Quercetin inhibits hypertonicity-induced inflammatory injury in human corneal epithelial cells via the PTEN/PI3K/AKT pathway.

Dry eye is a prevalent ophthalmic disease. Ocular surface inflammation in the hyperosmolar environment of the tear film is critical in dry eye progression. Quercetin has strong anti-inflammatory effects; however, its exact mechanism of action in dry eye is not fully understood. Therefore, this study investigated whether quercetin could inhibit the damage sustained to human corneal epithelial cells (HCECs) in a hyperosmolar environment through its anti-inflammatory effects. HCECs were cultured in a complete medium and were divided into four groups: normal, model, quercetin, and inhibitor. The proliferation of HCECs was detected by Ki67 staining; the expression levels of PTEN, p-PI3K and p-AKT were detected by Western blotting and immunofluorescence staining; the relative mRNA expression levels of PTEN, PI3K, AKT, IL-6 and TNF-ɑ were detected by quantitative real-time PCR; the relative expression levels of IL-6 and TNF-α were detected by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. In this study, the proliferation of HCECs in the model group was found to be significantly inhibited compared with that in the normal group; however, quercetin was effective in improving the proliferation of HCECs, decreasing the relative expression of p-PI3K, p-AKT, IL-6, TNF-ɑ as well as increasing PTEN. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that quercetin could promote the proliferation of HCECs and reduce the expression of inflammatory factors by inhibiting the PTEN/PI3K/AKT pathway in the hyperosmolarity-induced HCECs model.

PCa-RadHop: A transparent and lightweight feed-forward method for clinically significant prostate cancer segmentation.

Prostate Cancer is one of the most frequently occurring cancers in men, with a low survival rate if not early diagnosed. PI-RADS reading has a high false positive rate, thus increasing the diagnostic incurred costs and patient discomfort. Deep learning (DL) models achieve a high segmentation performance, although require a large model size and complexity. Also, DL models lack of feature interpretability and are perceived as "black-boxes" in the medical field. PCa-RadHop pipeline is proposed in this work, aiming to provide a more transparent feature extraction process using a linear model. It adopts the recently introduced Green Learning (GL) paradigm, which offers a small model size and low complexity. PCa-RadHop consists of two stages: Stage-1 extracts data-driven radiomics features from the bi-parametric Magnetic Resonance Imaging (bp-MRI) input and predicts an initial heatmap. To reduce the false positive rate, a subsequent stage-2 is introduced to refine the predictions by including more contextual information and radiomics features from each already detected Region of Interest (ROI). Experiments on the largest publicly available dataset, PI-CAI, show a competitive performance standing of the proposed method among other deep DL models, achieving an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.807 among a cohort of 1,000 patients. Moreover, PCa-RadHop maintains orders of magnitude smaller model size and complexity.

HHO optimized support vector machine classifier for traditional Chinese medicine syndrome differentiation of diabetic retinopathy.

AIM: To develop a classifier for traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome differentiation of diabetic retinopathy (DR), using optimized machine learning algorithms, which can provide the basis for TCM objective and intelligent syndrome differentiation. METHODS: Collated data on real-world DR cases were collected. A variety of machine learning methods were used to construct TCM syndrome classification model, and the best performance was selected as the basic model. Genetic Algorithm (GA) was used for feature selection to obtain the optimal feature combination. Harris Hawk Optimization (HHO) was used for parameter optimization, and a classification model based on feature selection and parameter optimization was constructed. The performance of the model was compared with other optimization algorithms. The models were evaluated with accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score as indicators. RESULTS: Data on 970 cases that met screening requirements were collected. Support Vector Machine (SVM) was the best basic classification model. The accuracy rate of the model was 82.05%, the precision rate was 82.34%, the recall rate was 81.81%, and the F1 value was 81.76%. After GA screening, the optimal feature combination contained 37 feature values, which was consistent with TCM clinical practice. The model based on optimal combination and SVM (GA_SVM) had an accuracy improvement of 1.92% compared to the basic classifier. SVM model based on HHO and GA optimization (HHO_GA_SVM) had the best performance and convergence speed compared with other optimization algorithms. Compared with the basic classification model, the accuracy was improved by 3.51%. CONCLUSION: HHO and GA optimization can improve the model performance of SVM in TCM syndrome differentiation of DR. It provides a new method and research idea for TCM intelligent assisted syndrome differentiation.

Efficient fabrication of bioinspired soft, ridged-slippery surfaces with large-range anisotropic wettability for droplet manipulation.

The droplet lossless directional motion control on slippery surfaces holds immense promise for applications in microfluidic chips, hazardous substance detection, chemical dispensing, etc. However, a significant challenge in this domain lies in efficiently developing soft, slippery surfaces with large-range anisotropic wettability and compatibility for curved scenarios. This study addressed this challenge through a quick 3D printing-assisted method to produce soft, ridged-slippery surfaces (SRSSs) as the droplet manipulation platform. The SRSSs demonstrated substantial anisotropic rolling resistances, measuring 116.9 µN in the perpendicular direction and 7.7 µN in the parallel direction, exhibiting a ratio of 15.2. Combining several extents of anisotropic wettability on a soft substrate could realize diverse reagent manipulation functions. Furthermore, these SRSSs showcased high compatibility with various droplet constituents, impressive liquid impact resistance, self-repair capability, and mechanical durability and thermal durability, ensuring exceptional applicability. As proofs of concept, the SRSSs were successfully applied in droplet control and classification for heavy metal ion detection, mechanical arm-based droplet grab and release, and cross-species transport, showcasing their remarkable versatility, compatibility, and practicality in advanced droplet microfluidic chips and water harvesting applications.

Sodium aescinate induces renal toxicity by promoting Nrf2/GPX4-mediated ferroptosis.

Sodium aescinate (SA) is extracted from Aesculus wilsonii Rehd seeds and was first marketed as a medicament in German. With the wide application of SA in clinical practice, reports of adverse drug reactions and adverse events have gradually increased, including renal impairment. However, the pathogenic mechanisms of SA have not yet been fully elucidated. The toxic effects and underlying mechanisms of SA were explored in this study. Our data showed that SA significantly elevated the levels of blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum creatinine (Scr) and Kidney injury molecule 1 (Kim-1), accompanied by pathologically significant changes in renal tissue. SA induced NRK-52E cell death and disrupted the integrity of the cell membrane. Moreover, SA caused significant reductions in FTH, Nrf2, xCT, GPX4, and FSP1 levels, but increased TFR1 and ACSL4 levels. SA decreased glutathione peroxidase (GPx), glutathione (GSH) and cysteine (Cys) levels, but improved Fe2+, malondialdehyde (MDA), reactive oxygen species (ROS) and lipid peroxidation levels, ultimately leading to the induction of ferroptosis. Importantly, inhibition of ferroptosis or activation of the Nrf2/GPX4 pathway prevented SA-induced nephrotoxicity. These findings indicated that SA induced oxidative damage and ferroptosis-mediated kidney injury by suppressing the Nrf2/GPX4 axis activity.

Effectiveness of acupuncture combined with artificial tears in managing dry eye syndrome: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

BACKGROUND: Dry eye syndrome is an ocular surface disease with high incidence. Acupuncture combined with artificial tears is effective for treating dry eye syndrome. This study aimed to evaluate the evidence for the efficacy of acupuncture combined with artificial tears in dry eye syndrome by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis. METHODS: A systematic online search was performed from the date of database establishment to July 1, 2023. The study groups that addressed acupuncture combined with artificial tears for patients with dry eye syndrome (DES) and the control groups that addressed artificial tears were analyzed. The main outcomes were tear breakup time (BUT) and Schirmer I test (SIT), assessed as previously described. RESULTS: Sixteen randomized or controlled trials met the selection criteria, and 1383 patients with DES were included in this study. The analysis results showed that BUT [Standard mean difference (SMD) = 1.25, 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.14, 1.37), P < .0001], SIT [SMD = 1.55, 95% CI (1.08, 2.02), P < .0001], and corneal fluorescein staining [SMD = -2.08, 95% CI (-2.96, -1.20), P < .00001] significantly improved in the trial groups compared with the control groups. The acupuncture treatment was more effective in reducing the levels of IL-6 (P < .0001) and TNF-α (P < .00001). The overall efficacy rate was better in the trial group than in the control group [odds ratio = 4.09, 95% CI (3.04, 5.51), P < .00001]. However, no significant difference was observed in the ocular surface disease index (P = .15) between the trial and control groups. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicated that acupuncture combined with artificial tears could be considered safe, effective to patients with DES.

Valproic acid increased the efficacy of EGFR TKIs on EGFR/TP53 co-mutated lung cancers and downregulated mutant-p53 levels.

The TP53 tumor suppressor is the most frequently mutated gene in human cancers. For p53-targeted therapy, one of the strategies was targeting mutant p53 for degradation. In EGFR-mutated lung cancer patients, concurrent TP53 mutation was associated with faster resistance to EGFR-TKIs. In this study, we discovered that valproic acid (VPA), a widely prescribed antiseizure medication, had a synergic effect on sensitive as well as acquired resistant lung cancers with EGFR/TP53 co-mutation in combination with EGFR-TKIs. In both in vitro and in vivo models, VPA greatly improved the efficacy of EGFR-TKIs, including forestalling the occurrence of acquired resistance and increasing the sensitivity to EGFR-TKIs. Mechanistically, VPA dramatically promoted degradation of mutant p53 in both sensitive and acquired resistant cells while inhibited mutant TP53 mRNA transcription only in sensitive cells. Together, this study suggested that VPA combination treatment could have beneficial effects on EGFR-mutant lung cancers with concurrent p53 mutation in both early and late stages, expanding the potential clinical applications for VPA.

Myxobolus dumerilii sp. n. (Myxozoa: Myxobolidae) infecting the brain of Chinese longsnout catfish Tachysurus dumerili (Bleeker) in China.

During an investigation of Myxobolus diversity in the Chinese longsnout catfish Tachysurus dumerili (Bleeker), a new species infecting the intracranial epidermis of the host was discovered. Upon opening the cranial cavity, several round whitish plasmodia measuring 0.55-0.80 mm in diameter were observed. Fresh spores (n= 50) were pyriform in the frontal view and fusiform in the sutural view, with a length of 15.4±0.6 (13.9-16.5) µm, width of 9.1±0.4 (8.3-9.8) µm, and thickness of 7.0±0.4 (6.3-7.9) µm. The spores had smooth shell surfaces and transparent membrane sheaths in the posterior. No folds, intercapsular appendix, and caudal appendages were observed. Two equal polar capsules were pyriform and measured 7.5±0.5 (6.7-8.7) µm in length and 3.2±0.3 (2.5-3.6) µm in width. The polar filaments were coiled with five to six turns and perpendicular to the polar capsule length. A BLAST search indicated M. dumerilii sp. n. was closely related to five Myxobolus species (with sequences similarities ranging from 90.54% to 96.52%) found in different organs of yellow catfish Tachysurus fulvidraco (Richardson), rather than the T. dumerili-infecting species M. branchiola Dong and Zhao, 2014 (with 90.5% sequence similarity). Phylogenetic analysis showed that M. dumerilii sp. n. didn't form sister clade with brain-infecting Myxobolus spp, but clustered with M. jianlinensis Gao et Zhao, 2020 and M. voremkhai Akhmerov, 1960 within the Siluriformes-clade with highly supported values, indicating that the host specificity may play a stronger signal than site infections during the evolution of Myxobolus species. Based on the morphological, ecological, and molecular differences observed between the newly discovered species and other available Myxobolus species, M. dumerilii sp. n., is proposed and described in this study.

Droplet transportation on photosensitive lubricant-impregnated slippery surfaces in response to the light induced Marangoni effect and asymmetrical wetting ridges.

Flexible control of droplet transportation is crucial in various applications but is constrained by liquid-solid friction. The development of biomimetic lubricant-impregnated slippery surfaces provides a new solution for flexible manipulation of droplet transportation. Herein, a light strategy is reported for flexibly controlling droplet transportation on photosensitive lubricant-impregnated slippery surfaces. Owing to the localized heating effect of a focused laser beam via photothermal conversion, the resultant thermal Marangoni flow and horizontal component of the surface tension associated with the asymmetric wetting ridges are together responsible for actuating droplet transportation. It is found that the asymmetry of the wetting ridge is dominated by the thickness of the infused oil layer, which directly affects the droplet transportation. The feasibility of this light strategy is also demonstrated by uphill movement, droplet coalescence, and chemical reaction. This study provides a new design for potential applications in open droplet microfluidics, analytical chemistry, diagnosis, etc.

Fructus Lycii and Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge extract attenuate oxidative stress-induced photoreceptor ferroptosis in retinitis pigmentosa.

AIM OF THE STUDY: To assess the impact of Fructus Lycii and Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge extract (FSE) on retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and to explore the mechanisms by which FSE can prevent oxidative stress-induced photoreceptor ferroptosis in RP. METHODS: Hydrogen peroxide(H2O2) was used to induce oxidative stress in 661 W cells, which were then examined using flow cytometry and enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Changes in mitochondria were observed by using an electron microscope to characterize the ferroptosis of the cells. The protective effect of FSE on the retina function and structure of rd10 mice was evaluated using histopathological examination, fundus photographs, and electroretinography (ERG). Protein expression levels of Tumor Protein p53 (P53), Solute Carrier Family 7 Member 11 (SLC7A11), Glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4), Arachidonate-12-Lipoxygenase (ALOX12), and Dipeptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP4) were evaluated by Western blot assays in Vivo and in Vitro. RESULTS: H2O2-induced 661 W cells increased oxidative stress products and P53 and ALOX12, decreasing the expression of SLC7A11, GPX4, and DPP4. GPX4 activator does not reduce reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and has little effect on ferroptosis. Fer-1 and FSE attenuate ROS generation and inhibit ferroptosis of photoreceptors in RP via inhibited P53 expression and increased SLC7A11 and GPX4 expression. CONCLUSION: FSE may be available in clinical therapeutics to alleviating RP and the mechanism by which inhibits ferroptosis of photoreceptors following oxidative stress via the P53/ SLC7A11 pathway.

InDEP: an interpretable machine learning approach to predict cancer driver genes from multi-omics data.

Cancer driver genes are critical in driving tumor cell growth, and precisely identifying these genes is crucial in advancing our understanding of cancer pathogenesis and developing targeted cancer drugs. Despite the current methods for discovering cancer driver genes that mainly rely on integrating multi-omics data, many existing models are overly complex, and it is difficult to interpret the results accurately. This study aims to address this issue by introducing InDEP, an interpretable machine learning framework based on cascade forests. InDEP is designed with easy-to-interpret features, cascade forests based on decision trees and a KernelSHAP module that enables fine-grained post-hoc interpretation. Integrating multi-omics data, InDEP can identify essential features of classified driver genes at both the gene and cancer-type levels. The framework accurately identifies driver genes, discovers new patterns that make genes as driver genes and refines the cancer driver gene catalog. In comparison with state-of-the-art methods, InDEP proved to be more accurate on the test set and identified reliable candidate driver genes. Mutational features were the primary drivers for InDEP's identifying driver genes, with other omics features also contributing. At the gene level, the framework concluded that substitution-type mutations were the main reason most genes were identified as driver genes. InDEP's ability to identify reliable candidate driver genes opens up new avenues for precision oncology and discovering new biomedical knowledge. This framework can help advance cancer research by providing an interpretable method for identifying cancer driver genes and their contribution to cancer pathogenesis, facilitating the development of targeted cancer drugs.

Network Pharmacology-Based Identification of Key Targets of Ziyin Mingmu Pills Acting on Age-Related Macular Degeneration.

Objective: This study is designed to find out the molecular targets of effective Chinese medicine Ziyin Mingmu pills (ZMPs) in treating age-related macular degeneration (AMD) based on network pharmacology and experimental data. Methods: A comprehensive network pharmacology strategy that consists of three sequential modules (drug-disease target molecular docking, enrichment analysis, and external verification) was carried out to identify potential targets of ZMPs acting on AMD. Results: The active ingredients of ZMPs targeting 66 genes have effects on the process of AMD. GO and KEGG pathway enrichment analyses suggested that response to oxidative stress, regulation of angiogenesis, and lipid and atherosclerosis might serve as the most important signaling pathways in ZMPs for AMD treatment. Combined with the GSE29801 dataset for further analysis, two key genes, EGFR and VEGFA, were identified. Immune infiltration analysis showed that there was a strong association between EGFR and immune cell content. In addition, images were acquired following 24 h in the scratch experiment showed that ZMPs can reduce the percentage of wound healing distance. The Western blot assay found that ZMPs increased the expression of EGFR and decreased the expression of VEGFA. Conclusion: This study sheds light on some mechanisms of ZMP therapy for AMD, particularly the effect of ZMP on the oxidative stress in RPE and cell survival and angiogenesis in AMD. We propound ZMPs as a promising strategy to intervene in the process of AMD.

Quantifying the Influence of Factors on the Accuracy of Speech Perception in Mandarin-Speaking Cochlear Implant Patients.

Rehabilitation of hearing perception in cochlear implant (CI) patients is a challenging process. A comprehensive analysis of the characteristics of hearing rehabilitation in Mandarin-speaking CI patients was conducted. We measured the aided hearing threshold (AHT) and the speech perception accuracy (SPA) and collected clinical data. A total of 49 CI patients were included. Significant linear relationships existed between the AHT and SPA. The SPA increased by about 5-7% when the AHT decreased by 5 dB. An apparent individual difference in the SPA was observed under the same AHT, which in some patients was lower than the reference value fitted by the regression model. The timing of both of cochlear implantation and rehabilitation training was found to lead to significant improvement in SPA. The SPA increases by 2.1-3.6% per year of cochlear implantation and 0.7-1.5% per year of rehabilitation training. The time of auditory deprivation can significantly reduce the SPA by about 1.0-1.6% per year. The SPA was still poor in some CI patients when the hearing compensation seemed satisfying. Early cochlear implantation and post-operative rehabilitation are essential for recovery of the patient's SPA if the indications for cochlear implantation are met.

The Role of IL-6 in Inner Ear Impairment: Evidence from 146 Recovered Patients with Omicron Infected in Tianjin, China.

PURPOSE: To explore the effect of inflammatory factors on inner ear impairment in a sample of Omicron-infected patients with a high rate of vaccination in China. METHODS: One hundred and forty-six recovered Omicron-infected patients performed the distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) test and serum test for inflammatory factors; demographic data and vaccination statuses were collected from the questionnaire. RESULTS: Out of 146 patients, the DPOAE pass rate was 81.5% (119/146). Inner ear impairment was significantly correlated with IL-6 titer. The odds ratio (aOR) was 1.24 (95% CI: 1.04-1.49) after adjusting for age, sex, and vaccine characteristics. Notably, this relationship only existed in the 18-60 years group. There were no significant protective effects of vaccination on inner ear function. CONCLUSIONS: Inner ear impairment still exists in Omicron-infected patients, which was significantly correlated with IL-6 titer. This relationship was mainly observed in young and middle-aged people, possibly due to a stronger immune response in this age group. The protective effect of vaccination on the inner ear could not be proved.

Lycium barbarum Polysaccharides Regulating miR-181/Bcl-2 Decreased Autophagy of Retinal Pigment Epithelium with Oxidative Stress.

Disturbed structure and dysfunction of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) lead to degenerative diseases of the retina. Excessive accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the RPE is thought to play an important role in RPE dysfunction and degeneration. Autophagy is a generally low-activity degradation process of cellular components that increases significantly when high levels of oxidative stress are present. Agents with antioxidant properties may decrease autophagy and provide protection against RPE dysfunction and damage caused by ROS. Lycium barbarum polysaccharide (LBP) has been widely studied as an antioxidant and cell-protective agent. Therefore, we designed this study to investigate the effects of LBP, which inhibits miR-181, on autophagy in retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) with oxidative stress in vitro and in vivo. In the current study, we found that the highly expressed miR-181 downregulated the expression of Bcl-2 in hydrogen peroxide- (H2O2-) induced ARPE-19 cells, resulting in an increase in ROS, apoptosis, and autophagy flux. LBP inhibited the expression of miR-181, decreased the levels of ROS, apoptosis, and autophagy flux, and increased cell viability in H2O2-induced ARPE-19 cells, suggesting that LBP provides protection against oxidative damage in ARPE-19 cells. We also found that LBP decreased RPE atrophy and autophagy flux in rd10 mice. Taken together, the results showed that LBP has a protective effect for RPE under oxidative stress by inhibiting miR-181 and affecting the Bcl-2/Beclin1 autophagy signaling pathway.

Characteristics of different Mandarin pronunciation element perception: evidence based on a multifeature paradigm for recording MMN and P3a components of phonemic changes in speech sounds.

Background: As a tonal language, Mandarin Chinese has the following pronunciation elements for each syllable: the vowel, consonant, tone, duration, and intensity. Revealing the characteristics of auditory-related cortical processing of these different pronunciation elements is interesting. Methods: A Mandarin pronunciation multifeature paradigm was designed, during which a standard stimulus and five different phonemic deviant stimuli were presented. The electroencephalogram (EEG) data were recorded with 256-electrode high-density EEG equipment. Time-domain and source localization analyses were conducted to demonstrate waveform characteristics and locate the sources of the cortical processing of mismatch negativity (MMN) and P3a components following different stimuli. Results: Vowel and consonant differences elicited distinct MMN and P3a components, but tone and duration differences did not. Intensity differences elicited distinct MMN components but not P3a components. For MMN and P3a components, the activated cortical areas were mainly in the frontal-temporal lobe. However, the regions and intensities of the cortical activation were significantly different among the components for the various deviant stimuli. The activated cortical areas of the MMN and P3a components elicited by vowels and consonants seemed to be larger and show more intense activation. Conclusion: The auditory processing centers use different auditory-related cognitive resources when processing different Mandarin pronunciation elements. Vowels and consonants carry more information for speech comprehension; moreover, more neurons in the cortex may be involved in the recognition and cognitive processing of these elements.

Effect of Shuangdan Mingmu Capsule on Diabetic Retinopathy in Rats via Regulation of miRNAs.

Purpose: To evaluate the effects of Shuangdan Mingmu (SDMM) capsule on diabetic retinopathy in rats by regulating miRNAs. Materials and Methods: Streptozotocin (STZ) (50 mg/kg) was successfully used to induce diabetes in male Sprague-Dawley rats, which were randomly assigned to a group taking SDMM capsules ("diabetic+SDMM") or a control group ("diabetic"), and the normal group (n=10/group). The diabetic+SDMM capsule group received 1.89g/kg/d of SDMM capsule by gavage, whereas the other groups received the same amount of distilled water. After 12-weeks of gavage, the retina was removed from all rats for histopathological analysis, and miRNA sequencing experiments were carried out to identify the differential expression of miRNAs. These results were then confirmed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Results: SDMM capsules improved retinal morphology, restored the number of cells in the ganglion cell layer (p<0.0001) and reduced apoptosis in all retinal layers (p values in the outer nuclear layers, inner nuclear layers and ganglion cell layers 0.0001, 0.0147, 0.0034, respectively). In addition, miRNA expression was changed in rats taking SDMM capsules. Compared with the diabetic group, six miRNAs were up-regulated and four miRNAs were down-regulated in the diabetic+SDMM capsule group. The qRT-PCR validation results showed that the expression levels of miR-450b-5p, miR-1249 and miR-155-5p were consistent with the trend of miRNA sequencing results, and were all up-regulated after SDMM capsule treatment. Target gene prediction and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) analysis of differentially expressed miRNAs showed that these pathways were mainly concentrated in the focal adhesions and PI3K/Akt, MAPK, and neural factor signaling pathways. Conclusion: SDMM capsules may prevent and treat diabetic retinopathy by regulating the expression of miR-450b-5p, miR-1249 and miR-155-5p.

The Effect of Metabolites on Mitochondrial Functions in the Pathogenesis of Skeletal Muscle Aging.

Sarcopenia is an age-related systemic disease characterized by skeletal muscle aging that generally severely affects the quality of life of elderly patients. Metabolomics analysis is a powerful tool for qualitatively and quantitatively characterizing the small molecule metabolomics of various biological matrices in order to clarify all key scientific problems concerning cell metabolism. The discovery of optimal therapy requires a thorough understanding of the cellular metabolic mechanism of skeletal muscle aging. In this review, the relationship between skeletal muscle mitochondria, amino acid, vitamin, lipid, adipokines, intestinal microbiota and vascular microenvironment has been separately reviewed from the perspective of metabolomics, and a new therapeutic direction has been suggested.

Micro-object manipulation by decanol liquid lenses.

The flexible and precise manipulation of droplets on an air-liquid interface with complex functions remains challenging. Herein, we propose a smart strategy for excellently manipulating target droplets by decanol liquid lenses. A moveable surface tension gradient field generated by decanol liquid lenses is responsible for realizing various functions of transportation, launching and splitting of target droplets. With such fascinating features, directional long-distance transportation and on-demand droplet coalescence are enabled. Moreover, paw-like liquid lenses are constructed, which realizes a complex process, including collection, capture, transportation and release of target droplets. Remarkably, this strategy can also be applied to manipulate particles and liquid marbles other than droplets, eliminating the limitation of object properties. This work offers a smart strategy for manipulating micro-objects, which shows great potential in applications such as lab-on-a-chip, diagnostics, analytical chemistry and bioengineering, etc.

Light Droplet Levitation in Relation to Interface Morphology and Liquid Property.

Light droplet levitation is an elegant technique allowing for contact-less manipulation in a wall-free environment. However, direct generation of light levitated droplets remains limited by small-curvature interface and underlying mechanism remains unclear. Here we report that small-curvature interface limitation encountered in liquid water is overcome by using liquids with extremely small saturated vapor pressure, which allows for direct generation of light levitated droplets above large-curvature interface. It is demonstrated that the interface morphology and extremely small saturated vapor pressure of liquids together contribute to creation of the gravity-lift and evaporation-condensation balances, enabling droplet levitation even above large-curvature interface. We also propose a levitation number Lv to judge whether droplets can be directly levitated above a curved interface or not, which successfully predicts the occurrence of light droplet levitation. When Lv falls in the range of 2.25 × 10-4 ∼ 6 × 10-3, tiny condensed droplets can be stably levitated above the gas-liquid interface no matter interface morphology and liquid type. The study deepens the understanding of the underlying mechanism for generating light levitated droplets.