In line with the worldwide trend in population aging, China has stepped into an aging society since 2000. The outstanding features of aging, including a large proportion of the older population, rapid growth, dramatic expansion of the oldest-old, and uneven aging distribution, have put China in a unique position. Besides, older population is expanding in parallel with the escalating burden of disease, high prevalence of disability, and low social involvement. However, China is not prepared to solve these problems in terms of the economy, awareness, geriatric care system, geriatric team, social security, or age-friendly environment. From the perspective of public health, we summarized the major challenges and proposed the following policy recommendations: (1) strengthening the top-level design and building a "government-leading, multi-sectoral-cooperating, and society-participating" pattern; (2) enhancing health services by implementing the "comprehensive health" strategy; (3) developing home and community care, coordinately enhance institutional care, promote integration of medical and care systems, and establish a multidimensional tailored care system; (4) optimizing geriatric the supporting system, included the construction of geriatric team and the long-term care insurance system; and (5) establishing a physical and socially age-friendly environment.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in both urban and rural areas of China. The current evidence regarding CVD risk factors was primarily established in Western countries, with limited generalizability to the Chinese population. In China, a growing number of population-based prospective cohort studies have emerged that have yielded substantial research data on CVD risk factors in the past five years. The research studies have covered biological risk factors (e.g., blood lipids, blood pressure, blood glucose, adiposity), lifestyle risk factors (e.g., smoking, alcohol, diet, physical activity), environmental risk factors (e.g., ambient and indoor air pollution), and risk prediction. This study aimed to systematically review the research progress on CVD risk factors in the Chinese population in the past five years. Prospective studies in China have identified biological, lifestyle, and environmental risk factors for CVD and its main subtypes, along with some protective factors unique to the Chinese (e.g., spicy food and green tea). This review aimed to provide high-quality evidence for achieving the Outline of Healthy China 2030, developing disease prevention guidelines and measures, and deepening efforts for popularization of health knowledge.

The mammalian central nervous system (CNS) is considered an immune privileged system as it is separated from the periphery by the blood brain barrier (BBB). Yet, immune functions have been postulated to heavily influence the functional state of the CNS, especially after injury or during neurodegeneration. There is controversy regarding whether adaptive immune responses are beneficial or detrimental to CNS injury repair. In this study, we utilized immunocompromised SCID mice and subjected them to spinal cord injury (SCI). We analyzed motor function, electrophysiology, histochemistry, and performed unbiased RNA-sequencing. SCID mice displayed improved CNS functional recovery compared to WT mice after SCI. Weighted gene-coexpression network analysis (WGCNA) of spinal cord transcriptomes revealed that SCID mice had reduced expression of immune function-related genes and heightened expression of neural transmission-related genes after SCI, which was confirmed by immunohistochemical analysis and was consistent with better functional recovery. Transcriptomic analyses also indicated heightened expression of neurotransmission-related genes before injury in SCID mice, suggesting that a steady state of immune-deficiency potentially led to CNS hyper-connectivity. Consequently, SCID mice without injury demonstrated worse performance in Morris water maze test. Taken together, not only reduced inflammation after injury but also dampened steady-state immune function without injury heightened the neurotransmission program, resulting in better or worse behavioral outcomes respectively. This study revealed the intricate relationship between immune and nervous systems, raising the possibility for therapeutic manipulation of neural function via immune modulation.