Researchers at Harbin's Northeast Agricultural University show that dietary isobutyrate supplementation alleviates colitis in a pig model by restoring gut microbiota balance and strengthening intestinal barrier function, pointing to a promising, food-derived approach for safe, low-cost IBD treatment.

The rapid advancement of single-cell and single-nucleus RNA sequencing (sc/snRNA-seq) has opened unprecedented windows into cellular diversity, yet existing methods for multiplexing samples struggle with scalability and accuracy. Traditional techniques relying on antibodies or lipid-based barcodes often fail to uniformly label cells across different types or species, particularly in complex clinical samples. These limitations—cell-type bias, cross-contamination risks, and loss of rare cell populations—hinder large-scale studies and clinical translation. To overcome these challenges, a team led by Professor Yiwei Li at Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) has pioneered Toti-N-Seq, a groundbreaking technology that harnesses the universal presence of N-glycans on cell and nuclear surfaces. Published as a cover story in Research (2025, DOI: 10.34133/research.0678), this innovation redefines how researchers approach high-throughput cellular profiling.

Researchers have uncovered a hormone-sensitive neural circuit between the hypothalamic medial preoptic area and paraventricular nucleus that, when modulated, powerfully alters depressive-like behaviors in a mouse model of postpartum depression, pointing to a promising target for future treatments.

This study shows that oral—but not intravenous—lysozyme reshapes gut microbiota to reactivate PI3K–Akt signaling and reverse vascular aging in mice, revealing a gut–vascular inflammatory aging axis and pointing to potential noninvasive therapies for age-related vascular disease.