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Sucrose is the main photosynthesis product of plants and the fundamental carbon skeleton monomer and energy supply for seed formation and development. Drought stress induces decreased photosynthetic carbon assimilation capacity, and seriously affects seed weight in soybean. However, little is known about the relationship between decreases in soybean seed yield and disruption of sucrose metabolism and transport balance in leaves and seeds during the reproductive stages of crop growth. Three soybean cultivars with similar growth periods, “Shennong17”, “Shennong8”, and “Shennong12”, were subjected to drought stress during reproductive growth for 45 days. Drought stress significantly reduced leaf photosynthetic rate, shoot biomass, and seed weight by 63.93, 33.53, and 41.65%, respectively. Drought stress increased soluble sugar contents, the activities of sucrose phosphate synthase, sucrose synthase, and acid invertase enzymes, and up-regulated the expression levels of GmSPS1, GmSuSy2, and GmA-INV, but decreased starch content by 15.13% in leaves. Drought stress decreased the contents of starch, fructose, and glucose in seeds during the late seed filling stages, while it induced sucrose accumulation, which resulted in a decreased hexose-to-sucrose ratio. In developing seeds, the activities of sucrose synthesis and degradation enzymes, the expression levels of genes related to metabolism, and the expression levels of sucrose transporter genes were enhanced during early seed development under drought stress; however, under prolonged drought stress, all of them decreased. These results demonstrated that drought stress enhances the capacity for unloading sucrose into seeds and activated sucrose metabolism during early seed development. At the middle and late seed filling stages, sucrose flow from leaves to seeds was diminished, and the balance of sucrose metabolism was impaired in seeds, resulting in seed mass reduction. The different regulation strategies in sucrose allocation, metabolism, and transport during different seed development stages may be one of the physiological mechanisms for soybean plants to resist drought stress.

This study aims to determine variability among soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) cultivars under drought conditions and how nitrogen metabolites, metabolism-related enzymes, and gene expression vary during soybean growth. Three soybean cultivars, Shennong17 (CV.SN17), Shennong8 (CV.SN8), and Shennong12 (CV.SN12), were grown in pot culture and subjected to drought stress at reproductive stages for 45 days. The results showed that long-term drought stress decreased biomass allocation to reproductive organs, weakened antioxidant capacity, and reduced seed weight, effects that were less pronounced in CV.SN12 compared with those in CV.SN8 and CV.SN17. Drought stress decreased the concentrations of nitrogen and soluble protein but increased nitrate concentration in leaves. This was related to the significantly reduction of nitrogen metabolism efficiency, including decreased activities of nitrogen metabolism enzymes, and downregulated expression of GmNR, GmNiR, GmGS, and GmGOGAT. Drought stress increased the concentrations of free amino acid, proline, and soluble sugar in leaves to enhance the osmotic adjustment ability. Furthermore, soybean seed weight showed significantly correlation (p < 0.05) with nitrogen-metabolism-related parameters. Based on the performance of growth, nitrogen metabolism, and yield attributes, CV.SN12 showed the highest tolerance to drought, followed by CV.SN8 and CV.SN17. In addition, these nitrogen-metabolism-related parameters could be used in soybeans to select for drought tolerance.

Pulmonary inhalation administration is an ideal approach to locally treat lung disease and to achieve systemic administration for other diseases. However, the complex nature of the structural characteristics of the lungs often results in the difficulty in the development of lung inhalation preparations. Nanocrystals technology provides a potential formulation strategy for the pulmonary delivery of poorly soluble drugs, owing to the decreased particle size of drug, which is a potential approach to overcome the physiological barrier existing in the lungs and significantly increased bioavailability of drugs. The pulmonary inhalation administration has attracted considerable attentions in recent years. This review discusses the barriers for pulmonary drug delivery and the recent advance of the nanocrystals in pulmonary inhalation delivery. The presence of nanocrystals opens up new prospects for the development of novel pulmonary delivery system. The particle size control, physical instability, potential cytotoxicity, and clearance mechanism of inhaled nanocrystals based formulations are the major considerations in formulation development.

Pathological cardiac hypertrophy plays a significant role in the development and progression of heart failure (HF). LIM Domain Containing 1 (LIMD1) serves as a crucial regulatory factor in protein-protein interactions during cellular signal transduction. This study aims to investigate the specific roles and mechanisms of LIMD1 in pathological cardiac remodeling. We employed an adeno-associated virus 9 (AAV9) system to overexpress LIMD1 in the hearts through tail vein injection. C57BL/6 mice underwent transverse aortic constriction (TAC) for four weeks. Cardiac function was assessed using echocardiography, while cardiac remodeling was evaluated through histopathology and molecular techniques. Our findings demonstrated elevated levels of LIMD1 in murine hearts subjected to TAC treatment and H9c2 cells challenged with angiotensin II (Ang II). Compared with wild-type (WT) mice, those injected with AAV-9-LIMD1 exhibited significantly reduced TAC-induced cardiac dysfunction, hypertrophy, and fibrosis. Mechanistically, both in vitro and in vivo experiments suggested that the beneficial effects of LIMD1 might be associated with the inhibition of the YAP1/AKT/GSK3β signaling pathway. In summary, this study is the first to demonstrate the protective effects of LIMD1 against TAC-induced pathological cardiac remodeling. These effects are attributed to the inhibition of the YAP1/AKT/GSK3β signaling pathway.

Background Serum albumin (ALB) has traditionally been regarded as a marker of nutritional status. However, recent studies suggest its changes are closely linked to inflammation, metabolic dysregulation, and disease severity, limiting its role as a sole indicator of nutritional status. Yet, clinical practice continues to rely on ALB to monitor nutritional interventions, with a paucity of high-quality evidence on its dynamic associations with clinical outcomes. This study aimed to investigate the comprehensive associations of ALB dynamics with inflammation, nutritional status, and clinical outcomes in hospitalized patients, providing evidence to optimize clinical management. Methods This secondary analysis utilized data from a prospective observational cohort study conducted in 34 tertiary hospitals across China between June and September 2014. A total of 2959 patients hospitalized for 7–30 days with complete data were included. Standardized protocols were used to collect demographics, nutritional indices (Nutritional Risk Screening 2002, Subjective Global Assessment), hematology, biochemistry results, and clinical outcomes (complications, length of stay, costs). Subgroup analyses were performed based on inflammatory status changes, nutritional therapy administration, department type, baseline nutritional status, and advanced age. Receiver operating characteristic curves identified cutoff values for infection-related complications. Correlation analyses and multivariable linear regression models determined independent predictors of ALB changes. Results Among 2959 patients, 1894 (64.0%) experienced a decrease in ALB during hospitalization, which significantly impacted primary outcomes, including prolonged length of stay, increased hospitalization costs, and higher complication rates. Significant ALB decline was also strongly associated with worsened nutritional status, weight loss at discharge, exacerbated gastrointestinal symptoms, functional impairments, and edema ( P  < 0.001 for all). Compared to binary categorization (increase vs. decrease), the magnitude of ALB change demonstrated a stronger correlation with infection-related complications across all subgroups. Subgroup-specific cutoff values stratified patients into high- and low-risk groups, with significant differences in infection-related complication rates ( P  < 0.05), aiding early identification and intervention. Independent predictors of ALB decline included advanced age, surgical status, lower baseline handgrip strength and its change during hospitalization, higher baseline ALB and globulin levels, baseline Prognostic Nutritional Index, baseline inflammatory status and its exacerbation, elevated platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio, and intensive care unit admission. Conclusions Dynamic changes in ALB serve as a critical indicator of inflammation–nutrition interplay, with its reduction effectively predicting infection-related complications, clinical outcomes, and nutritional deterioration. This is particularly valuable in older adults, inflammatory-variable, surgical, and non-malnourished patients. The conventional view of ALB as a pure nutritional marker requires revision. Joint monitoring with inflammatory biomarkers and multidisciplinary interventions targeting high-risk populations are recommended.

Background and aimsFrailty is widespread in the elderly, while there is a bi-directional relationship between frailty and malnutrition. The objectives of this study were to investigate the prevalence and correlation of frailty and nutritional risk in older adult patients and to analyse the factors associated with fatigue which is one indicator of frailty.MethodsThis cross-sectional multicentre survey study was conducted in five hospitals in the same city from 01 January 2021 to 01 December 2021. We collected information on gender, age, diseases, medication and dietary status. Frailty status was diagnosed using the FRAIL scale, and Nutritional Risk Screening-2002 was used to screen the nutritional risk. Spearman rank correlation was used to analyse the correlation between frailty and nutritional risk. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were used to analyse the risk factors related to fatigue in all patients and inpatients.ResultsAmong 2016 older adult patients, the prevalence of frailty was 15.1% (305/2016), the prevalence of nutritional risk was 16.2% (327/2016) and the overlap prevalence of frailty and nutritional risk was 7.3% (147/2016). Multivariate analysis showed that nutritional risk (OR 3.109, 95% CI 2.384 to 4.056, p<0.001) was an independent risk factor for fatigue in all patients; similar results were found for nutritional risk (OR 2.717, 95% CI 2.068 to 3.571, p<0.001) in hospitalised patients.ConclusionsFrailty and nutritional risk are prevalent among older adult patients, and nutritional risk is associated with the occurrence of fatigue in older adult patients and older adult inpatients.Trial registration numberChina Clinical Trial Registry (Registered No. ChiCTR-EPC-14005253).

Introduction: The discharge of nuclear wastewater (NW) poses significant environmental, economic, and geopolitical risks, impacting marine ecosystems, global fisheries trade, and public health. Japan's decision to release NW has triggered international responses, including seafood import restrictions and inspections.

Tissue spray ionization mass spectrometry (TSI-MS) directly on small tissue samples has been shown to provide highly specific molecular information. In this study, we apply this method to the analysis of 38 pairs of human lung squamous cell carcinoma tissue (cancer) and adjacent normal lung tissue (normal). The main components of pulmonary surfactants, dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine (DPPC, m/z 757.47), phosphatidylcholine (POPC, m/z 782.52), oleoyl phosphatidylcholine (DOPC, m/z 808.49) and arachidonic acid stearoyl phosphatidylcholine (SAPC, m/z 832.43), were identified using high-resolution tandem mass spectrometry. Monte Carlo sampling partial least squares linear discriminant analysis (PLS-LDA) was used to distinguish full-mass-range mass spectra of cancer samples from the mass spectra of normal tissues. With 5 principal components and 30 – 40 Monte Carlo samplings, the accuracy of cancer identification in matched tissue samples reached 94.42%. Classification of a tissue sample required less than 1 min, which is much faster than the analysis of frozen sections. The rapid, in situ diagnosis with minimal sample consumption provided by TSI-MS is advantageous for surgeons. TSI-MS allows them to make more informed decisions during surgery.

Background and Objectives: Assess the different nutritional status between admission and discharged in older adult patients using the GLIM criteria. Methods and Study Design: A retrospective analysis was conducted on a multicenter study which initiated in 34 hospitals in China with 2734 hospitalized older patients. The dynamic changes of malnutrition according to GLIM criteria were performed between at admission and discharge, and their significance was analyzed using the chi-square test. The association between malnutrition and clinical outcomes was analyzed using the chi-square test, t-test, or rank sum test, and divided into different disease types for further analysis. Results: The incidence of nutritional risk in elderly patients was 51.6% at admission and 48.4% at discharge. The prevalence of malnutrition according to the GLIM criteria was 19.6% at admission and increased to 33.4% at discharge, which was significantly different. Different age and disease type were related with nutrition status. Malnutrition is significantly association with adverse clinical outcomes such as increased risk of complications and prolonged length of hospital stay. Conclusions: The GLIM criteria can be used in elderly patients to assess malnutrition. The prevalence of malnutrition in elderly inpatients is high, and the prevalence of malnutrition at discharge is higher than that observed at admission. Attention should be paid to the dynamic changes of malnutrition in elderly patients during hospitalization.