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https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/acta-pharmaceutica-sinica-b/vol/11/issue/4Special Issue: The Biological Fate of Drug Nanocarriers

Skeletal muscles make a tremendous variety of actions stabilizing the body in different positions. Despite their endurance during daily activities, they can undergo several mild injuries caused by sport, accidental overstretching, or sudden overtwisting. Luckily mild injuries can be quickly healed; however, when a large part of muscles is damaged or resected surgically, the full recovery can be impossible. Muscle regeneration is challenging, but the development of innovative biocompatible materials tackles that problem.

A study published in the journal Scientific Reports reveals the genetic structure of the land snail Xerocrassa montserratensis and it provides new scientific tools for the improvement of the conservation of this endemic and threatened species in Catalonia.

Experts in virtual reality locomotion have developed a new resource that analyses all the different possibilities of locomotion currently available.

Scientists have developed a brain-computer interface (BCI) designed to restore the ability to communicate in people with spinal cord injuries and neurological disorders such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This system has the potential to work more quickly than previous BCIs, and it does so by tapping into one of the oldest means of communications we have--handwriting.

Harvard researchers have designed a stable, lithium-metal solid state battery that can be charged and discharged at least 10,000 times -- far more cycles than have been previously demonstrated --- at a high current density. The battery technology could increase the lifetime of electric vehicles to that of the gasoline cars -- 10 to 15 years -- without the need to replace the battery. With its high current density, the battery could pave the way for electric vehicles that can fully charge within 10 to 20 minutes.

The acidity of the atmosphere is increasingly determined by carbon dioxide and organic acids such as formic acid. The second of these impact the growth of clouds and pH of rainwater. But the chemical processes behind the formation of formic acid were not well understood. An international team of researchers under the aegis of Forschungszentrum Jülich has now succeeded in filling this gap. The results have been published in Nature.

Social anxiety disorder can cause considerable suffering in children and adolescents and, for many with the disorder, access to effective treatment is limited. Researchers at Centre for Psychiatry Research at Karolinska Institutet and Region Stockholm in Sweden have now shown that internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy is an efficacious and cost-effective treatment option. The study is published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.

Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have taken a deep dive into a previously overlooked family of proteins and discovered that they are essential to maintaining the energy that cells need to grow and survive. The proteins, known as lipid kinases, produce messengers that help balance cellular metabolism and promote overall health. The findings, published in Developmental Cell, provide further support to pursue lipid kinases as promising therapeutic targets for diseases that demand excess energy, such as cancer.

MD Anderson researchers have discovered a new role for the DHODH enzyme in blocking a form of cell death called ferroptosis. Preclinical findings suggest that targeting DHODH could restore cell death and inhibit tumor growth.

What The Study Did: Delayed localized injection-site reactions to the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine for 16 patients are described in this report.

What The Study Did: Researchers used registry data to examine the number, characteristics and outcomes of patients with sunburns severe enough to warrant admission to specialist burn services in Australia and New Zealand.

What The Study Did: This survey study estimated the number of children and adolescents in the United States who have received medical care as a result of assault, abuse or exposure to violence.

What The Study Did: Rates of preterm birth and stillbirth in Ontario, Canada, during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic are evaluated in this study.

What The Study Did: Researchers describe overdose deaths in San Francisco before and after the initial COVID-19 shelter-in-place order to try to make clear whether characteristics of fatal overdoses changed during this time in an effort to guide future prevention efforts.

Artificial intelligence, interpreting data from a device placed at the brain's surface, enables people who are paralyzed or have severely impaired limb movement to communicate by text.

Scientists have for the first time revealed the structure surrounding important receptors in the brain's hippocampus, the seat of memory and learning. The new study focuses on the organization and function of glutamate receptors, a type of neurotransmitter receptor involved in sensing signals between nerve cells in the hippocampus region of the brain. The study reveals the molecular structure of three major complexes of glutamate receptors in the hippocampus.

Using a brain-computer interface, a clinical trial participant was able to create text on a computer at a rate of 90 characters per minute just by thinking about the movements involved in writing by hand.

Researchers have, for the first time, decoded the neural signals associated with writing letters, then displayed typed versions of these letters in real time. They hope their invention could one day help people with paralysis communicate.

A joint team at the Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Tsinghua University recently investigated the molecular mechanism by which the ZAR1 resistosome activates plant immunity.