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Zika virus (ZIKV) has elicited global concern due to its unique biological features, unusual transmission routes, and unexpected clinical outcomes. Although ZIKV transmission through anal intercourse has been reported in humans, it remains unclear if ZIKV is detectable in the stool, if it can infect the host through the anal canal mucosa, and what the pathogenesis of such a route of infection might be in the mouse model. Herein, we demonstrate that ZIKV RNA can be recovered from stools in multiple mouse models, as well as from the stool of a ZIKV patient. Remarkably, intra-anal (i.a.) inoculation with ZIKV leads to efficient infection in both Ifnar1-/- and immunocompetent mice, characterized by extensive viral replication in the blood and multiple organs, including the brain, small intestine, testes, and rectum, as well as robust humoral and innate immune responses. Moreover, i.a. inoculation of ZIKV in pregnant mice resulted in transplacental infection and delayed fetal development. Overall, our results identify the anorectal mucosa as a potential site of ZIKV infection in mice, reveal the associated pathogenesis of i.a. infection, and highlight the complexity of ZIKV transmission through anal intercourse.

Cistrome‐wide association studies (CWAS) are pivotal for identifying genetic determinants of diseases by correlating genetically regulated cistrome states with phenotypes. Traditional CWAS typically develops a model based on cistrome and genotype data to associate predicted cistrome states with phenotypes. The random effect cistrome‐wide association study (RECWAS), reevaluates the necessity of cistrome state prediction in CWAS. RECWAS utilizes either a linear model or marginal effect for initial feature selection, followed by kernel‐based feature aggregation for association testing is introduced. Through simulations and analysis of prostate cancer data, a thorough evaluation of CWAS and RECWAS is conducted. The results suggest that RECWAS offers improved power compared to traditional CWAS, identifying additional genomic regions associated with prostate cancer. CWAS identified 102 significant regions, while RECWAS found 50 additional significant regions compared to CWAS, many of which are validated. Validation encompassed a range of biological evidence, including risk signals from the GWAS catalog, susceptibility genes from the DisGeNET database, and enhancer‐domain scores. RECWAS consistently demonstrated improved performance over traditional CWAS in identifying genomic regions associated with prostate cancer. These findings demonstrate the benefits of incorporating kernel methods into CWAS and provide new insights for genetic discovery in complex diseases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chlorogenic acid (CGA) is a natural polyphenol with potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. However, the exact role of it in regulating intestinal health under oxidative stress is not fully understood. This study aims to investigate the effects of dietary CGA supplementation on the intestinal health of weaned piglets under oxidative stress, and to explore its regulatory mechanism. Twenty-four piglets were randomly divided into two groups and fed either a basal diet (CON) or a basal diet supplemented with 200 mg/kg CGA (CGA). CGA reduced the diarrhea rate, increased the villus height in the jejunum, and decreased the crypt depth in the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum of the weaned piglets (p < 0.05). Moreover, CGA increased the protein abundance of Claudin-1, Occludin, and zonula occludens (ZO)-1 in the jejunum and ileum (p < 0.05). In addition, CGA increased the mRNA expression of pBD2 in the jejunum, and pBD1 and pBD2 in the ileum (p < 0.05). The results of 16S rRNA sequencing showed that CGA altered the ileal microbiota composition and increased the relative abundance of Lactobacillus reuteri and Lactobacillus pontis (p < 0.05). Consistently, the findings suggested that the enhancement of the intestinal barrier in piglets was associated with increased concentrations of T-AOC, IL-22, and sIgA in the serum and T-AOC, T-SOD, and sIgA in the jejunum, as well as T-AOC and CAT in the ileum caused by CGA (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, CGA decreased the concentrations of MDA, IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α in the serum and jejunum and IL-1β and IL-6 in the ileum (p < 0.05). Importantly, this study found that CGA alleviated intestinal inflammation and oxidative stress in the piglets by inhibiting the TLR4/NF-κB signaling pathway and activating the Nrf2 signaling pathway. These findings showed that CGA enhances the intestinal health of weaned piglets by inhibiting the TLR4/NF-κB pathway and activating the Nrf2 pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High theoretical capacity, stabilized and layered 2H phase molybdenum disulfide (2H) is regarded as a promising material for superior kinetics anode in sodium ion battery, but the inherent semiconducting properties and sluggish sodium ions diffusion limit the development of 2H based anode. Hence, this study builds a unique metalloid phase with high electronic conductivity and suitable layer structure by screening non‐metallic carbon atoms doped in 2H (2H‐C). As experimental and simulation results, 2H‐C of metalloid properties after carbon atom modulation exhibit superior sodium storage kinetics and reversibility by a unique mechanism that promotes ion intercalation under high voltage window, and further good for the later uniformly conversion at lower voltage (intercalation‐conversion mechanism). The 2H‐C anode material delivers a remarkable reversible capacity of 156 mAh g−1 at ultra‐high 100.0 A g−1, long‐term life of 6000 cycles, and superior performance at low temperatures of −10 °C. Otherwise, 2H‐C/Na3V2(PO4)3 full cell also performs charge/discharge capacity of 80.0/76.7 mAh g−1 with 87% capacity retention after 140 cycles at 0 °C. This discovery further explores the unique mechanism and application of 2D layered materials in sodium‐ion battery anodes for fast kinetics under extreme conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]