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Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) have profound effects on plant growth and nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) nutrition. However, a comprehensive evaluation of how plant N and P respond to AMF inoculation is still unavailable. Here, we complied data from 187 original researches and carried out a meta-analysis to assess the effects of AMF inoculation on plant growth and N and P nutrition. We observe overall positive effects of AMF inoculation on plant performance. The mean increases of plant biomass, N concentration, P concentration, N and P uptake of whole plant are 47%, 16%, 27%, 67%, and 105%, respectively. AMF inoculation induces more increases in plant concentrations and storage of P than N. Plant responses to AMF inoculation are substantially higher with single AMF species than with mixed AMF species, in laboratory experiments than in field experiments, and in legumes than in non-legumes. The response ratios of plant N and P nutrition are positively correlated with AMF colonization rate, N addition, P addition, and water condition, while unvaried with experiment duration. The biggest and smallest effect sizes of AMF inoculation on plant performance are observed in the application of nitrate and ammonium, respectively. Accordingly, this meta-analysis study clearly suggests that AMF inoculation improves both plant N and P nutrients and systematically clarifies the variation patterns in AMF effects with various biotic and abiotic factors. These findings highlight the important role of AMF inoculation in enhancing plant N and P resource acquisitions and provide useful references for evaluating the AMF functions under the future global changes.

Background This study employs systematic review and meta-analysis to explore the incidence and characteristics of spinal cord injury (SCI) between 2000 and 2021, aiming to provide the most recent and comprehensive data support for the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care of SCI. Methods Systematic searches were conducted on epidemiological studies of SCI published between January 1, 2000, and March 29, 2024. Meta-analysis, subgroup analysis, meta-regression, publication bias detection, and literature quality assessment were extensively utilized. Results The pooled results from 229 studies indicated that the overall incidence rate of SCI was 23.77 (95% CI, 21.50–26.15) per million people, with traumatic spinal cord injuries (TSCI) at a rate of 26.48 (95% CI, 24.15–28.93) per million people, and non-traumatic spinal cord injuries (NTSCI) at a rate of 17.93 (95% CI, 13.30-23.26) per million people. The incidence of TSCI exhibited a marked age-related increase and was significantly higher in community settings compared to hospital and database sources. Males experienced TSCI at a rate 3.2 times higher than females. Between 2000 and 2021, the incidence of TSCI remained consistently high, between 20 and 45 per million people, whereas NTSCI incidence has seen a steady rise since 2007, stabilizing at a high rate of 25–35 per million people. Additionally, the incidence of TSCI in developing countries was notably higher than that in developed countries. There were significant differences in the causes of injury, severity, injury segments, gender, and age distribution among the TSCI and NTSCI populations, but the proportion of male patients was much higher than that of female patients. Moreover, study quality, country type, and SCI type contributed to the heterogeneity in the meta-analysis. Conclusions The incidence rates of different types of SCI remain high, and the demographic distribution of SCI patients is changing, indicating a serious disease burden on healthcare systems and affected populations. These findings underscore the necessity of adopting targeted preventive, therapeutic, and rehabilitative measures based on the incidence and characteristics of SCI.

We report a fuel-free, near-infrared （NIR）-driven Janus microcapsule motor. The Janus microcapsule motors were fabricated by template-assisted polyelectrolyte layer-by-layer assembly, followed by spraying of a gold layer on one side. The NIR-powered Janus motors achieved high propulsion with a maximum speed of 42μm.s-1 in water. The propulsion mechanism of the Janus motor was attributed to the self-thermophoresis effect： The asymmetric distribution of the gold layer generated a local thermal gradient, which in turn generated thermophoretic force to propel the Janus motor. Such NIR-propelled Janus capsule motors can move efficiently in cell culture medium and have no obvious effects on the cell at the power of the NIR laser, indicating considerable promise for future biomedical applications.

Chemotherapy is an important treatment for glioblastoma (GBM) and a key component of comprehensive GBM therapy. However, the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and complex tumor microenvironment (TME) restrict the diffusion of drugs, which greatly reduces the chemotherapeutic effect on GBM. Single strategies, such as cell-based nanobots to cross the BBB or enzymatic nanobots propelled by enriched substrates in the TME for deep tumor penetration, remain inadequate to address multiple barriers and achieve precise targeting. Here, we develop a Trojan horse-inspired enzymatic nanobot-in-neutrobot system (Trojanbot) to greatly enhance targeted GBM therapy. Trojanbots traverse the BBB by leveraging positive chemotaxis in response to tumor-derived chemokine gradients, after which the released catalase-driven nanobots (CatNbot) undergo directional movement along the H 2 O 2 gradients in TME, facilitating deep tumor penetration. This multi-stage targeting strategy improves drug delivery efficiency, providing considerable potential as a clinical approach for brain tumor treatment. Chemotherapy is an important treatment for glioblastoma, but its effect is limited by the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and complex tumor microenvironment. Here, the authors address these issues by developing a Trojan horse-inspired nanobot system (Trojanbot) combining chemokine-guided neutrophil transport across the BBB with enzyme-driven nanobots that penetrate tumors via H₂O₂ gradients.

Background Personalized immunotherapy utilizing cancer vaccines tailored to the tumors of individual patients holds promise for tumors with high genetic heterogeneity, potentially enabling eradication of the tumor in its entirety. Methods Here, we demonstrate a general strategy for biological nanovaccines that trigger tailored tumor-specific immune responses for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Dendritic cell (DC)-derived exosomes (DEX) are painted with a HCC-targeting peptide (P47-P), an α-fetoprotein epitope (AFP212-A2) and a functional domain of high mobility group nucleosome-binding protein 1 (N1ND-N), an immunoadjuvant for DC recruitment and activation, via an exosomal anchor peptide to form a “trigger” DEX vaccine (DEX P&A2&N ). Results DEX P&A2&N specifically promoted recruitment, accumulation and activation of DCs in mice with orthotopic HCC tumor, resulting in enhanced cross-presentation of tumor neoantigens and de novo T cell response. DEX P&A2&N elicited significant tumor retardation and tumor-specific immune responses in HCC mice with large tumor burdens. Importantly, tumor eradication was achieved in orthotopic HCC mice when antigenic AFP peptide was replaced with the full-length AFP (A) to form DEX P&A&N . Supplementation of Fms-related tyrosine kinase 3 ligand greatly augmented the antitumor immunity of DEX P&A&N by increasing immunological memory against tumor re-challenge in orthotopic HCC mice. Depletion of T cells, cross-presenting DCs and other innate immune cells abrogated the functionality of DEX P&A&N . Conclusions These findings demonstrate the capacity of universal DEX vaccines to induce tumor-specific immune responses by triggering an immune response tailored to the tumors of each individual, thus presenting a generalizable approach for personalized immunotherapy of HCC, by extension of other tumors, without the need to identify tumor antigens.

Lung cancer has the highest morbidity and mortality among all cancers. Discovery of early diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers of lung cancer can greatly facilitate the survival rate and reduce its mortality. In our study, by analyzing Gene Expression Omnibus and Oncomine databases, we found a novel potential oncogene uridine‐cytidine kinase 2 (UCK2), which was overexpressed in lung tumor tissues compared to adjacent nontumor tissues or normal lung. Then we confirmed this finding in clinical samples. Specifically, UCK2 was identified as highly expressed in stage IA lung cancer with a high diagnostic accuracy (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve > 0.9). We also found that high UCK2 expression was related to poorer clinicopathological features, such as higher T stage and N stage and higher probability of early recurrence. Furthermore, we found that patients with high UCK2 expression had poorer first progression survival and overall survival than patients with low UCK2 expression. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analyses showed that UCK2 was an independent risk factor related with worse DFS and OS. By gene set enrichment analysis, tumor‐associated biological processes and signaling pathways were enriched in the UCK2 overexpression group, which indicated that UCK2 might play a vital role in lung cancer. Furthermore, in cytology experiments, we found that knockdown of UCK2 could suppress the proliferation and migration of lung cancer cells. In conclusion, our study indicated that UCK2 might be a potential early diagnostic and prognostic biomarker for lung cancer. Uridine‐cytidine kinase 2 (UCK2) might be a potential early diagnostic biomarker for lung cancer. UCK2 was closely related to poor progression and prognosis for lung cancer. UCK2 might be a potential prognostic biomarker for lung cancer. Tumor‐associated biological processes and signaling pathways were enriched in the UCK2 overexpression group, which indicated that UCK2 might play a vital role in lung cancer and be a potential therapeutic target for lung cancer.

Diabetic retinopathy (DR), the leading cause of blindness in working-age adults, is one of the most common complications of diabetes mellitus (DM) featured by metabolic disorders. With the global prevalence of diabetes, the incidence of DR is expected to increase. Prompt detection and the targeting of anti-oxidative stress intervention could effectively reduce visual impairment caused by DR. However, the diagnosis and treatment of DR is often delayed due to the absence of obvious signs of retina imaging. Research progress supports that metabolomics is a powerful tool to discover potential diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets for the causes of oxidative stress through profiling metabolites in diseases, which provides great opportunities for DR with metabolic heterogeneity. Thus, this review summarizes the latest advances in metabolomics in DR, as well as potential diagnostic biomarkers, and predicts molecular targets through the integration of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) with metabolomics. Metabolomics provides potential biomarkers, molecular targets and therapeutic strategies for controlling the progress of DR, especially the interventions at early stages and precise treatments based on individual patient variations.

Background Microbes isolated from hyperaccumulating plants have been reported to be effective in achieving higher phytoextraction efficiency. The plant growth-promoting bacteria (PGPB) SaMR12 from the cadmium (Cd)/zinc hyperaccumulator Sedum alfredii Hance could promote the growth of a non-host plant, oilseed rape, under Cd stress. However, the effect of SaMR12 on Brasscia juncea antioxidative response under Cd exposure was still unclear. Results A hydroponic experiment was conducted to study the effects of Sphingomonas SaMR12 on its non-host plant Brassica juncea (L.) Czern. under four different Cd treatments. The results showed that SaMR12 could colonize and aggregate in the roots and then move to the shoots. SaMR12 inoculation promoted plant growth by up to 71% in aboveground biomass and 81% in root biomass over that of the non-inoculated plants. SaMR12-inoculated plants significantly enhanced root Cd accumulation in the 10 and 20 μM Cd treatments, with 1.72- and 0.86-fold increases, respectively, over that of the non-inoculated plants. SaMR12 inoculation not only decreased shoot hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) content by up to 38% and malondialdehyde (MDA) content by up to 60% but also reduced proline content by 7–30% in shoots and 17–32% in roots compared to the levels in non-inoculated plants. Additionally, SaMR12 inoculation promoted the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) and facilitated the relative gene expression levels of dehydroascorbate reductase ( DHAR ) and glutathione reductase ( GR ) involved in the glutathione (GSH)-ascorbic acid (AsA) cycle. Conclusions The results demonstrated that, under Cd stress, SaMR12 inoculation could activate the antioxidative response of B. juncea by decreasing the concentrations of H 2 O 2 , MDA and proline, increasing the activities of antioxidative enzymes, and regulating the GSH-AsA cycle. These results provide a theoretical foundation for the potential application of hyperaccumulator endophytic bacteria as remediating agents to improve heavy metal tolerance within non-host plant species, which could further improve phytoextraction efficiency. Graphical abstract

Advanced high strength steels (AHSS) exhibit diverse mechanical properties due to their complex chemical compositions and microstructures. Existing machine learning (ML) studies often focus on specific steel grades, limiting generalizability in predicting and optimizing AHSS properties. Here, an ML framework was presented to predict and optimize the stretch-flangeability of AHSS based on composition-microstructure-property correlations, using datasets from 212 steel conditions. Support vector machine, symbolic regression, and extreme gradient boosting models accurately predicted hole expansion ratio (HER), ultimate tensile strength (UTS), and total elongation (TE). Shapley additive explanations revealed the importance of bainite volume fraction (VB), carbon content (C), and chromium content (Cr) for HER, UTS, and TE, respectively. Multi-objective optimization generated 252 optimized conditions with improved comprehensive mechanical properties. The best optimized chemical compositions (0.12wt.% C-1.10Mn-0.15Si-0.47Cr) along with the carbon equivalent (CE) of 0.44 wt.%, and microstructural features (7.2% ferrite, 44.5% bainite, 40.5% martensite, and 7.8% tempered martensite) yielded HER of 119.8%, UTS of 1013.5 MPa, and TE of 22.7%. This systematic framework enables efficient prediction and optimization of material properties (especially HER), with potential applications across various fields of materials science.

Mammalian T cell receptor (TCR) beta-chain (TRB) V-D-J rearrangement mainly follows the “12/23 rule”, and the “D-J rearrangement preceding the V-(D-J) rearrangement”. Owing to the physical position of the D-J-C cluster in the TRB locus, the TRBD2 (D2) gene cannot directly perform inversional rearrangement or deletional/loop-out rearrangement with the TRBJ1 (J1) gene. Our previous studies revealed a single reverse TRBV30 (TRBV31 in mice) gene in the mammalian TRB locus, which can cause indirect rearrangement of the D2 gene and J1 gene; however, the mechanism and proportion involved in germline gene rearrangement are unknown. We obtained TRB CDR3 repertoires of thymus and peripheral tissues from humans and mice by HTS and scTCR-seq and found that 14% of the rearrangements in which the D2 gene is involved are D2-J1 rearrangements (D2-J2 rearrangements account for approximately 86%). The mechanism is that the reverse V30 gene preferentially performs inversional rearrangement with the D2 gene (V30-D2), leading to V30-D2-J1 rearrangement in humans, or the reverse V30 gene preferentially performs inversional rearrangement with the D1 gene (V30-D1), allowing the forward V genes (Vx) to perform Vx-D2-J1 rearrangement. We further found that D2-J1 rearrangements were present in more than 24% and more than 15% of the D2 gene rearrangements in rhesus monkeys and bats, respectively. Moreover, in bovine containing D1J1C1, D3J3C3, and D2J2C2 clusters, more than 11% D3-J1 and D2-J1 rearrangements and more than 22% D2-J3 rearrangements were found. This study provides a new perspective and feasible solution for further research on the significance of the special V-D-J recombination pattern in the mammalian TRB locus and the CDR3 repertoire formed by D2-J1 rearrangement.