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Summary The medicinal plant Scutellaria baicalensis Georgi is rich in specialized 4′‐deoxyflavones, which are reported to have many health‐promoting properties. We assayed Scutellaria flavones with different methoxyl groups on human cancer cell lines and found that polymethoxylated 4′‐deoxyflavones, like skullcapflavone I and tenaxin I have stronger ability to induce apoptosis compared to unmethylated baicalein, showing that methoxylation enhances bioactivity as well as the physical properties of specialized flavones, while having no side‐effects on healthy cells. We investigated the formation of methoxylated flavones and found that two O‐methyltransferase (OMT) families are active in the roots of S. baicalensis. The Type II OMTs, SbPFOMT2 and SbPFOMT5, decorate one of two adjacent hydroxyl groups on flavones and are responsible for methylation on the C6, 8 and 3′‐hydroxyl positions, to form oroxylin A, tenaxin II and chrysoeriol respectively. The Type I OMTs, SbFOMT3, SbFOMT5 and SbFOMT6 account mainly for C7‐methoxylation of flavones, but SbFOMT5 can also methylate baicalein on its C5 and C6‐hydroxyl positions. The dimethoxylated flavone, skullcapflavone I (found naturally in roots of S. baicalensis) can be produced in yeast by co‐expressing SbPFOMT5 plus SbFOMT6 when the appropriately hydroxylated 4′‐deoxyflavone substrates are supplied in the medium. Co‐expression of SbPFOMT5 plus SbFOMT5 in yeast produced tenaxin I, also found in Scutellaria roots. This work showed that both type I and type II OMT enzymes are involved in biosynthesis of methoxylated flavones in S. baicalensis.

Background: Lung cancer (LC) is one of the most aggressive, prevalent and fatal malignancies. Gut microbes and their associated metabolites are thought to cause and modulate LC development, albeit influenced by the host genetic make-up and environment. Herein, we identified and classified gut microbiota and serum metabolites associated with LC.Methods: Stool samples were collected from 41 LC patients and 40 healthy volunteers. The gut microbiota was analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Serum samples were collected from the same LC patients (n=30) and healthy volunteers (n=30) and serum metabolites were analyzed using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). Microbiome and metabolome data were analyzed separately and integrated for combined analysis using various bioinformatics methods.Results: Serum metabolomics uncovered 870 metabolites regulated in 76 metabolic pathways in both groups. Microbial diversity analyses identified 15967 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) in groups. Of these, the abundance of 232 OTUs was significantly different between HC and LC groups. Also, serum levels of glycerophospholipids (LysoPE 18:3, LysoPC 14:0, LysoPC 18:3), Imidazopyrimidines (Hypoxanthine), AcylGlcADG 66:18; AcylGlcADG (22:6/22:6/22:6) and Acylcarnitine 11:0 were substantially different between HC and LC groups. Combined analysis correlated LC-associated microbes with metabolites, such as Erysipelotrichaceae_UCG_003, Clostridium and Synergistes with glycerophospholipids.Conclusions: There is an intricate relationship between gut microbiome and levels of several metabolites such as glycerophospholipids and imidazopyrimidines. Microbial-associated metabolites are potential diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for LC.

The current hydroponic experiment investigated differences in the uptake, physiological response and defence mechanisms of Hydrilla verticillata (L.f.) Royle in response to three representative toxic heavy metals. The results revealed the following: as an excellent heavy metal accumulator, H. verticillata showed an accumulation pattern of Ni > Cd > Pb within experimental scope. Fourteen days (Ni and Cd) and 21 days (Pb) were the time thresholds under the same heavy metal concentration toxicity, while 33.06 μM (Ni) and 40 μM (Cd and Pb) were the concentration thresholds under the same 21-day duration treatment, to accumulate the most amount of metals. Hence, Pb might be accumulated more if it expands the experimental duration and concentration, for it continuously increases throughout the experimental period. Reasons for these uptake differences are that plant physiological response, tolerance and resistance vary under different heavy metal stress. First, the biomass and protein content of H. verticillata were both the highest under Pb stress, indicating the plant largest tolerance to Pb stress. Second, the tolerance thresholds of three antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT and POD) were the highest under Pb stress. Third, the three antioxidant enzymes and two other related resistance-causing enzymes (PPO and PAL) revealed that plant resistance was strongest at low Cd concentrations (0–20 μM) and at high Pb stress levels (40 μM). Furthermore, CAT is the most important antioxidant enzyme to combat three metal stresses (average relevance: CAT(0.89) > POD(0.48) > SOD(0.42)), while PAL is more important than PPO (average relevance: PAL (0.77) > PPO(0.72)). In conclusion, Pb-polluted water is best treated with H. verticillata because of the latter’s high uptake potential and strong defence capacity. These results provide an accurate, efficient and economical reference for phytoremediation. Graphical abstract

Perovskite light-emitting diodes (LEDs) show promises for next-generation displays owing to their excellent luminescent properties and low cost. Despite substantial progress with green- and red-emitting devices, the development of efficient blue perovskite LEDs has lagged behind. Here we demonstrate efficient blue perovskite LEDs based on a mixed two-dimensional–three-dimensional perovskite and a multifunctional ionic additive that enables control over the reduced-dimensional phases, non-radiative recombination channels and spectral stability. We report a series of devices that emit efficient electroluminescence from mixed bromide/chloride quasi-three-dimensional regions, with external quantum efficiencies of up to 21.4% (at a luminance of 22 cd m –2 and emission peak at 483 nm), 13.2% (at a luminance of 2.0 cd m – 2 and emission peak at 474 nm) and 7.3% (at a luminance of 6 cd m –2 and emission peak at 464 nm). Devices show a nearly 30-fold increase in operational stability compared with control LEDs, with a half-lifetime of 129 min at an initial luminance of 100 cd m –2 . Our findings demonstrate the performance of blue perovskite LEDs close to that of state-of-the-art blue organic LEDs and inorganic quantum dot LEDs and provide a new approach to design multifunctional molecules to boost the performance of perovskite optoelectronic devices. Addition of a multifunctional ionic additive in mixed two-dimensional–three-dimensional bromide/chloride perovskites enables efficient blue perovskite LEDs with external quantum efficiency of up to 21.4% and half-lifetime of 129 min at an initial luminance of 100 cd m –2 .

We propose a Chern insulator in a two-dimensional electron system with Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling, ferromagnetism, and spin-dependent effective mass. The analytically-obtained topological phase diagrams show the topological phase transitions induced by tuning the magnetization orientation with the Chern number varying between 1, 0, −1. The magnetization orientation tuning shown here is a more practical way of triggering the topological phase transitions than manipulating the exchange coupling that is no longer tunable after the fabrication of the system. The analytic results are confirmed by the band structure and transport calculations, showing the feasibility of this theoretical proposal. With the advanced and mature semiconductor engineering today, this Chern insulator is very possible to be experimentally realized and also promising to topological spintronics.

Gene mutation’s role in initiating carcinogenesis has been controversial, but it is consensually accepted that both carcinogenesis and cancer metastasis are gene-regulated processes. MTA1, a metastasis-associated protein, has been extensively researched, especially regarding its role in cancer metastasis. In this review, I try to elucidate MTA1’s role in both carcinogenesis and metastasis from a different angle. I propose that MTA1 is a stress response protein that is upregulated in various stress-related situations such as heat shock, hypoxia, and ironic radiation. Cancer cells are mostly living in a stressful environment of hypoxia, lack of nutrition, and immune reaction attacks. To cope with all these stresses, MTA1 expression is upregulated, plays a role of master regulator of gene expression, and helps cancer cells to survive and migrate out of their original dwelling.

Electrochromic (EC) displays attract growing interest as promising candidates for next-generation transparent displays due to their intrinsic high transmittance and excellent eye-friendly properties. However, achieving simultaneous high transparency and vivid multicolor switching remains challenging. Here, we present a single-molecule design strategy that integrates a rhodamine moiety with a ProDOT (3,4-propylenedioxythiophene) unit. Following systematic screening of molecular dopants, these systems demonstrate well-matched electrochemical potential windows and compatible redox behaviors, thereby effectively eliminating color interference. The as-prepared PTRh-B devices achieve high optical transmittance with three distinct optical states—colorless, magenta, and blue—and multiple stable states (colorless and blue states >5 h; magenta state >30 days). The devices also show excellent cycling stability of over 5,200 cycles for the colorless-to-magenta and 8,400 cycles for magenta-to-blue transitions, coupled with fast switching times of 0.13 s and 1.8 s, respectively. Moreover, functional pixel-level display is successfully realized, underscoring the significant potential for developing advanced transparent and energy-efficient display and electronic erasable memory systems. To achieve simultaneous transparency and vivid multicolor switching in electrochromics is desirable owing to their potential as next-generation transparent displays. Here, the authors show a single-molecule design strategy that integrates a rhodamine moiety with a propylenedioxythiophene unit and incorporates molecular doping to achieve high optical transmittance with three distinct optical states.

The low tensile strength characteristics of cement-based materials are the biggest defect restricting their use. Understanding the mechanisms behind tensile cracking shows great significance in guiding the design of cement-based materials and their structures. Hence, a semi-analytical solution of the cohesive zone model (CZM) was developed to describe the failure mode of cement-based materials. This study used the boundary collocation method to obtain the linear elastic solution of stress function that satisfies the boundary conditions, on the basis of the Williams stress function. Subsequently, the semi-analytic solution of CZM was proposed through the weighted integral method by combining CZM and the bonding zone (CZ), and crack opening displacement (COD) obtained from wedge-splitting tests. Finally, the distribution of cohesion and COD were obtained. The results indicated that the COD obtained from CZM showed great agreement with the COD obtained from the tests, with a maximal error of 15.5%. Meanwhile, the cohesion at the CZ tip in CZM has an error of 2.1% compared to the tensile strength of cement-based materials obtained from experiments. These results indicate the high accuracy of proposed CZM in describing the failure of cement-based materials. A new method is proposed to determine the analytical solution of cohesive zone model based on the stress function of fracture specimen and the measurable fracture test data.

Airway remodeling is a repair process that occurs after injury resulting in increased airway hyper-responsiveness in asthma. Thymic stromal lymphopoietin (TSLP), a vital cytokine, plays a critical role in orchestrating, perpetuating and amplifying the inflammatory response in asthma. TSLP is also a critical factor in airway remodeling in asthma. To examine the role of TSLP-induced cellular senescence in airway remodeling of asthma in vitro and in vivo. Cellular senescence and airway remodeling were examined in lung specimens from patients with asthma using immunohischemical analysis. Both small molecule and shRNA approaches that target the senescent signaling pathways were used to explore the role of cellular senescence in TSLP-induced airway remodeling in vitro. Senescence-Associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-Gal) staining, and BrdU assays were used to detect cellular senescence. In addition, the Stat3-targeted inhibitor, WP1066, was evaluated in an asthma mouse model to determine if inhibiting cellular senescence influences airway remodeling in asthma. Activation of cellular senescence as evidenced by checkpoint activation and cell cycle arrest was detected in airway epithelia samples from patients with asthma. Furthermore, TSLP-induced cellular senescence was required for airway remodeling in vitro. In addition, a mouse asthma model indicates that inhibiting cellular senescence blocks airway remodeling and relieves airway resistance. TSLP stimulation can induce cellular senescence during airway remodeling in asthma. Inhibiting the signaling pathways of cellular senescence overcomes TSLP-induced airway remodeling.

Disseminated herpes zoster (DHZ) is defined by the involvement of more than two non-contiguous dermatomes or the presence of at least 20 lesions beyond the primary affected dermatome. The varicella-zoster virus (VZV) can lead to disseminated infection when the host's immune response is insufficient to halt cell-associated viremia. This study aimed to summarize the clinical characteristics and potential risk factors associated with DHZ and to identify and assess factors related to prognosis to enhance the prevention and management strategies for DHZ patients. The demographic information of DHZ patients who presented to our department between January 2019 and January 2025 was retrospectively collected. Patients with a confirmed diagnosis of DHZ were monitored to identify morbidity risk factors and the incidence of postherpetic neuralgia. A total of 109 patients were diagnosed with DHZ, with a male predominance (65 patients, 59.63%) and 44 female patients (40.37%). The mean age of the patients was 68.6 years. Advanced age (≥65 years) was the most prevalent demographic risk factor. In the assessment of prognostic outcomes, concomitant conditions including hypertension, diabetes, and cancer, along with severe pain (VAS score 7-10), were significantly associated with an increased risk of postherpetic neuralgia in a univariate analysis. Furthermore, a multivariable logistic regression analysis identified cancer as an independent risk factor for prolonged disease duration (OR = 4.271,  = 0.002). This study identified advanced age, cardiovascular disease, and chronic inflammation as independent risk factors for DHZ, highlighting potential target groups for vaccination. Moreover, factors such as hypertension, diabetes, and severe initial pain were associated with postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) in a univariate analysis, suggesting avenues for early attention. These findings highlight the importance of early recognition, aggressive management, and, most importantly, targeted preventive vaccination with the non-live recombinant vaccine in high-risk populations, including cancer patients, to reduce the substantial morbidity associated with disseminated herpes zoster.