These are the molecular machines inside your body that make cell division possible. Animation by Drew Berry at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. http://wehi.tv.

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Every day in an adult human roughly 50–70 billion of your cells die. They may be damaged, stressed, or just plain old — this is normal, in fact it’s called programmed cell death.

To make up for that loss, right now, inside your body, billions of cells are dividing, creating new cells.

And cell division, also called mitosis, requires an army of tiny molecular machines. DNA is a good place to start — the double helix molecule that we always talk about.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), known as “immortal cancer,” is a chronic, progressive autoimmune inflammatory disease. The development and application of an RA high-sensitivity theranostics probe can help to accurately monitor the progression and realize the efficient treatment of RA.

In a study published in Advanced Science, a research group led by Prof. Zhang Yun from Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter of the Chinese Academy of Sciences developed a dual-triggered theranostics nanoprobe based on persistent luminescence nanoparticles (PLNPs) for RA autofluorescence-free imaging-guided precise treatment and therapeutic evaluation.

The researchers first prepared a renewable near-infrared (NIR)-emitting Zn_1.3 Ga_1.4 Sn_0.3 O₄:0.5%Cr³⁺, 0.3%Y³⁺ (ZGSO) PLNPs by a facile mesoporous silica template method.