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The emergence of immunotherapies such as immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) has markedly enhanced cancer treatment outcomes for numerous patients. Nevertheless, the effectiveness of immunotherapy demonstrates substantial variation across different cancer types and individual patients. The immunosuppressive characteristics of the tumor microenvironment (TME) play a crucial role in contributing to this variation. Typically, people focus on cells with immunosuppressive functions in the TME, such as tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs), but research on TAMs alone cannot fully explain the complex structure and composition of the TME. Recent studies have reported that tumors can induce erythroid progenitor cells (EPCs) to exert immunosuppressive functions, not only acting within the TME but also secreting artemin in the spleen to promote tumor progression. In this review, we summarize the recent research on EPCs and tumors in recent years. We elucidate the mechanisms by which EPCs exert immunosuppressive functions in tumor-bearing conditions. In this review, we further propose potential therapeutic strategies targeting EPCs and emphasize the importance of in-depth exploration of the mechanisms by which EPCs regulate tumors and the immune system, as well as the significant clinical value of developing corresponding drugs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Cuproptosis is characterized by the aggregation of lipoylated enzymes of the tricarboxylic acid cycle and subsequent loss of iron-sulfur cluster proteins as a unique copper-dependent form of regulated cell death. As dysregulation of copper homeostasis can induce cuproptosis, there is emerging interest in exploiting cuproptosis for cancer therapy. However, the molecular drivers of cancer cell evasion of cuproptosis were previously undefined. Here, we found that cuproptosis activates the Wnt/β-catenin pathway. Mechanistically, copper binds PDK1 and promotes its interaction with AKT, resulting in activation of the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and cancer stem cell (CSC) properties. Notably, aberrant activation of Wnt/β-catenin signaling conferred resistance of CSCs to cuproptosis. Further studies showed the β-catenin/TCF4 transcriptional complex directly binds the ATP7B promoter, inducing its expression. ATP7B effluxes copper ions, reducing intracellular copper and inhibiting cuproptosis. Knockdown of TCF4 or pharmacological Wnt/β-catenin blockade increased the sensitivity of CSCs to elesclomol-Cu-induced cuproptosis. These findings reveal a link between copper homeostasis regulated by the Wnt/β-catenin pathway and cuproptosis sensitivity, and suggest a precision medicine strategy for cancer treatment through selective cuproptosis induction., (© 2024. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to ADMC Associazione Differenziamento e Morte Cellulare.)

This article presents a dataset comprising signal data collected from Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) sensors during the administration of the Time Up and Go (TUG) test for assessing fall risk in older adults. The dataset is divided into two main sections. The first section contains personal, behavioral, and health-related data from 34 participants. The second section contains signal data from tri-axial acceleration and tri-axial gyroscope sensors embedded in an IMU sensor, which was affixed to the participants' waist area to capture signal data while they walked. The chosen assessment method for fall risk analysis is the TUG test, requiring participants to walk a 3-meter distance back and forth. To prepare the dataset for subsequent analysis, the raw signal data underwent processing to extract only the walking periods during the TUG test. Additionally, a low-pass filter technique was employed to reduce noise interference. This dataset holds the potential for the development of effective models for fall risk detection based on insights garnered from questionnaires administered to specialists who observed the experiments. The dataset also contains anonymized participant information that can be explored to investigate fall risk, along with other health-related conditions or behaviors that could influence the risk of falling. This information is invaluable for devising tailored treatment or rehabilitation plans for individual older adults. The complete dataset is accessible through the Mendeley repository.", (© 2023 The Author(s).)

An actinobacterial strain, designated R-N-C8 T , was isolated from the rhizosphere soil of Arabidopsis thaliana collected in Yunnan Province, south-west China. Based on the results of 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis, strain R-N-C8 T had highest similarity to Nocardioides terrae CGMCC 1.7056 T (96.5%), Nocardioides opuntiae KCTC 19804 T (96.3%) and Nocardioides currus IB-3 T (96.1%), and lower than 96.0 % similarity to other members of the genus Nocardioides . Phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that strain R-N-C8 T formed an isolated branch with N. terrae CGMCC 1.7056 T and N. opuntiae KCTC 19804 T . The polar lipids contained phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol, one unidentified phosphoglycolipid and four unidentified phospholipids in the cellular membrane. The major fatty acids were identified as iso-C 16 : 0 , anteiso-C 17 : 0 , iso-C 17 : 0 , summed feature 9 (iso-C 17 : 1  ω9 c and/or C 16 : 0 10-methyl) and iso-C 15 : 0 . The predominant respiratory quinone was MK-8(H 4 ) and ll-diaminopimelic acid was the diagnostic diamino acid in the cell-wall peptidoglycan. The genomic DNA G+C content was 70.9 mol%. The orthologous average nucleotide identiy values between N. terrae CGMCC 1.7056 T , N. currus IB-3 T and strain R-N-C8 T were 77.1 and 75.1 %, respectively. DNA-DNA hybridization values between N. terrae CGMCC 1.7056 T , N. currus IB-3 T and strain R-N-C8 T were 20.7 and 19.9 % respectively. Data from phenotypic and genotypic analyses supported that strain R-N-C8 T represents a new species of Nocardioides , for which the name Nocardioides nematodiphilus sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is R-N-C8 T (=CGMCC 1.18723 T = KCTC 49528 T ).

Recoveries of cobalt and lithium metals from spent lithium-ion batteries are very important for prevention of environmental pollution and alleviation of resource shortage. In this study, a hydrometallurgical route for the recovery of lithium fluoride was proposed. Lithium and cobalt could be first selectively leached into solution using formic acid and hydrogen peroxide. By investigating the effects of leaching temperature, time, stoichiometric ratio, H 2 O 2 concentration and solid-to-liquid ratio, the leaching efficiency of Li and Co could reach 99.90% and 99.96%, respectively. Meanwhile, the evaluation of leaching kinetics and calculation of apparent activation energies revealed that the leaching process fitted chemical control satisfactorily. After further fractional precipitation, a high purity of 99.0% lithium fluoride could be finally obtained, thus achieving the effective recovery of spent material from the lithium-ion battery., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts to declare., (This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry.)