Featured
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Outlook |
Advances in highly targeted radiation treatment for cancer have ignited interest in a once obscure field
Therapies that treat while diagnosing — theranostics — can extend length of survival and improve the quality of life for some people with advance-stage cancer.
- Rachel Nuwer
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Outlook |
Randomized trials of cancer drugs are for yesterday
Pitting new treatments against old, ineffective agents is neither ethical nor economical.
- Elaine Schattner
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Outlook |
How antibody–drug conjugates aim to take down cancer
Scientists are trying to work out how to balance potency with toxicity and tackle the cost of next-generation therapeutics.
- Benjamin Plackett
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Outlook |
Turning tumours against themselves
Advances in in situ therapeutic cancer vaccines offer a mode of treatment that could redeem the promise of previous false dawns.
- Liam Drew
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Outlook |
AI assistance for planning cancer treatment
Armed with the right data, advances in machine learning could help oncologists to home in quickly on the best treatment strategies for their patients.
- Michael Eisenstein
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Outlook |
Natural killer cells show their cancer-fighting worth
Although natural-killer-cell therapies are safer than T-cell therapies and offer other advantages, they require upgrades to overcome their limited lifespan and susceptibility to immunosuppression.
- Amanda B. Keener
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News Feature |
A myopia epidemic is sweeping the globe. Here’s how to stop it
Time spent outdoors is the best defence against rising rates of short-sightedness, but scientists are searching for other ways to reverse the troubling trend.
- Elie Dolgin
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Correspondence |
Trials that infected people with common colds can inform today’s COVID-19 challenge trials
- Jonathan Ewbank
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Clinical Briefing |
mRNA therapy is safe for treating the inherited metabolic condition propionic acidaemia
Propionic acidaemia is an inheirited metabolic condition caused by a lack of a liver enzyme, which leads to accumulation of toxic compounds. In a first-in-human trial, a therapeutic messenger RNA drug (mRNA-3927) led to restored enzyme activity, was well tolerated and showed a promising dose-dependent reduction of potentially life-threatening clinical events.
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News & Views |
Targeting RNA opens therapeutic avenues for Timothy syndrome
A therapeutic strategy that alters gene expression in a rare and severe neurodevelopmental condition has been tested in stem-cell-based models of the disease, and has been shown to correct genetic and cellular defects.
- Silvia Velasco
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News & Views |
Anti-ageing antibodies revive the immune system
Depleting an expanding pool of aberrant stem cells in aged mice using antibody therapy has been shown to rebalance blood cell production, diminish age-associated inflammation and strengthen acquired immune responses.
- Yasar Arfat T. Kasu
- & Robert A. J. Signer
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Nature Index |
How AI is being used to accelerate clinical trials
From study design to patient recruitment, researchers are investigating ways that technology could speed up the process.
- Matthew Hutson
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Outlook |
Yaws could soon be eradicated — 70 years behind schedule
Researchers are cautiously optimistic that the neglected tropical disease could be gone by 2030, but new barriers — including antibiotic resistance and primate reservoirs — might stand in the way.
- Sam Jones
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Correspondence |
Collateral damage from accelerated drug approval
- Akihiko Ozaki
- , Kenji Gonda
- & Tetsuya Tanimoto
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News Feature |
FedEx for your cells: this biological delivery service could treat disease
Researchers want to know why cells produce tiny packages called vesicles — and whether these bundles could be used for therapy.
- Alison Abbott
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Outlook |
Can malaria researchers slow the spread of drug resistance?
Concerns that artemisinin combination treatments are losing their effectiveness against Plasmodium parasites have set scientists looking for alternatives.
- T. V. Padma
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Technology Feature |
How scientists are hacking the genetic code to give proteins new powers
By modifying the blueprint of life, researchers are endowing proteins with chemistries they’ve never had before.
- Diana Kwon
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News |
How psychedelic drugs achieve their potent health benefits
Mouse studies suggest that drugs from LSD to ecstasy renew the brain’s flexibility — but some scientists are sceptical.
- Sara Reardon
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Outlook |
Brain-zapping technology helps smokers to quit
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation is already approved to help people overcome addiction to cigarettes, but researchers still have a lot to learn about how to deliver the treatment effectively.
- Simon Makin
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Outlook |
A fat-blocking drug could help to fight metastatic cancer
The antibody drug is moving closer to being tested in people with advanced stages of cancer.
- Elie Dolgin
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Outlook |
Disrupting protein folding to tackle cancer
Intermediate states show promise as drug targets.
- Elie Dolgin
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Outlook |
Kids and clinical trials: why the system is failing children
A panel of physicians and researchers discusses the reasons for the paucity of trials, the effect it has on patients and how the approval process for paediatric drugs could be streamlined.
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Outlook |
Researchers tackle chronic kidney disease
Innovative technology and a class of drugs called SGLT2 inhibitors could help more people with this common condition.
- Herb Brody
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Outlook |
The genetic revolution transforming kidney disease
Genetic sequencing is changing the way the often deadly disorder is diagnosed, managed, treated and prevented.
- Bianca Nogrady
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Outlook |
SGLT2 inhibitors breathe life into kidney-disease care
Researchers want to expand the use of drugs that protect the hearts and kidneys of people with chronic kidney disease.
- Amanda B. Keener
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Outlook |
The pursuit of dialysis equity
When a transplant is out of reach, kidney failure leaves those without access to high-quality health care with few options.
- Lauren Gravitz
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News |
FDA to require diversity plan for clinical trials
US regulatory agency makes ‘big change’ to increase the number of participants from under-represented groups in drug testing.
- Max Kozlov
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Outlook |
Why children have to wait years for new drugs
A shortage of participants means that paediatric trials take longer and there is less financial incentive for pharmaceutical companies.
- Dalmeet Singh Chawla
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Clinical Briefing |
An autoimmune mechanism underlying a fatal form of heart inflammation
Immune-related adverse events are a limiting factor in the use of cancer immunotherapies but the mechanisms and risk factors are largely unknown. T cells that recognize a heart-muscle protein mediate an immunotherapy-related condition called myocarditis.
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Outlook |
Psychedelic medicine faces the acid test
Mind-bending drugs are entering the therapeutic arena
- Herb Brody
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Outlook |
How MDMA resensitizes the brain
Gül Dölen explains how psychedelics restore the brain’s capacity for plasticity, which fades with age, and make possible new mental-health therapies.
- Alla Katsnelson
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Outlook |
Psychedelic microdosing hits a rough patch in clinical trials
Recent results cast doubt on claims that small amounts of these drugs can benefit mental health.
- Benjamin Plackett
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Outlook |
Your brain on psychedelics
Mind-altering drugs are shaking up medicine — but how they actually work remains a mystery. A flurry of imaging studies could clarify the picture.
- Liam Drew
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Outlook |
Research round-up: psychedelic medicine
Predicting bad trips, treating depression without hallucinations, and other highlights from studies of psychedelics.
- Michael Eisenstein
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Outlook |
The psychedelic remedy for chronic pain
Drugs best known for their hallucinogenic properties, such as psilocybin, could help people beat the agony of migraines and other painful maladies.
- Clare Watson
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Outlook |
Prostate cancer: highlights from research
Gut microbes drive treatment resistance, fresh hope for immunotherapy, and other studies and clinical trials.
- Annette Fenner
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Outlook |
The destructive power of PROTACs could tackle prostate cancer
Drugs that direct the body’s proteolytic capabilities towards cancer cells might overcome problems of treatment resistance.
- Simon Makin
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Outlook |
Does prostate-cancer treatment place a strain on the heart?
Hormonal therapy has helped many people with prostate cancer to live longer, fuller lives, but mounting evidence suggests that the drugs drive or exacerbate cardiovascular problems.
- Charlie Schmidt
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Outlook |
Metastatic prostate cancer: seeking a fresh chance of recovery
Advances in the ability to find and treat tumours that have spread around the body are changing the perception of what is possible for people with advanced disease.
- Charlie Schmidt
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Outlook |
Could immunotherapy finally break through in prostate cancer?
Despite success against other cancers, prostate tumours have so far resisted treatment with immunotherapy. But some researchers are persisting with the approach.
- Anthony King
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News Round-Up |
First exoplanet image, cancer deaths and pandemic preparation
The latest science news, in brief.
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Correspondence |
Equitable drug access: small-scale manufacturing units can help
- Rachel Chikwamba
- , Kerry R. Love
- & Filippo Randazzo
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News |
Billion-dollar project aims to prep drugs before the next pandemic
A centre in Australia, set up with a Aus$250-million donation, will focus on creating therapies for future infectious-disease outbreaks.
- Felicity Nelson
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Clinical Briefing |
Non-viral, precisely engineered immune cells tested in lymphoma
An improved approach has been developed for producing precisely designed immune cells called CAR T cells that recognize and kill cancer cells. CAR T cells generated in this way were safe and showed potential therapeutic effects in individuals with a relapsed or treatment-resistant form of the immune-cell cancer called B-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
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News Feature |
How gut bacteria could boost cancer treatments
Faecal transplants have helped some people to overcome resistance to powerful immunotherapies. Now dozens of trials are taking aim at the cancer–microbiome connection.
- Jeanne Erdmann
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Outlook |
How to bring back the sense of smell
Treatments for olfactory loss are currently scarce, but with millions of people unable to smell as a result of COVID-19, researchers are pursuing the problem with renewed vigour.
- Sarah DeWeerdt
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Outlook |
Research round-up: hepatitis B
Genomic jigsaws, timely vaccinations and other highlights from studies about hepatitis B.
- Jyoti Madhusoodanan
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Outlook |
Developing a cure for chronic hepatitis B requires a fresh approach
The prevailing dogma for drug development is insufficient; it’s time to recentre efforts around the immune system.
- Matteo Iannacone
- & Luca G. Guidotti
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Outlook |
How to stop mother-to-child transmission of hepatitis B
The global effort to eliminate the disease depends heavily on blocking the most common mode of viral infection.
- Liam Drew
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