Not all lung cancers with the same common genetic driver respond equally to powerful targeted drugs. Researchers have now discovered why: subtle differences in the 3D shape of the mutated protein. By classifying these shapes, they identified a subtype that poorly binds to latest-generation drugs, explaining worse outcomes. The good news? Starting with a drug-chemo combo likely overcomes this resistance, offering a clear path to personalize first-line treatment.

Extracellular vesicle-encapsulated miRNAs (EV-miRNAs) serve as a precise intercellular communication system with organ tropism, delivering functional RNA molecules to distant targets. A new review systematically maps their dual roles in immune regulation—shaping either host defense or immune evasion depending on context—ranging from pathogen infection and antitumor immunity to inflammation and tissue homeostasis. The article also addresses current challenges and future directions for clinical translation of EV-miRNA-based diagnostics and therapeutics.

This study explores the bidirectional skin–brain axis in 305 Brazilian adults, revealing strong correlations between anxiety, depression, and stress. Women exhibited significantly higher psychological symptom scores than men. Although dermatology-related quality of life showed weak correlations with mental health, nearly half of participants reported skin disorders and over half were at risk for a mental health condition. Probiotic intake showed no significant association with mental health outcomes, likely due to low consumption levels. Stress and depression independently predicted anxiety. The findings underscore the greater psychological burden on women and highlight the need for longitudinal, culturally tailored research on gut–skin–brain interactions.

Periprosthetic joint infection (PJI) is a devastating complication of joint replacement surgery. A new study in the Journal of Sport and Health Science discovers that musclin, a hormone released by muscles during exercise, directly binds to macrophages. This interaction rewires cellular metabolism, significantly boosting the macrophages' ability to clear dead cells (efferocytosis). This process effectively resolves inflammation, reduces bacterial burden, and promotes tissue repair, offering a promising "exercise-mimetic" therapeutic strategy for managing implant-associated infections.

Inverted perovskite solar cells have achieved exceptional efficiencies, yet their operational stability, particularly under reverse-bias stress, remains a critical challenge. This instability is fundamentally driven by lattice strain, which lowers ion migration barriers and promotes defect formation. Here, we identify the buried hole-transport-layer/perovskite interface as the principal site of strain accumulation. By incorporating 3-fluorothiophene-2-carboxylic acid (3F-2TC) at this buried HTL/perovskite interface, we directly engineer the initial perovskite crystallization template. This buried interface engineering strategy effectively alleviates intrinsic lattice strain, as unambiguously confirmed by grazing-incidence X-ray diffraction analysis. Crucially, we utilize reverse-bias stress as a diagnostic probe to decouple strain relaxation from mere defect passivation, revealing that a low-strain lattice constitutes the primary defense against bias-induced degradation. Consequently, the champion devices achieve a high power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 26.10% and markedly enhanced stability, retaining 91.58% of their initial PCE after 200 h under − 1.0 V reverse bias. This work thereby establishes the buried interface engineering for strain modulation as a generalizable design principle toward efficient and operationally resilient perovskite photovoltaics.

Researchers from the Institute of Deep-sea Science and Engineering (IDSSE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the University of Pisa, Italy, and the National Institute of Water and Atmosphere Research, New Zealand, have now documented the world’s deepest and largest known aggregation of whale fossils and active whale-fall ecosystems. This deep-sea site, referred to as a “whale necropolis” due to its vast size, is located in the Diamantina Zone of the southeastern Indian Ocean and contains evidence of cetacean falls for at least 5.3 million years.