The pi-stacked interactions in some explosive crystal packing are discussed. Taking a typical pi-stacked explosive 2,4,6-trinitrobenzene-1,3,5-triamine (TATB) as a sample and using molecular simulations, we investigated the nature of the pi-stacked interactions versus the external mechanical stimuli causing possible slide and compression of explosives. As a result, between the neighbor layers in the TATB unit cell, the electrostatic attraction decreases with a little decrease of vdW attraction when its top layer slides, whereas the vdW attraction increases with a decrease of electrostatic attraction when TATB crystal is compressed along its c axis. Meanwhile, we studied the correlation between the pi-stacked structures and the impact sensitivities of explosives by means of three representatives including TATB with typical planar pi-stacked structures, 2,2-dinitroethylene-1,1-diamine (Fox-7) with wavelike pi-stacked structures, and 1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-tetrazocane (HMX) without pi-stacked structure. The results showed that pi-stacked structures, particularly planar layers, can effectively buffer against external mechanical stimuli. That is, pi-stacked structures can partly convert the mechanical energy acting on them into their intermolecular interaction energy, to avoid the increase of the molecular vibration resulting in the explosive decomposition, the formation of hot spots, and the final detonation. This is another reason for the low mechanical sensitivity of pi-stacked explosives besides their stable conjugated molecular structures.

Lucas et al. identify humans with a gain-of-function mutation in PIK3R1, encoding the p85α subunit of PI3K. The splice site mutation causes in-frame skipping of exon 11, resulting in altered p85α association with p110δ that stabilizes the catalytic subunit but fails to properly inhibit catalytic activity. The patients have immunodeficiency and lymphoproliferation with skewing of CD8+ T cells toward terminally differentiated and senescent effector cells that have shortened telomeres.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease featuring progressive impairments in memory, cognition, and behavior and ultimately leads to death. The histopathological changes of Alzheimer’s disease include neuronal and synaptic loss, formation of extracellular senile plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles in brain. Multiple lines of evidence indicate that oxidative stress not only strongly participates in an early stage of Alzheimer’s disease prior to cytopathology, but plays an important role in inducing and activating multiple cell signaling pathways that contribute to the lesion formations of toxic substances and then promotes the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Many years of studies show that antioxidant therapies have enjoyed general success in preclinical studies. Therefore, this paper mainly focuses on the recent developments of common used antioxidant therapies for Alzheimer’s disease and thus provides indications for future potential antioxidant therapeutic strategies of neurodegenerative diseases.

Interleukin-12 receptor β1 (IL-12Rβ1) deficiency is the most common form of Mendelian susceptibility to mycobacterial disease (MSMD). We undertook an international survey of 141 patients from 102 kindreds in 30 countries. Among 102 probands, the first infection occurred at a mean age of 2.4 years. In 78 patients, this infection was caused by Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG; n = 65), environmental mycobacteria (EM; also known as atypical or nontuberculous mycobacteria) (n = 9) or Mycobacterium tuberculosis (n = 4). Twenty-two of the remaining 24 probands initially presented with nontyphoidal, extraintestinal salmonellosis. Twenty of the 29 genetically affected sibs displayed clinical signs (69%); however 8 remained asymptomatic (27%). Nine nongenotyped sibs with symptoms died. Recurrent BCG infection was diagnosed in 15 cases, recurrent EM in 3 cases, recurrent salmonellosis in 22 patients. Ninety of the 132 symptomatic patients had infections with a single microorganism. Multiple infections were diagnosed in 40 cases, with combined mycobacteriosis and salmonellosis in 36 individuals. BCG disease strongly protected against subsequent EM disease (p = 0.00008). Various other infectious diseases occurred, albeit each rarely, yet candidiasis was reported in 33 of the patients (23%). Ninety-nine patients (70%) survived, with a mean age at last follow-up visit of 12.7 years ± 9.8 years (range, 0.5-46.4 yr). IL-12Rβ1 deficiency is characterized by childhood-onset mycobacteriosis and salmonellosis, rare recurrences of mycobacterial disease, and more frequent recurrence of salmonellosis. The condition has higher clinical penetrance, broader susceptibility to infections, and less favorable outcome than previously thought.