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Treatment failure exists in Induction chemotherapy followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT) for locoregionally advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma (LA-NPC) patients. Here this group reports a phase 2 randomized trial evaluating the efficacy and safety of adding nimotuzumab, to CCRT on 246 patients with untreated, non-keratinising, stage II–IVA LA-NPC.

Selective electrocatalytic acetylene-to-ethylene conversion is limited by competing side reactions over molecular catalysts. Here, the authors report a cobalt phthalocyanine catalyst that achieves 99.99% ethylene selectivity and a turnover frequency of 7019 min^-1 at -500 mA cm^-2.

CircPBX1 alleviates metabolic memory-associated erectile dysfunction in diabetic rats by sponging miR-195-5p, restoring YAP1/VEGF signaling and endothelial angiogenic function, highlighting a potential therapeutic target for DMED.

Pyridine hydrogenation on supported metal particles is a powerful yet challenging synthetic transformation due to the strong coordinating effect of pyridine that limits hydrogen adsorption and activation. Here the authors adopt dealuminated Beta zeolite to entrap nickel nanoparticles and use the porosity of the support to effectively modulate pyridine and hydrogen activation.

Zhang, Han, Tan, Lu, Ma et al. report that kynurenine derived from peritumoural adipose tissue is hijacked by cancer cells to mediate ferroptosis resistance, a process that could potentially be targeted with immunotherapy to inhibit tumour growth.

A dated phylogeny of 16,585 vascular plant species native to China reveals three major centres of endemism, including a potential new global biodiversity hotspot.

Labdane derived hapmnioide-type diterpenoids, which have been identified as chemical markers for Haplomitrium liverwort, show potent anti-inflammatory and allelopathic activities. Here, the authors report the total synthesis of seven typical Haplomitrium diterpenoids through late-stage biomimetic skeletal reorganization.

Farnesyl pyrophosphate—a mevalonate pathway metabolic intermediate—is an endogenous alarmin that enhances IgG antibody responses through keratinocyte-derived IL-6 and CCL20.

The function and regulatory mechanism of mRNA acetylation modification in cancer progression remains largely unknown. Here the authors identify that targeting tumor N4-acetylcytidine (ac4C) RNA acetyltransferase NAT10 improves anti-tumor response via MYC/CDK2/DNMT1/dsRNA/type I IFN pathway, and show the synergic anti-tumor effect of NAT10 inhibition with aPD-1.

Through integrated multi-omics and experimental validation, this study reveals that altered gut microbiota and bile acid metabolism activate TLR3 to induce urothelial injury in interstitial cystitis, identifying a pathway with therapeutic potential.

This study identifies GCN5, a histone acetyltransferase, as a driver of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease progression via LXRα/SREBP1c-mediated lipogenesis, and demonstrates that pharmacological inhibition of GCN5 alleviates disease in a study with male mice.

Dong and colleagues report that blockade of T cell-expressed cytotoxic and regulatory T cell molecule results in selective mitigation of immune-related toxicities without affecting antitumor efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Cultivated banana is threatened by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense tropical race 4 (TR4). In this study, the authors assemble the genome of Musa cheesmanii, a wild banana species that is highly resistant to TR4, and use it in crossbreeding with two cultivars to enhance disease resistance.

It is currently challenging to identify the Blood-brain barrier (BBB) status using non-contrast MR images due to lack of gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCA)-induced features. Here the authors find that the contrast-free BBB status identification model (CBSI) overcomes such limitations due to its ability to perform comparably to the gadolinium-enhanced T1-weighted (T1Gd) magnetic resonance (MR) model as well as its generalizability potential.

Early and accurate clinical assessment of disease severity in COVID-19 patients is essential for planning the allocation of scarce hospital resources. An explainable machine learning tool trained on blood sample data from 485 patients from Wuhan selected three biomarkers for predicting mortality of individual patients with high accuracy.

This study shows that excessive atmospheric nitrogen deposition can enhance methane production and emissions by impacting microbial phosphorus acquisition due to the change of N/P ratios in oxygenated surface oceans.

Endocytosis of TFR1 plays a crucial role in extracelluar iron uptake. Here the authors revealed that PKCβII facilitates the endocytosis of TFR1 and increases cellular iron levels through the phosphorylation of AAK1, thus promoting ferroptosis of tumor cells.

A click-locking strategy inspired by click chemistry is reported that enables automated, high-throughput and industrially scalable synthesis of single-atom catalysts. By combining molecular clicking auxiliaries with robotic platforms, this approach delivers atom-precise catalysts with high activity and stability, as well as kilogram-scale manufacturability across electrocatalytic, photocatalytic and thermocatalytic reactions.

The transcriptional program that regulates immunosuppression in conventional dendritic cells needs exploration. The authors here identify ETS homologous factor (EHF) as a transcription factor that regulates cDC maturation and functions, with its deletion limits while its overexpression promotes cDCs immunosuppression function both in vitro and in vivo.

Wang, Zheng, Qian, Pan, Tian et al. characterize the crosstalk between peritumoural visceral adipose tissue and colorectal tumour microenvironment and report an immune escape mechanism, which may be potentially targeted for improved immunotherapy.

The synthesis of 2-piperidinone derivatives remains challenging. Here, the authors develop an organophotocatalysed [1 + 2 + 3] strategy to enable the one-step access to diverse 2-piperidinones from ammonium salts, alkenes, and unsaturated carbonyl compounds.

Inhibitor of differentiation 1 (ID1) has been described as a cancer-promoting factor and also involved in the formation of an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment. Here the authors report that ID1-expressing tumor associated macrophages favor colorectal cancer progression by promoting cancer cell stemness and CD8⁺ T cell exclusion.

Here the authors propose an evaporation-driven approach to print various nanomaterials on porous substrates, allowing for high-throughput roll-to-roll and spatially programmable fabrication of functional nanomaterial films.

China operates a national surveillance program for acute respiratory infections and sampled over 200,000 patients between 2009–2019. Here, the authors present results from this program and describe patterns by age, pathogen type, presence of pneumonia, and season.

Jahn-Teller distortions alter molecular structures, but are usually only probed on the basis of electronic signatures. Here, the authors demonstrate that tip-enhanced Raman imaging in real space can map the associated vibrational changes in a single molecule.

Cross-dehydrogenative coupling (CDC) allows the efficient construction of C−C and C−heteroatom bonds. Now, single-platinum-atom-decorated graphitic carbon nitride is applied as a heterogeneous photocatalyst for CDC reactions between (hetero)arenes and nucleophiles without external oxidants.

Genomic, transcriptomic and metabolomic analyses from a population of 295 diverse sweet-corn inbred lines provide insights into kernel quality formation mechanisms and the divergence of sweet corn and field corn.

Combination of immune checkpoint inhibitors with anti-angiogenic targeted therapy has shown efficacy in some solid tumours. Here the authors report the results of a phase 2 trial of camrelizumab (anti-PD1) plus apatinib as a second-line or later-line treatment regimen in platinum-resistant (cohort 1) or PD-1 inhibitor-resistant (cohort 2) Recurrent/Metastatic Nasopharyngeal Carcinoma patients.

To emulate nature biological processing, highly-integrated ultra-sensitive artificial neuromorphic system is highly desirable. Here, the authors report flexible sensor array of 1024 pixels using combination of carbon nanotubes and perovskite QDs as active matetials, achieving highly responsive device for reinforcement learning.

Treatment of patients with HER2-mutant non-small-cell lung cancer with the pan-HER inhibitor pyrotinib in a phase 2 trial or compassionate use showed a favorable objective response rate, whereas patients treated in parallel by physician’s choice in a real-world study did not.

Bronchiectasis and asthma can co-exist in the same patient, and the characteristics may be different from bronchiectasis alone. Here the authors characterise the function of ILC3 cells and how IL-17C potentiates IL-17A expression promoting a neutrophil dominated asthma endotype in mouse bronchiectasis-asthma models.

Natural products often contain complex N-fused polycyclic structures with multiple substituents and stereocentres. Here, the authors developed a bifunctional organocatalyst that is instrumental in obtaining such structures and applied it to the total synthesis of naucleofficine I and II in 6 steps.

Long-lived room temperature phosphorescence (LRTP) is important in organic photonics but exploring a universal approach to obtain LRTP in amorphous polymers is challenging. Here the authors present a facile chemical strategy to achieve ultralong phosphorescence in polymers by ionic bonding cross-linking.

Universal control of the state of qubits on timescales much shorter than the coherence time is necessary for quantum computation. The authors demonstrate electrical control of a charge qubit in quantum dots on the picosecond scale, which is orders of magnitude faster than previously reported.

The recent outbreak of Zika virus is a major worldwide health concern and effective drugs are currently not available. Here the authors present the structure of Zika non-structural protein 5 and identify a potential drug-binding site, which might facilitate the development of novel antivirals.

Here the authors report that genetic or pharmacological inhibition of phosphoglycerate kinase 1, an enzyme involved in glycolysis, attenuates acute kidney injury in mouse models of acute kidney injury via inhibition of ferroptosis.

Seasonal variation in K isotopes of rivers that drain the Chinese Loess Plateau indicates that riverine K isotopes can trace changes in silicate weathering intensity over time, offering a tool to track Earth’s climate–rock interactions.

Mycoviruses are obligate parasites of fungi. Here, Hai et al. show that mycoviruses can induce hypovirulence in the fungus Sclerotinia, and plants infected by Sclerotinia facilitate the transmission of these mycoviruses, thereby helping the plants defend against Sclerotinia.