Yang et al. show that a disulfide isoform of HMGB1, with a role in TLR4 signaling, physically interacts with and binds MD-2. MD-2 deficiency in macrophage cell lines or in primary mouse macrophages stimulated with HMGB1 implicates MD-2 in TLR4 signaling. They also identify an HGMB1 peptide inhibitor, P5779, which when administered in vivo can protect mice from acetaminophen-induced hepatoxicity, ischemia/reperfusion injury, and sepsis.

Neurotrauma is one of the most serious traumatic injuries, which can induce an excess amount of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS) around the wound, triggering a series of biochemical responses and neuroinflammation. Traditional antioxidant-based bandages can effectively decrease infection via preventing oxidative stress, but its effectiveness is limited to a short period of time due to the rapid loss of electron-donating ability. Herein, we developed a nanozyme-based bandage using single-atom Pt/CeO2 with a persistent catalytic activity for noninvasive treatment of neurotrauma. Single-atom Pt induced the lattice expansion and preferred distribution on (111) facets of CeO2, enormously increasing the endogenous catalytic activity. Pt/CeO2 showed a 2–10 times higher scavenging activity against RONS as well as 3–10 times higher multienzyme activities compared to CeO2 clusters. The single-atom Pt/CeO2 retained the long-lasting catalytic activity for up to a month without obvious decay due to enhanced electron donation through the Mars–van Krevelen reaction. In vivo studies disclosed that the nanozyme-based bandage at the single-atom level can significantly improve the wound healing of neurotrauma and reduce neuroinflammation.

Abstract. Bi, a high atom number element, has a high photoelectric absorption coefficient, and Se element has anticancer activity. Hence, their compound chalcogenide (Bi 2 Se 3 ) deserves a thorough investigation for biomedical applications. This study reveals that Bi 2 Se 3 nanoplates (54 nm wide) protected with poly(vinylpyrollidone) (PVP) are biocompatible and have low toxicity even at a high dose of 20 mg/kg in mice. This conclusion was made through the studies on the biodistribution and 90-day long term in vivo clearance of the nanoplates.Liver and spleen were dominant organs for the nanoplates accumulation which was mainly due to RES absorption, but 93 % the nanoplates were cleared after 90 days treatment.

Ionizing radiation (gamma and X-ray) is widely used in industry and medicine, but it can also pose a significant hazardous effect on health and induce cancer, physical deformity, and even death, due to DNA damage and invasion of free radicals. There is therefore an urgent unmet demand in designing highly efficient radioprotectants with synergetic integration of effective renal clearance and low toxicity. In this study, we designed ultrasmall (sub-5 nm) highly catalytically active and cysteine-protected MoS2 dots as radioprotectants and investigated their application in protection against ionizing radiation. In vivo preclinical studies showed that the surviving fraction of MoS2-treated mice can appreciably increase to up to 79% when they were exposed to high-energy ionizing radiation. Furthermore, MoS2 dots can contribute in cleaning up the accumulated free radicals within the body, repairing DNA damage, and recovering all vital chemical and biochemical indicators, suggesting their unique role as free radical scavengers. MoS2 dots showed rapid and efficient urinary excretion with more than 80% injected dose eliminated from the body after 24 h due to their ultrasmall hydrodynamic size and did not cause any noticeable toxic responses up to 30 days.

Water deficit imposed by either drought or salinity brings about severe growth retardation and yield loss of crops. Since Brassica crops are important contributors to total oilseed production, it is urgently needed to develop tolerant cultivars to ensure yields under such adverse conditions. There are various physiochemical mechanisms for dealing with drought and salinity in plants at different developmental stages. Accordingly, different indicators of tolerance to drought or salinity at the germination, seedling, flowering and mature stages have been developed and used for germplasm screening and selection in breeding practices. Classical genetic and modern genomic approaches coupled with precise phenotyping have boosted the unravelling of genes and metabolic pathways conferring drought or salt tolerance in crops. QTL mapping of drought and salt tolerance has provided several dozen target QTLs in Brassica and the closely related Arabidopsis. Many drought- or salt-tolerant genes have also been isolated, some of which have been confirmed to have great potential for genetic improvement of plant tolerance. It has been suggested that molecular breeding approaches, such as marker-assisted selection and gene transformation, that will enhance oil product security under a changing climate be integrated in the development of drought- and salt-tolerant Brassica crops.