Browse Articles

Discover research articles across all indexed journals

Faintest planet ever spotted from Earth has been hiding in plain sight

Nature Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/d41586-026-02210-3

Fluorofenidone ameliorates pressure overload-induced heart failure by stabilizing SERCA2a in male mice

Nature Communications Quan Liu, Huayang Li, Jiantao Chen et al. Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-75701-6

Diverse livestock management strategies sustained the emerging chalcolithic town of Tepe Farukhabad, Iran

Scientific Reports Anna Luurtsema, Kara Larson, James Strawn et al. Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-55245-x

Towards a proteomic plasma biomarker panel for diagnosing vasculitis remission

Nature Communications Uwe Jerke, Marieluise Kirchner, Theda UP Bartolomaeus et al. Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-75755-6

Abstract Active anti-neutrophil cytoplasmic autoantibody (ANCA)-associated vasculitis (AAV) requires intensive immunosuppressive therapy, but continued treatment beyond remission risks serious harm. Because reliable biomarkers of remission are lacking, clinicians often prolong cost-intensive and toxic therapy unnecessarily. Here, we explore the plasma proteome to identify reliable biomarkers of disease remission in patients with AAV, adjusting for patient characteristics and clinical variables. Applying a two-tiered proteomics strategy that combines global discovery with targeted validation, we identify a protein signature of remission. We then implement the resulting 7-protein panel in a targeted mass spectrometry-based assay and confirm its diagnostic performance in an independent patient cohort. The panel consistently outperforms routine markers such as C-reactive protein and ANCA titer. Our findings suggest that this 7-protein panel provides a starting point for developing a clinical tool to support decision-making, with the potential to reduce treatment-related burden, mitigate toxicity, and lower healthcare costs. More broadly, our confounder-controlled proteomics approach provides a scalable blueprint for biomarker discovery in complex inflammatory diseases.

Synthesis and high-temperature behavior of RE site doped (REₓᴵRE₁₋ₓᴵᴵ)₂Zr₂O₇ ceramics for advanced thermal barrier coating applications

Scientific Reports Mobina Eslami, Milad Bahamirian, Mohammad Farvizi Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-62746-2

Abstract In this study, a series of (La x Yb 1-x ) 2 Zr 2 O 7 powders with $$0\le x\le 1$$ were synthesized by a co-precipitation method to investigate the effect of rare earth (RE) site substitution (La 3 ⁺ and Yb 3 ⁺) on phase stability, structural disorder, and high-temperature sintering behavior for thermal barrier coating (TBC) applications. The synthesized powders were characterized using TG/DTA, XRD, Raman spectroscopy, FTIR, FESEM, and EDS before and after calcination at 1000 and 1300 °C, as well as after prolonged heat treatment at 1300 °C for up to 50 h. The results showed a clear composition-dependent transition from ordered pyrochlore in La-rich samples to defect fluorite in Yb-rich samples, while intermediate compositions exhibited mixed-phase behavior and peak broadening associated with increased lattice disorder. Raman and XRD analyses confirmed that prolonged heat treatment improved crystallinity and promoted phase ordering in La-rich compositions, whereas Yb-rich compositions retained predominantly defect fluorite character. FESEM observations revealed noticeable grain growth after calcination and heat treatment, with La-rich compositions showing better resistance to coarsening than Yb-rich ones. Overall, the La–Yb zirconate system demonstrates that compositional tuning at the RE site is an effective strategy for balancing phase stability and sintering resistance in advanced TBC materials.

An immune-poised state of human bronchial epithelial cells mediates defense against RSV in adults

Nature Communications Caiqi Zhao, Yan Bai, Hongmei Mou et al. Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-75842-8

Sex-specific predictors of lower-limb strength: an interpretable machine learning analysis of anthropometric and body composition measures

Scientific Reports Jae-Hwan Kang, Young-Ju Jeon, Ji-Ho So et al. Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-63302-8

A genomic catalog of the mouse gut virome reveals features associated with ageing

Nature Communications Han-June Kim, Nayeon Kim, Jun Hyung Cha et al. Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-75836-6

Abstract The gut virome is emerging as a key contributor to host physiology, yet it remains underexplored relative to the gut bacteriome. Despite comprehensive viral catalogs for the human gut, comparable resources for mice, the principal model organism in biomedical research, remain lacking, limiting our understanding of virome-host interactions and their implications for host health and disease. Here, we present Mouse Reference Gut Virome (MRGV), a comprehensive catalog comprising 109,778 viral genomes with ≥50% completeness and representing 28,824 species, expanding known mouse gut viral diversity by ~67.6%. Viral genome binning accounted for ~36% of cataloged genomes and improved average completeness by ~60% relative to contig-level assemblies. Structure-based annotation assigned functions to nearly half of 8.2 million viral proteins. Comparison with human gut virome revealed pronounced taxonomic and functional divergence. MRGV enabled host linkage for 88% of viral genomes and validated diverse mouse-associated crAss-like lineages with lineage-specific host-range and lifestyle strategies. Finally, mouse gut virome features harbored host ageing-associated signals distinct from those captured by bacterial features, with most ageing markers derived from binned genomes, highlighting the importance of viral binning for elucidating virome-host interactions.

Correction: Developmental and geographic transcriptomic variation in Anisakis simplex (s. s.) reveals lncRNA-mediated regulation of mRNA expression

Scientific Reports Robert Stryiński, Mateusz Maździarz, Mónica Carrera et al. Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-62600-5

Moving floors keep buildings from swaying with the wind

Nature Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/d41586-026-02258-1

Nucleotide flipping correlates with fluorescence activation in the RhoBAST imaging platform

Nature Communications Xiaoqing Tai, Mengqi He, Christoph Mitteregger et al. Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-75573-w

Retraction Note: STK4 protein expression pattern follows different trends in endometrioid and serous endometrial adenocarcinoma upon tumor progression

Scientific Reports Igor Govorov, Sanaz Attarha, Larysa Kovalevska et al. Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-63116-8

Ten years of mapping gene expression in tissues

Nature Jean Fan Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/d41586-026-02212-1

Self-adaptive Ni nanoparticles in perovskite LaNi1-xAlxO3/CaO for durable CO2 capture and in-situ conversion

Nature Communications Bin Shao, Zhonghao Jia, Sheng Dai et al. Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-75734-x

Abstract Integrated CO 2 capture and conversion (iCCC) technology is promising for carbon neutrality, but the high-temperature deactivation of dual-functional materials (DFMs) limits its practicality. Herein, we develop adaptive metallic nano-catalysts via in-situ exsolution-dissolution in perovskite-based DFMs, enabling self-adjustment during cyclic CO 2 /CH 4 redox switching. Al-doping induces the Jahn-Teller distortion in LaNiO 3 perovskite, making the lattice contracted to enrich Ni 2+ and oxygen vacancies; thereby tailoring the smooth exsolution-dissolution of Ni nano-catalyst and creating fast O 2- migration channels for facilitating CO 2 adsorption. The optimized perovskite LaNi 0.8 Al 0.2 O 3 /CaO exhibits exceptional durability over 50 cycles, achieving a high CO 2 capture capacity of 10.2 mmol g DFM −1 and both high conversions of 91.5% for CO 2 and 93.5% for CH 4 . The mechanism study by the in-situ characterizations and surface energy calculations confirms that heteroatomic doping modulates the metal-support interactions, providing a solution for the long-sought deactivation problems of sintering and coking.

Machine learning based digital assessment of mild cognitive impairment using mouse trajectories during the trail making test

Scientific Reports Gustavo E. Juantorena, Gianluca Capelo, Betsabe D. Leon Vallejos et al. Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-62955-9

Abstract One of the objectives of digital neuropsychology is to apply computational methods to improve the accuracy of traditional assessments. The Trail Making Test (TMT) is one of the most popular neuropsychological tests for executive functions assessment. Participants have to connect a sequence of items in order without lifting the pencil. In Part A (TMT-A) the items are identified with Arabic numerals. In Part B (TMT-B) they are identified with numbers and capital letters, and participants have to connect them in alternate order (1-A-2-B-…). We implemented a computerized TMT (cTMT) that preserves its original structure and records high-resolution mouse trajectories. Seventy-four older adults (41 with mild cognitive impairment and 33 healthy controls) completed the cTMT and a standard diagnostic battery. We also developed NeuroTask, a Python library that extracts features from cursor time series, including reaction times, speed and acceleration metrics, trajectory deviations, and state-based measures. We compared demographic, digital, and non-digital models using nested cross-validation and non-parametric permutation tests. Demographic models provided only modest discrimination (AUC = 0.56). Digital mouse features improved performance (AUC = 0.67), and combining them with demographics reached an AUC of 0.70, which approached the performance of the neuropsychological battery used to define the diagnosis (AUC = 0.76). In complementary regression analyses with digital plus demographic features, we obtained significant predictions for four out of seven target scores: MMSE, Digit Symbol, TMT-A and TMT-B. These results indicate that fine-grained mouse-movement features from the cTMT provide useful information for classifying mild cognitive impairment and for predicting multiple neuropsychological scores.

Modeling network evolution by multi-agent reinforcement learning

Nature Communications Dong Li, Tianwei Lin, Zhaoyang Bao et al. Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-75382-1

Author Correction: Genetic background and window of exposure contribute to thyroid dysfunction promoted by low-dose exposure to 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin in mice

Scientific Reports Carla Reale, Immacolata Porreca, Filomena Russo et al. Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-60135-3

Transcranial focused ultrasound modulates spiking, LFP, and BOLD activity in the primate thalamus

Nature Communications Ning Zheng, Pai-Feng Yang, M. Anthony Phipps et al. Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-75826-8

Far-infrared therapy and vascular access flow in hemodialysis patients with arteriovenous fistula or graft: a prospective minimal detectable change analysis

Scientific Reports Eun Jung Kim, Soh Yeon Kim, Youn Kyung Kee et al. Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-63061-6

Towards an enzyme cascade synthesis of the bulk chemical acrylic acid

Nature Communications Haodong Zhao, Chunying Wang, Shiqing Zhang et al. Jul 21, 2026 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-75484-w