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Neurodegenerative diseases are a group of disorders characterized by progressive loss of certain populations of neurons, which eventually lead to dysfunction. These diseases include Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Parkinson’s disease (PD), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Immune pathway dysregulation is one of the common features of neurodegeneration. Recently, there is growing interest in the specific role of T helper Th 17 cells and Interleukin-17A (IL-17A), the most important cytokine of Th 17 cells, in the pathogenesis of the central nervous system (CNS) of neurodegenerative diseases. In the present study, we summarized current knowledge about the function of Th17/IL-17A, the physiology of Th17/IL-17A in diseases, and the contribution of Th17/IL-17A in AD, PD, and ALS. We also update the findings on IL-17A-targeting drugs as potentially immunomodulatory therapeutic agents for neurodegenerative diseases. Although the specific mechanism of Th17/IL-17A in this group of diseases is still controversial, uncovering the molecular pathways of Th17/IL-17A in neurodegeneration allows the identification of suitable targets to modulate these cellular processes. Therapeutics targeting IL-17A might represent potentially novel anti-neurodegeneration drugs.

In this paper, an eco-friendly method of producing hybrid silica aerogels by freeze-drying method (FD) is proposed. In the freeze-drying system, deionized water was the only solvent, hybrid aerogels were prepared by acid–base catalysis and sol–gel method using methyltrimethoxysilane (MTMS) and water–glass as co-precursors. The microstructure, specific surface area, pore size distribution and thermal properties of the hybrid aerogels were characterized and analyzed. It was found that all samples exhibited the dual-mesoporous structures, and the molar ratio of co-precursors had a significant effect on the performance of aerogels. The tap density decreased and the porosity increased with the increase in the molar ratio of MTMS, while the thermal diffusion coefficient and thermal conductivity of aerogel decreased first and then increased. Especially when the molar ratio is 2.0, the hybrid aerogels exhibited excellent insulation performance, such as thermal diffusion coefficient of 0.0183 mm s−1, thermal conductivity of 0.0460 W(m k)−1 and great thermal stability up to 540 °C. It illustrates that hybrid aerogels have broad application prospects as insulation materials.

HighlightsTriboelectric nanogenerator (TENG)/carbon dots-TNs supported over three-dimensional graphene aerogel (3DGA@CDs-TNs) system was constructed.TENG and 3DGA@CDs-TNs present excellent degradation activity toward brilliant green (88.26%, 40 min) and direct blue 5B (89.6%, 90 min).The coupling interaction of photocatalysis and TENG leads to an enhanced removal ability.The degradation pathways for brilliant green and direct blue 5B are proposed.It is of great importance to explore a creative route to improve the degradation efficiency of organic pollutants in wastewater. Herein, we construct a unique hybrid system by combining self-powered triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) with carbon dots-TiO2 sheets doped three-dimensional graphene oxide photocatalyst (3DGA@CDs-TNs), which can significantly enhance the degradation efficiency of brilliant green (BG) and direct blue 5B (DB) owing to the powerful interaction of TENG and 3DGA@CDs-TNs photocatalyst. The power output of TENG can be applied for wastewater purification directly, which exhibits a self-powered electrocatalytic technology. Furthermore, the results also verify that TENG can replace conventional electric catalyst to remove pollutants effectively from wastewater without any consumption. Subsequently, the unstable fragments and the plausible removal pathways of the two pollutants are proposed. Our work sheds light on the development of efficient and sustainable TENG/photocatalyst system, opening up new opportunities and possibilities for comprehensive utilization of random energy.

To efficiently, sustainably, and rapidly extract bioactive compounds, steam explosion (SE) technology was tried to use for the first time as a pretreatment of Potentilla discolor Bunge (PDB) stems. This study systematically investigated the effects of SE on stem structure, total phenolic content, composition and bioactivities. Macroscopic observation showed that SE-treated stems became darker and deeper in color. Microscopic analysis indicated a reduction in hemicellulose and lignin contents, while the basic skeletal structure remained intact, which facilitated the release of active compounds. This structural modification was directly linked to an enhancement in biological activity. Compared with the untreated group, total phenolic content in SE-treated stems increased 1.11–1.94 times. Correspondingly, antioxidant and hypoglycemic activities were enhanced by 1.35–7.19 times, demonstrating a clear relationship between the structural changes and the improved bioactivity. HPLC analysis showed specific changes in chemical composition, with increased levels of total phenolic content, particularly phenolic acids and flavonoids. Compositional analysis using Q Exactive HF LC-MS and standard comparison revealed that complex macromolecules, such as flavonoid glycosides and polyphenols, were hydrolyzed into smaller, more bioavailable molecules, such as quercetin. Overall, SE pretreatment represents a sustainable and effective approach for improving the extraction of bioactive compounds from PDB stems. These active compounds hold significant potential for applications in functional foods, nutraceuticals, and natural health products, offering an innovative strategy to enhance the bioavailability and bioactivity of plant-derived compounds.

Accurate State of Health (SOH) estimation and Remaining Useful Life (RUL) prediction on uninterruptible power supply (UPS) batteries are critical for ensuring system reliability. However, battery degradation processes exhibit significant non-linearity and non-stationarity, posing challenges for traditional deep learning models in capturing long-term dependencies and handling sensor noise. In this paper, we propose BatteryMoE, a novel normalization-free sparse Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) Transformer designed for robust battery prognostics. Distinct from standard Transformers, BatteryMoE incorporates three key physics-aware architectural innovations: (1) It introduces a dynamic error function mechanism to replace traditional normalization layers, constructing a normalization-free architecture that enhances robustness against high-variance battery data. (2) It adopts an imaginary-enhanced Rotary Positional Embedding that utilizes the full complex-valued attention score to capture both local charge–discharge patterns and global long-term degradation trends, significantly improving RUL extrapolation. (3) A sparse MoE strategy is employed to dynamically activate specialized experts for different aging stages (e.g., linear degradation vs. capacity plunge), balancing model capacity with robust predictive performance. Extensive experiments conducted on five widely used datasets show that BatteryMoE achieved significant results.

HighlightsA wearable triboelectric nanogenerator (denoted as CSF-TENG) is designed using biodegradable and carboxymethyl chitosan-silk fibroin (CSF) film.In vitro biodegradation of CSF film is performed through trypsin and lysozyme. 63.1% of CSF film is removed by trypsin and lysozyme after degrading for 11 days.An intuitive writing system is designed by CSF-TENGs-based human-machine interface to promptly track writing steps, highlight the stroke in advance, and access the accuracy of letters.Letter handwriting, especially stroke correction, is of great importance for recording languages and expressing and exchanging ideas for individual behavior and the public. In this study, a biodegradable and conductive carboxymethyl chitosan-silk fibroin (CSF) film is prepared to design wearable triboelectric nanogenerator (denoted as CSF-TENG), which outputs of Voc ≈ 165 V, Isc ≈ 1.4 μA, and Qsc ≈ 72 mW cm−2. Further, in vitro biodegradation of CSF film is performed through trypsin and lysozyme. The results show that trypsin and lysozyme have stable and favorable biodegradation properties, removing 63.1% of CSF film after degrading for 11 days. Further, the CSF-TENG-based human–machine interface (HMI) is designed to promptly track writing steps and access the accuracy of letters, resulting in a straightforward communication media of human and machine. The CSF-TENG-based HMI can automatically recognize and correct three representative letters (F, H, and K), which is benefited by HMI system for data processing and analysis. The CSF-TENG-based HMI can make decisions for the next stroke, highlighting the stroke in advance by replacing it with red, which can be a candidate for calligraphy practice and correction. Finally, various demonstrations are done in real-time to achieve virtual and real-world controls including writing, vehicle movements, and healthcare.

Flax fibers contain naturally colored substances, which need to be removed by bleaching to produce excellent flax-based textiles in the subsequent process. However, the traditional bleaching process has the disadvantages of high temperature, large water consumption and high chemical oxygen demand (COD) value. Therefore, an appealing alternative to make flax fiber more sustainable is to design an environmentally friendly bleaching process, which has the advantages of low water usage, easy operation at ambient temperature and without addition of chemicals. In this paper, the influence of ozone bleaching on the optical property of flax fibers at different parameter conditions (reaction phase, ozone concentration, bleaching time, water pickup value, initial pH value) was investigated. The physicochemical properties of fiber samples after ozone bleaching were analyzed and compared with those of traditional bleached fibers. Results showed that the lightness and whiteness index of SFT-O 3 -Gas-70% increased to 80.85 and 53.33, yellowness index decreased to 10.14 (ozone concentration 20%, 20 min, WPV 70%, pH 2.0), which was comparable with the SFT-TMB (80.75, 51.87 and 11.33). SEM analysis showed that the non-cellulosic components (hemicelluloses and lignin) on the fiber surface were removed after bleaching treatment. The crystallinity and thermal stability of samples after bleaching treatment increased due to the removal of non-cellulosic components. Compared with the SFT-TMB (16.07 cN/tex and 1166), the tenacity and degree of polymerization (DP) of SFT-O 3 -Gas-70% decreased to 11.40 cN/tex and 779, respectively. The whole ozone bleaching process is under gas phase, normal temperature and pressure conditions, which greatly reduces water consumption and COD values of bleach wastewater. This study provides some guidance on the use of ozone for bleaching lignocellulosic fibers and the selection of cellulose protectants.

The relationship between routine cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) testing and the disease phenotype of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is unclear, and there are some contradictions in current studies. This study aimed to analyze the relationship between CSF profiles and disease phenotype in ALS patients. We collected 870 ALS patients and 96 control subjects admitted to West China Hospital of Sichuan University. CSF microprotein, albumin, IgG, index of IgG (IgG ), albumin quotient (Q ), and serum IgG were examined. In ALS patients, CSF IgG, and Q were significantly increased, while CSF IgG was decreased, compared with control subjects. Approximately one-third of ALS patients had higher CSF IgG levels. The multiple linear regression analysis identified that CSF IgG was weakly negatively associated with ALS functional rating scale revised (ALSFRS-R) scores (  = -0.062,  = 0.041). This significance was found in male ALS but not in female ALS. The Cox survival analyses found that upregulated CSF IgG was significantly associated with the increased mortality risk in ALS [HR = 1.219 (1.010-1.470),  = 0.039]. In the current study, the higher CFS IgG was associated with increased mortality risk of ALS. CSF IgG may be associated with the severity of ALS. These findings may be sex-specific.

Background The creatinine to cystatin C ratio (CCR) can be used as a biomarker of muscle mass and strength, but no studies have evaluated whether it can be used as a biomarker to monitor the efficacy of treatment with nusinersen in Chinese adults with 5q-associated spinal muscular atrophy (SMA). Methods In this prospective observational study, 28 adult SMA patients were followed for 18 months. Data on motor function and daily activities were collected using the Hammersmith Functional Motor Scale Expanded (HFMSE), Revised Upper Limb Module (RULM), 6-Minute Walking Test (6WMT), and Barthel Index (BI). Serum levels of creatinine (Cr), creatine kinase (CK), and CCR were measured. Spearman correlation and linear mixed models analyzed the relationships between functional scores and laboratory indicators. Results HFMSE scores showed significant improvement at Visit 5 (V5) [+ 1.04 points, p  = 0.016), V6 (+ 1.61, p  = 0.012), V7 (+ 1.93, p  < 0.001), and V8 (+ 1.89, p  < 0.001)], while RULM scores improved significantly at V5 (+ 2.00 points, p  = 0.024), V7 (+ 2.00, p  = 0.032), and V8 (+ 2.00, p  < 0.001). The BI also exhibited significant improvement at V7 (+ 5.00, p  < 0.001) and V8 (+ 2.50, p  < 0.001). The 6MWT did not show significant improvement ( p  > 0.05). Serum CCR levels were significantly higher than baseline at V5 (+ 4.35 points, p  < 0.001), V7 (+ 5.12, p  < 0.001), and V8 (+ 6.59, p  < 0.001). Cr levels were significantly higher than baseline at V5 (+ 2.39 points, p  < 0.001) and V7 (+ 0.90, p  < 0.001), while log10 CK levels remained unchanged ( p  > 0.05). Spearman correlation analysis revealed CCR showed the strongest correlation with functional scores, followed by Cr and log10 CK. Further linear mixed-effect model indicated that after adjusting for covariates, only CCR showed a dynamic positive correlation with HFMSE scores ( β  = 0.280; 95% CI 0.023–0.537, p  = 0.033), while other serum indicators had no correlation with functional scores. Conclusion Long-term use of nusinersen effectively improves motor function and quality of life in adult SMA patients, and CCR may be a better indicator to reflect changes in motor function during treatment compared to other blood biomarkers.

Transition-metal-catalysed asymmetric multicomponent reactions with two similar substrates often suffer from the lack of strategies to control the chemo-, regio-, and stereoselectivity of these substrates due to the close similarity in the chemical structures and properties of each reagent. Here, we describe a Cu(I)-catalysed asymmetric radical 1,2-carboalkynylation of two different terminal alkynes and alkyl halides with high chemo-, regio-, and stereoselectivity by using sterically bulky chiral tridentate anionic N,N,P -ligands and modulating alkynes with different electronic properties to circumvent above-mentioned challenges. This method features good substrate scope, high functional group tolerance of two different terminal alkynes, and diverse alkyl halides, providing universal access to a series of useful axially chiral 1,3-enyne building blocks. Transition-metal-catalyzed asymmetric multicomponent reactions with two similar substrates often suffer from the lack of strategies to control the chemo-, regio-, and stereoselectivity. Here, the authors report a Cu(I)-catalyzed asymmetric radical 1,2-carboalkynylation of two different terminal alkynes and alkyl halides with chemo-, regio-, and stereoselectivity.