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In this Perspective, members of the Aging Biomarker Consortium outline the X-Age Project, an Aging Biomarker Consortium plan for building standardized aging clocks in China. The authors discuss the project roadmap and its aims of decoding aging heterogeneity, detecting accelerated aging early and evaluating geroprotective interventions.

Nanotechnology-based platforms are being explored for the delivery of therapeutics directly to the lungs through inhalation. However, to ensure translational relevance between preclinical animal models and human applications, it is essential to accurately quantify and report the lung-deposited dose, rather than relying solely on the nominally administered dose.

Here the authors show that viral infections facilitate accumulation of cellular iron by degradation of iron exporter ferroportin (FPN1), and that high intracellular iron suppresses type I IFN responses and autophagy by promoting TBK1 hydroxylation and STING carbonylation.

This paper shows that nano-enabled dehydrogenation catalysis in biological systems induces a domino effect, including reductive stress, immunosuppression and tumour metastasis.

Topological photonic structures enable robust light transport but face coupling challenges. The authors demonstrate transverse spin matching governs the coupling between the topological waveguide and waveguide, achieving 96.3% theoretical and 94.2% experimental transmission efficiencies.

Tumor-resident intracellular microbiota (TRIM) could be a potential target for anticancer treatment. Here the authors report Au@Ag2Se nano-assemblies enabling bacterial killing, tumor inhibition and immune regulation in tumor microenvironment.

The GEMS satellite’s hourly measurements enhance the accuracy of surface O₃ estimation, leading to lower O₃ concentrations and a reduction in O₃-related deaths, particularly in rural regions, revealing overestimated mortality in previous assessments.

The inorganic minerals are believed to exert a critical catalytic role in the prebiotic time, but biominerals (e.g., bones) in modern living organisms are known mainly for their physical property-related functions. Here the authors identify natural ferritin iron core as a superoxide dismutase-like nanozyme exhibiting species-related activity and elucidate its specific catalytic mechanism.

This study demonstrates that a single antibody exhibits distinct binding modes with SARS-CoV-2 WT and Omicron variants, correlating with neutralization loss. The underlying mechanisms offer insights into enhanced neutralization.

There is a need to understand how nanomaterials interact with biological systems. Here, the authors report the surface chemistry of graphene oxide nanosheets (GOs) influences the structure of low-density lipoprotein and changes lipid metabolism pathways including LDL recognition, uptake, hydrolysis, efflux, and lipid droplet formation.

Activation and selective oxidation of inert C(sp³)–H bonds remain one of the most challenging tasks in current synthetic chemistry. Here, the authors develop a coordination polymer with naphthalenediimide-based ligands and binuclear iron nodes for the oxidation of C(sp³)-H bonds.

While vaccines have curbed the COVID-19 pandemic, effective therapeutic treatments are few, and might be challenged by SARS-CoV-2 variants. A biocompatible, antiviral two-dimensional nanomaterial is now reported that firmly adsorbs the virus by interaction with the spike protein, inducing the conformational changes that lead to inhibition of viral infection in vitro and in animal models.

Modifying the reactivity of substrates by encapsulation is essential for microenvironment catalysts. Herein, the authors report an alternative strategy that modifies the entry behaviour of reactants and substrates to control the electron injection kinetics, thus affecting the selectivity of nitroarene photoreductions.

Non-invasive monitoring of oxygen levels has implications in a wide range of applications. Here, the authors report that biological imaging beyond 1,500 nm enables in vivo quantitative assessment of oxyhaemoglobin saturation at vascular resolution with high sensitivity.

Invertebrate-derived eDNA (iDNA) is an emerging tool for taxonomic and spatial biodiversity monitoring. Here, the authors use metabarcoding of leech-derived iDNA to estimate vertebrate occupancy over an entire protected area, the Ailaoshan Nature Reserve, China.

An enzyme, Ubp-M, is identified that removes the ubiquitin modification from histone H2A. Depletion of Ubp-M leads to slower cell growth and abnormal chromosome segregation in mitosis. In addition, depletion of Ubp-M causes defects in development and dysregulation of Hox gene expression.

In this study, the authors report that anionic nanoplastics can harness the paracellular space of endothelial cells and puncture blood vasculature ex vivo and in vivo, thereby entailing new environmental and health implications.

Small-molecule RNA-targeted degradation can be leveraged to convert strong, yet inactive, binding interactions into potent and specific modulators of RNA function.

In a breast cancer animal model, long-term exposure to carbon nanotubes promotes tumour invasiveness and metastasis through activation of local and systemic inflammation.

Non-invasive methods to predict treatment response are urgently needed. Here in lung cancer, the authors develop a single-cell on-chip cytometry method to metabolically phenotype disseminated tumor cells, revealing metabolic heterogeneity and predictors of therapy response and survival.

Single-cell analyses of skin samples from patients with vitiligo and functional genetic experiments in vitiligo mouse models show that distinct fibroblast subsets drive the organ level lesion patterns in this autoimmune disease.

Furen Zhang and colleagues report a genome-wide association study for susceptibility to leprosy. They identify two new risk loci at IL23R and RAB32.

Pan et al. find that regional glutamine deficiency in melanoma tumours induces tumour cell dedifferentiation and confers therapeutic resistance through histone methylation changes.

The key factor and mechanism for reported toxicity of CNTs are unclear. Here we firstly quantify the contribution of metal residues and fiber structure to the toxicity of CNTs. Significant quantities of metal can be mobilized from CNTs into surrounding fluids, depending on the properties and constituent of biological microenvironment and metal particles. Hydroxyl radicals were generated by CNT containing metal impurities and leachable metal, while several inherent biomolecules facilitate the generation of free radical. Cell viability is highly dependent on the amount of metal residues and iron in particular but not tube structure, while the negative effect of CNT was limited in a certain concentration range below 80 μg ml⁻¹.

By distinguishing between two types of neutralizing antibodies that either exhibit or lack antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) activity, FcγRIIB and bivalent binding are shown to be required for ADE in SARS-CoV-2 infection.