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Various in situ measurement techniques have been applied to investigate changes in the three-dimensional structures and the physical properties of polyimides (PIs) generated at high pressures using a custom-built optical cell (up to 4,000 atm) or a diamond anvil cell (up to 80,000 atm). Moreover, the structural changes in the PI chain repeating units and interchain distances induced by the ultrahigh pressures were observed with WAXD, and they were compared with optical absorption, fluorescent and phosphorescent emission spectra, infrared absorption spectra, and refractive indexes observed under the same conditions.

Genetic mechanisms influencing COVID-19 susceptibility are not well understood. Here, the authors analyzed whole blood RNA-seq data of 465 Japanese individuals with COVID-19, highlighting thousands of fine-mapped variants affecting expression and splicing of genes, as well as the presence of COVID-19 severity-interaction eQTLs.

A genome-wide association study highlights a variant in DOCK2, which is common in East Asian populations but rare in Europeans, as a host genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19.

Silicon is a light element with high lattice inversion symmetry, and so is not expected to possess a substantial spin–orbit interaction (SOI), which is desirable for spintronics. Here, a silicon-based heterostructure is demonstrated to have a gate-tuneable Rashba-type SOI.

A single-cell multiomic immune cell atlas from 235 Japanese, including patients with COVID-19 and healthy individuals, linked with host genetics including germline and somatic mutation, plasma proteomics and metagenomics data reveals that immune cells are dynamically regulated in a cell state-dependent manner.

Analysis of the blood DNA virome in patients with COVID-19 and autoimmune disease associates endogenous HHV-6 (eHHV-6) and high anellovirus load with increased disease risk, most notably for systemic lupus erythematosus. eHHV-6 carriers show a distinct immune response.

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from 73 Japanese patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and 75 healthy controls were analyzed using single-cell transcriptomics. Combining these data with genotyping data highlights the interplay between host genetics and the immune response in modulating disease severity.

The authors report observation of tunnelling magnetoresistance in an all-antiferromagnetic tunnel junction consisting of Mn₃Sn/MgO/Mn₃Sn, laying the foundation for the development of ultrafast and efficient spintronic devices using antiferromagnets.

Regulated telomerase reverse transcriptase (hTERT) activity is common in human tumors. Here, the authors show that hTERT is phosphorylated by CDK1 and that this event is necessary for hTERT-mediated RNA dependent RNA polymerase activity but not for reverse transcriptase and terminal transferase activities.

Animal models are important to study organismal immune responses to infection with influenza viruses. Here, Fukuyama et al.report a new generation of fluorescently labelled influenza viruses that facilitate the study of viral infections in animal models at cellular level.

Using more than 100 independent iPSC lines derived from patients with Alzheimer’s disease, the authors discovered loci associated with the neuronal production of amyloid β and confirmed their influence using RNA interference.

Phenylene oligomers are shown to form left- and right-handed helices in solution, but a chiral symmetry-breaking process occurs on crystallization to give a non-racemic mixture of crystals that each contains only one enantiomer. One-electron oxidation of the oligomers suppresses the interconversion of the mirror-image helices in solution, locking-in one conformation and leading to chiral memory effects.

Influenza virus PB2 and M1 induce translocation of host protein CLUH from the cytoplasm to SC35-positive speckles in the nucleoplasm where it has a role in subnuclear transport of the viral ribonucleoprotein.

Diabetes is a major cause of kidney disease. Here Kikuchi et al. show that phenol sulfate, a gut microbiota-derived metabolite, is increased in diabetic kidney disease and contributes to the pathology by promoting kidney injury, suggesting phenyl sulfate could be used a marker and therapeutic target for the treatment of diabetic kidney disease.

A total of 1074 patients with a history of ischemic stroke enrolled in The Recurrent Stroke Prevention Clinical Outcome (RESPECT) Study were assigned to intensive blood pressure (BP) control group (blood pressure < 120/80 mmHg) or standard blood pressure control group (blood pressure < 140/90 mmHg) and were followed up for a mean of 3.9 years. Seventy-eight first recurrent strokes occurred, including 70 ischemic stroke and 8 intracerebral hemorrhage. Intensive treatment did not change annual risk of ischemic stroke (1.74% vs. 1.75%, P = 0.999), but markedly reduced risk of hemorrhagic stroke (0.00% vs. 0.39%, P = 0.005). Beneficial effect of intensive BP control were observed for risk of hemorrhagic stroke in the patients with a history of ischemic stroke.

The FANTOM4 study identified transcriptional start sites active during proliferation arrest and differentiation of the human monocytic cell line THP-1. Systematic knockdown of 52 transcription factors provide support for their model in which a complex transcriptional network regulates the differentiation process.

Physical properties of polymer materials are deeply related to not only the primary structure but also the higher ordered structure such as periodic structures and molecular orientation. If the target material consists of ordered and non-ordered region, the former structure can be selectively detected by X-ray scattering method, whereas structural information of both the regions is obtained by infrared absorption spectroscopy. Particularly for thin film materials, infrared pMAIRS (p-polarized multiple-angle incidence resolution spectroscopy) and GI-XRD (grazing incidence X-ray diffraction methods are very useful for precise structural analyses.

Temperature dependence of electric current for fully aromatic and semi-aliphatic polyimide films (PIs) having different chemical structures was investigated. The current densities of PIs having a triphenylamine (TPA) structure (pyromellitic dianhydride/DATPA and 3,4,3′,4′-biphenyltetracarboxylic dianhydride/DATPA) significantly increased above 120 °C, which is mainly due to the exponential increase in thermally excited electronic carriers. In contrast, the current density of PIs without TPA structure exhibited smaller temperature dependence, which suggests that ionic current is dominant because of the limited numbers of thermally excited carriers because of their large band gaps (E_g).

The crystalline structure and molecular mobility of PVDF blended with PMMA at various fractions were investigated by solid-state ¹⁹F MAS NMR spectroscopy. The origin of the characteristic peaks observed for typical polymorphs of PVDF (α-, β- and γ-forms) are explained based on DFT calculations. The dominant crystalline form in the blends of [PVDF/PMMA]=[80/20], [70/20] and [50/50] is α-form containing a small portion of β-form, whereas that of [65/35], [60/40] and [55/45] consists of β-form and γ-form. In contrast, no crystalline structure is found in [45/55], [40/60] and [20/80], indicating that PVDF and PMMA chains are miscible at the molecular level.

Novel aromatic copolymers based on a thiazolothiazole (TT) unit were designed and synthesized as proton exchange membranes for polymer electrolyte fuel cells. Even a small amount of the TT unit (0.1–1 mol%) considerably affected the sizes of the hydrophilic and hydrophobic domains of the membrane surface. Furthermore, the TT-based membranes exhibited higher proton conductivities and lower activation energies than those of the parent membrane under various relative humidity conditions.