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Pharmacological strategies targeting hepatocyte-mediated crosstalk in liver fibrosis

Liver fibrosis is a common pathological outcome of chronic liver injury. Many therapeutic agents show limited clinical efficacy or significant adverse effects due to the complex pathogenesis of liver fibrosis. This challenge underscores the urgent need to identify potential therapeutic targets and improve existing therapies. Hepatocytes serve as pivotal initiators of liver fibrosis that actively engage in signaling crosstalk with other hepatic cell types to promote fibrogenesis. Advances in understanding hepatocyte-centered signaling crosstalk have enabled the identification of potential therapeutic targets. Furthermore, combination therapies that regulate multiple pathways and drug modifications that improve pharmacological properties may help to minimize adverse effects and enhance the efficacy of existing treatments.

Regulation of neuronal invasion of small cell lung cancer by STMN2/β-alanine-controlled metabolic reprogramming

Zhou et al. demonstrate that perineural invasion (PNI) is an adverse prognostic factor in small cell lung cancer. They identify a neuron-STMN2-β-alanine axis, where the neural microenvironment upregulates STMN2 in tumor cells, reprogramming β-alanine metabolism to enhance cell migration and drive neural invasion, revealing a potential therapeutic target.

Neurotransmitter-activated GPCR signaling in myelin plasticity

Myelination is increasingly recognized as a dynamic and adaptive process regulated by oligodendrocytes throughout life. Beyond providing electrical insulation, myelin supports axonal metabolism and may serve as an energy reservoir under metabolic stress, highlighting the importance of physiological myelin turnover. Dysregulation of myelin dynamics contributes to a wide spectrum of neurological disorders, including demyelinating, neurodegenerative, and neuropsychiatric diseases. Growing evidence indicates that neurotransmitter signaling through G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) expressed by oligodendrocyte lineage cells regulates myelin formation, remodeling, and repair.

Gut microbiota-derived deoxycholic acid shapes an immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment and promotes breast cancer progression

Li et al. identify deoxycholic acid as a microbiota-derived driver of breast cancer progression. Deoxycholic acid activates farnesoid X receptor signaling to induce interleukin-6 production, promoting immunosuppressive cell recruitment and establishing a metabolite-driven immune regulatory axis with therapeutic potential.

Brighter red micro-LEDs could help solve full-color display stability challenge

Researchers at The University of Osaka, in collaboration with Ritsumeikan University, have demonstrated that growing europium-doped gallium nitride (Eu-doped GaN) on a semipolar crystal plane dramatically improves red light emission. The team found that this approach selectively promotes the formation of highly efficient Eu luminescent centers, resulting in red emission intensity more than 3.6 times higher than that of conventionally grown polar-plane material.

The study is published in the journal Applied Physics Letters.

Red emitters based on Eu-doped GaN are attracting attention as promising light sources for next-generation micro-LED displays because they can provide narrow-linewidth, wavelength-stable red emission based on intra-4f-shell transitions of Eu ions. This is particularly important for full-color monolithic integration with blue and green InGaN LEDs, where wavelength stability under device operation is essential.

Gravitational waves from colliding black holes may allow detection of dark matter

Dark matter is thought to make up most of the matter in the universe, but the only way it interacts with its surroundings is through gravity. If two colliding black holes spiral through a dense region of dark matter and merge, gravitational waves rippling across space and time could carry an imprint of that dark matter.

Now, physicists may be able to spot such imprints of dark matter in gravitational waves that are detected on Earth.

Researchers at MIT and in Europe have developed a method that makes predictions for what a gravitational wave should look like if it were produced by black holes that moved through dark matter, rather than empty space. They applied the technique to publicly available gravitational-wave data previously recorded by LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK), the global network of observatories that detect gravitational waves from black hole mergers and other far-off astrophysical sources.

Gravitational wave detectors can now ‘autotune’ signals to harmonize the heavens

Gravitational wave researchers working on the world’s most sensitive scientific instruments have found a way to tune their detectors using a process akin to the pitch-correction used in music production.

Scientists at the international LIGO, Virgo and KAGRA (LVK) gravitational wave observatory collaboration have employed the technique, which they call astrophysical calibration, to use gravitational-wave signals to measure the response of their incredibly sensitive instruments.

It enables them to ensure that they can clearly “hear” the sounds of colossal cosmic events like the collision of black holes, even when one gravitational wave detector is slightly out of tune. This is crucial to accurately interpret the signals and find their source location.

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