonian producing a continuous trajectory that coincides at all discrete times (t = nτ with n integers) as long as τ is small enough. However, it is now exactly demonstrated that, for any given discrete symplectic dynamics of a harmonic oscillator, there exist an infinite number of real-valued Hamiltonians for any small value of τ and an infinite number of complex-valued Hamiltonians for any large value of τ.

Trends and Distribution of Infertility - Asia Pacific Region, 1990-2021.

What Is Already Known About This Topic?: Infertility represents a significant global public health concern, impacting approximately 15% of couples of reproductive age worldwide. Despite this, data on infertility prevalence in the demographically diverse Asia-Pacific region remains sparse.

What Is Added By This Report?: This study examines the trends and distribution of infertility in the Asia-Pacific region from 1990 to 2021, revealing a significant increase in female infertility.

Association between chronic disease status and transitions in depressive symptoms among middle-aged and older Chinese population: Insights from a Markov model-based cohort study.

Background: The relationship between chronic disease status (CDS) and transitions in depressive symptoms (DS) remains unclear. This study explores the association between CDS and DS transitions.

Methods: This cohort study analyzed data from 8175 participants aged 45+, sourced from China Family Panel Studies (2016, 2018, 2020).

The assessment and detection rate of intrinsic capacity deficits among older adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Assessing and monitoring intrinsic capacity (IC) is an effective strategy to promote healthy ageing by intervening early in high-risk populations. This review systematically analyzed the global detection rates of IC deficits and explored variations across diverse populations and data collection methods.

Methods: This study was preregistered with PROSPERO, CRD42023477315.

Evaluation of AlphaFold2 Structures for Hit Identification across Multiple Scenarios.

The introduction of AlphaFold2 (AF2) has sparked significant enthusiasm and generated extensive discussion within the scientific community, particularly among drug discovery researchers. Although previous studies have addressed the performance of AF2 structures in virtual screening (VS), a more comprehensive investigation is still necessary considering the paramount importance of structural accuracy in drug design. In this study, we evaluate the performance of AF2 structures in VS across three common drug discovery scenarios: targets with , , and AF2 structures; targets with only and AF2 structures; and targets exclusively with AF2 structures.

FATP2 regulates osteoclastogenesis by increasing lipid metabolism and ROS production.

Lipid metabolism plays a crucial role in maintaining bone homeostasis, particularly in osteoclasts (OCs) formation. Here, we found that the expression level of FATP2, a transporter for long-chain and very-long-chain fatty acids, was significantly upregulated during OC differentiation and in the bone marrow of mice fed a high-fat diet (HFD). Notably, the use of FATP2 siRNA or a specific inhibitor (Lipofermata) resulted in significant inhibition of OC differentiation, while only slightly affecting osteoblasts.

Two-electron oxidized polyphenol chemistry-inspired superhydrophilic drug-carrying coatings for the construction of multifunctional nasolacrimal duct stents.

Nasolacrimal duct obstruction due to infection, inflammation, or excessive fibroblast proliferation may result in persistent tearing, intraocular inflammation, or even blindness. In this study, surface engineering techniques are applied to nasolacrimal duct stents for the first time. Based on the functioning of marine mussels, "one-pot" and "stepwise" methods were employed to construct a novel multifunctional superhydrophilic PDA/RAP coating using dopamine and rapamycin.

Developmental toxicity and metabolomics analyses of zebrafish (Danio rerio) embryos exposed to Fenoxaprop-p-ethyl.

Fenoxaprop-p-ethyl (FEN) is an aryloxy phenoxy propionate herbicide that has been widely used in paddy fields. Previous studies have indicated that FEN is highly toxic to aquatic organisms, but little is known about the developmental effects of FEN. This study investigated acute and developmental toxicity, malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities, and metabolomic analyses in zebrafish embryos after 96 h of exposure.

Changing Patterns of Mortality in Diabetes Mellitus Among Older Adults - China, 1987-2021.

What Is Already Known About This Topic?: Diabetes mellitus poses a significant public health concern for older adults in China, resulting in increased mortality rates.

What Is Added By This Report?: This study investigates the evolving pattern of mortality associated with diabetes mellitus and analyzes the contributions of age, period, and cohort effects from 1987 to 2021. The results demonstrate a consistent rise in diabetes mellitus mortality over the last 30 years, notably in rural regions.

Urban-Rural Disparity in Mortality Patterns of Respiratory Diseases Among Older Adults - China, 1987-2021.

What Is Already Known About This Topic?: Respiratory diseases (RDs) are the primary cause of death in older adults in China. However, there is limited evidence regarding the disparity in mortality rates of RDs between urban and rural areas among the elderly population.

What Is Added By This Report?: The age-standardized mortality rate (ASMR) due to RDs in the elderly population in both urban and rural areas of China has shown a consistent decrease.

Socioeconomic, Health Services, and Multimorbidity Disparities in Chinese Older Adults.

Introduction: As one of the world's most populous countries, China persistently confronts a significant multimorbidity burden. This study aimed to elucidate the multimorbidity burden experienced by Chinese older adults, explore its interplay with socioeconomic disparity, and investigate potential correlations between these provincial disparities and health services availability.

Methods: The fourth wave of China's national Urban and Rural Elderly Population study, conducted in 2015, was used to construct a multimorbidity index and elucidate the geographic differences in the multimorbidity burden.

Trends and Patterns of Respiratory Tuberculosis Mortality in Rural and Urban - China, 1987-2021.

What Is Already Known About This Topic?: In China, an estimated 780,000 individuals contract tuberculosis (TB) every year. With TB ranked as the second most prevalent disease in terms of the morbidity and mortality rates for legally infectious diseases, it imparts a substantial disease burden on families and society.

What Is Added By This Report?: This study identifies specific periods and cohort effects related to trends in respiratory TB mortality in both rural and urban regions of China.

Widening rural-urban gap in life expectancy in China since COVID-19.

Introduction: Disparities in life expectancy between rural and urban populations are well established but how it varies with epidemics and pandemics remains poorly understood. We aimed to quantify the rural-urban differences in the mortality burden of COVID-19 and to contribute to understanding the disparity trends in life expectancy between 1987 and 2021 in China.

Methods: We used monthly death counts from death registration systems.

Urban-rural disparities in the prevalence and trends of depressive symptoms among Chinese elderly and their associated factors.

Background: This study aimed to examine urban-rural disparities in the prevalence and trends of depressive symptoms (DS) among Chinese elderly and associated factors.

Methods: A total of 8025, 7808, and 4887 respondents aged 60 years and above were selected from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) in 2016, 2018, and 2020, respectively. DS was assessed using a short version of Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D).

Healthy Lifestyles and Chronic Pain with New-Onset Metabolic-Related Multimorbidity among Older Adults - China, 2011-2018.

What Is Already Known About This Topic?: Chronic pain has been identified as a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Evidence shows that adopting a healthy lifestyle can help reduce the cardiometabolic risks associated with chronic pain.

What Is Added By This Report?: Results from this cohort study suggest a positive association between chronic pain and the development of new-onset metabolic-related multimorbidity, specifically metabolic multimorbidity and cardiometabolic comorbidity, within middle-aged and older Chinese adults.

Association between multimorbidity and memory-related diseases among middle-aged and older adults: Evidence from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study.

Objectives: This study aimed to examine the cross-sectional and longitudinal association between multimorbidity and memory-related diseases (MDs) among Chinese middle-aged and older adults.

Methods: This study included 8,338 subjects who participated in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS). Logistic regression and Cox proportional hazards regression models were used to explore the association and effect of multimorbidity on MDs.

The effect of equalization of public health services on the health China's migrant population: Evidence from 2018 China Migrants Dynamic Survey.

Objectives: China has implemented an equalization of public health Services policy for migrants in 40 pilot cities since 2013. The main objective of this study is to explore the effect of this migrant-based reform policy on the health status of the migrant population in China.

Methods: Using the China Migrants Dynamic Survey (CMDS), we included 152,000 migrants aged 15 years or over in 2018.

Sigmoid Accelerated Molecular Dynamics: An Efficient Enhanced Sampling Method for Biosystems.

Gaussian accelerated molecular dynamics (GaMD) is recognized as a popular enhanced sampling method for tackling long-standing challenges in biomolecular simulations. Inspired by GaMD, Sigmoid accelerated molecular dynamics (SaMD) is proposed in this work by adding a Sigmoid boost potential to improve the balance between the highest acceleration and accurate reweighting. Compared with GaMD, SaMD extends the accessible time scale and improves the computational efficiency as tested in three tasks.

Changing Patterns in Cancer Mortality from 1987 to 2020 in China.

Background: China has the highest number of new cancer cases and deaths worldwide, posing huge health and economic burdens to society and affected families. This study comprehensively analyzed secular trends of national cancer mortality statistics to inform future prevention and intervention programs in China.

Methods: The annual estimate of overall cancer mortality and its major subtypes were derived from the National Health Commission (NHC).