A recent randomized controlled trial has shed light on the efficacy of acupuncture as a treatment for refractory irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a chronic gastrointestinal disorder that significantly impacts quality of life and often resists conventional treatment. The multicenter study conducted across China investigated the effects of true acupuncture (TA) versus sham acupuncture (SA) on patients who had not responded to standard therapies. The results indicated that TA could offer significant relief from IBS symptoms, providing a potentially effective alternative treatment option for those suffering from this condition.

Colorectal cancer and liver cancer are the second and fifth most common cancers in Hong Kong, respectively, and both are associated with notably high mortality rates. This underscores the urgent need to develop effective strategies to combat these formidable diseases. A joint research team from the Department of Medicine and the Department of Clinical Oncology, both under the School of Clinical Medicine in the LKS Faculty of Medicine of the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), conducted two territory-wide studies using data from the Hospital Authority, spanning up to 17 years, to identify over 140,000 patients with diabetes. The results revealed that optimal control of diabetes significantly reduced the risk of colorectal and liver cancer by 28% and 30%, respectively.

Stanford type A aortic dissection (AD) is a degenerative aortic remodeling disease and carries a high mortality rate. It manifests distinct temporal patterns, transiting from acute, subacute to chronic stages. As an intimate pathophysiological feature of AD, aortic inflammation triggers disease initiation and progression. However, the precise subtypes of immune cells, their fundamental functional properties, and crosstalk with vascular cells across disease temporal transition remain largely unexplored. In a paper published in Science Bulletin, Junjie Luo from China Agricultural University, and colleagues analyzed 64,371 single immune cells by scRNA-seq coupled with TCR tracking using STARTRAC to quantitatively delineate the distinct functions and dynamic relationships of aortic immune cells in the context of temporal-specific AD. This study provides a comprehensive evaluation of how the composition of the immune landscape is altered in the aortic wall of diverse types of AD, and opens new avenues for a rational and precise anti-AD therapy by targeting TNF signaling.

The Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) has become the first in the world to observe the structural evolution of solute molecules in extremely supersaturated aqueous solutions, revealing that changes in molecular symmetry impact on the formation of new metastable material phases.