The yeast fungus Candida albicans not only uses the toxin candidalysin to cause infections, but also to colonize the oral mucosa inconspicuously – but only in finely balanced amounts. Too little toxin prevents oral colonization, too much triggers the immune system and leads to an inflammatory defense reaction, as an international research team from Zurich, Jena, and Paris discovered. The results were published in the journal Nature Microbiology.

This study reveals unique insights into improving biliary cold preservation by exploring the natural cold tolerance mechanisms of hibernating mammals. Researchers established Syrian hamster intrahepatic cholangiocyte organoids (shICOs), which demonstrated superior resistance to cooling-rewarming stress compared to mouse-derived organoids (mICOs). Enhanced iron homeostasis and anti-ferroptosis capacity in shICOs suggest a novel strategy to reduce bile duct injury during liver transplantation.

This study constructs a spatiotemporal single-nucleus transcriptomic atlas of neurons in the entorhinal cortex–hippocampal (EC-HPC) circuit during Alzheimer’s disease (AD) progression. By performing Smart-seq2-based single-nucleus RNA sequencing on neurons from APP/PS1 transgenic mice and wild-type controls across different brain regions and disease stages, the study reveals two distinct neuronal populations associated with AD pathology: progressively lost EC-stellate neurons and expanding GFAP⁺ neurons with glia-like features. These findings highlight neuronal identity changes and energy metabolism dysfunction in AD, offering new insights into early diagnosis and intervention.

This study uncovers a novel role of RNA G-quadruplex (rG4) structures in regulating translation and cellular senescence. By integrating ribosome profiling and rG4-RIP sequencing, the researchers reveal that rG4 structures within coding regions cause ribosome pausing, disrupt protein homeostasis, and accelerate senescence. The RNA helicase DHX9 is identified as a key factor that unwinds rG4 structures and maintains translational balance. These findings highlight rG4 stabilization as a potential driver of aging and age-related diseases, offering new therapeutic opportunities by targeting rG4 dynamics.

Bacteria are constantly moving by help of motility organs called flagella or pili to colonize new niches. Also, bacteria can exchange information, like “speaking to each other”, and thus acquire new abilities through the exchange of DNA materials. These motility organs play important roles in DNA uptake to exchange genetic information between different bacteria, allowing what’s so-called genomic plasticity. Therefore, bacterial motility organs contribute to bacterial pathogenicity, colonizing hosts, biofilm formation and spreading of antibiotics resistance.

This review article delves into the potential of secreted proteins as therapeutic targets for treating MASLD, a global epidemic with limited pharmacological interventions. The authors highlight the diverse roles of secreted proteins in regulating glucose and lipid metabolism and discuss their dysregulation in MASLD. The review summarizes recent findings on various secreted protein families, including orosomucoid (ORM), SPARC, neuregulin (Nrg), growth differentiation factor (GDF), interleukin (IL), fibroblast growth factor (FGF), bone morphogenic protein (BMP), Isthmin-1 (Ism1), and mesencephalic astrocyte-derived neurotrophic factor (MANF).