Articles in 2024

Phosphanorcaradienes can serve as synthons for transient phosphinidene but the synthesis remains challenging. Here, the authors report a synthesis protocol for a phosphanorcaradiene, in which one of the benzene rings is intramolecularly dearomatized through attachment to the phosphorus atom.

Intestinal mucus consists of densely O-glycosylated mucins, serving as a nutrient source for bacteria. Elzinga et al. show that mucin-degrading Akkermansia muciniphila selectively binds to O-glycan structures found on human colonic mucins.

The authors report experimental evidence of phonon Stark effect in 2H-MoS₂ bilayers. A Stark phonon appears as the interlayer excitons are tuned to resonate with the LA phonon emission line, and shows a linear energy shift upon application of an out-of-plane electric field.

Here authors aim to understand the 5-HT_2AR coupling signature in response to different signaling probes and their physiological impacts using computational modeling, in vitro and in vivo experiments, and analysis of human brain tissue.

Breast cancer metastasis to the brain is rising in prevalence and is an increasingly lethal threat to the patients. Here, the authors show miR-199b-5p, secreted by some breast cancer cells and detected at a higher level in patients with brain metastases, impairs the metabolic coupling between neurons and astrocytes to facilitate development of brain metastasis.

Strange metal behaviour of high-Tc superconductors, characterised by unconventional electrical and thermodynamic properties, still poses challenges for theory. Smit et al. report experimental features in the self-energy of a strange metal that are consistent with predictions by holographic theoretical methods.

The instability of perovskite solar cells hinders their commercialization. Here, authors report an industrially compatible strain-free encapsulation process based on lamination of highly viscoelastic semi-solid/highly viscous liquid encapsulant adhesive to reduce thermomechanical interfacial stress.

Resistance to glucocorticoids (GC) is a major obstacle for the treatment of pediatric B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL). Here, the authors report that GC-triggered CXCR4 internalization promotes a phospholipase C (PLC)-mediated cell survival pathway, driving GC resistance in B-ALL.

Human cervical mucosa and its interactions with the microbiome play a central role in female reproductive tract health and disease. Here, the authors develop physiological models of the human cervix using Organ-on-a-Chip technology that produce mucus, and respond to hormonal, environmental, and microbial cues similar to the living cervix.

Whether and how temporal interference (TI) stimulation disrupt primate oscillatory brain activity are not fully understood. Here authors show TI stimulation can non-invasively disrupt oscillatory brain activity but three factors make it too weak to impose new rhythms on the primate brain. Thus, it may be a potential method for safely controlling pathological brain activity.

Heterocycles, highly prized by the pharmaceutical industry, are often constructed from diazo compounds. Here, the authors report that direct photolysis of vinyldiazo compounds followed by [3+2]-cycloaddition gives access to these motifs.

In this paper, Mutlu et al. identifies a STING degrader, AK59, which inhibits downstream cGAS/STING activity through STING degradation employing a HECT-domain E3 ligase HERC4 and proteasomal ubiquitination pathway.

Satellite data reveals a rise in multivariate extreme events in lakes since the 1980s, largely linked to agricultural practices and mean climatic warming.

Emperor penguins colony occupancy is variable and chiefly estimated with remote sensing images at end of the breeding season. Here, the authors provide a phenological model that can extrapolate occupancy from sparse data and can predict phenological events, breeding pairs and fledging chicks.

The evolution of the vertebrate head mesoderm involved the emergence of new structures and cell types. Here the authors generated a cell atlas of the cephalochordate neurula to study the origins of these novelties and propose a revised scenario for the evolution of the vertebrate head muscles.

Novel short-acting IL-22 bispecific biologics offer new hope for treating metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), a global health concern with few treatment options. Here, the authors show these drugs significantly improve blood sugar control, liver fat, inflammation, and scarring.

While developmental phenotypes are often multigenic and involve environmental inputs, most research approaches involve perturbation of small numbers of genes. Here they use a synthetic evolution approach in Drosophila to show that adding extra copies of bicoid leads to rapid, system-wide phenotypic responses, potentiated by highly polygenic traits such as embryo size.

In their study, Wang and Dagan show that 84% of antibiotic resistance genes in multidrug resistance plasmids in Escherichia, Salmonella, and Klebsiella reside within resistance islands that evolve within the framework of plasmid lineages.

Polygenic scores aggregate the effects of multiple genetic variants and can be used to predict disease risk. Here, the authors present a polygenic score method that incorporates non-additive inheritance modes (recessive, dominant, over-recessive, and over-dominant) and show that this can improve risk prediction for certain polygenic diseases.

Accurate non-invasive biomarkers to diagnose MASLD-related fibrosis are urgently needed. Here the authors show a disease mechanism-related blood-based biomarker panel consisting of three biomarkers which is able to accurately identify MASLD patients with mild or advanced hepatic fibrosis.