Inflammasome-mediated dysbiosis regulates progression of NAFLD and obesity

Henao-Meija, J. et al. Nature doi:10.1038/nature10809 (1 February).

The authors uncover a pathway in which the NLRP3 and NLRP6 inflammasomes modulate the gut microbiota to regulate the progression from nonalcoholic fatty liver disease to the chronic inflammatory condition nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, and they also show this pathway causes features of the metabolic syndrome.

Expression of tumour-specific antigens underlies cancer immunoediting

DuPage, M. et al. Nature doi:10.1038/nature10803 (8 February).

Cancer exome analysis reveals a T-cell–dependent mechanism of cancer immunoediting

Matsushita, H. et al. Nature doi:10.1038/nature10755 (8 February).

Two recent studies compare the antigens expressed on tumors in immunocompetent and immunodeficient mouse hosts to characterize new details about the process of cancer immunoediting, which enables tumor cells to escape immune surveillance.

Genome-wide association study identifies a variant in HDAC9 associated with large vessel ischemic stroke

The International Stroke Genetic Consortium et al. Nat. Genet. doi:10.1038/ng.1081 (5 February).

This genome-wide association study replicates two previous associations for cardioembolic stroke and one for large vessel stroke, and identifies a new association between the gene encoding histone deacetylase 9 and large vessel stroke. In addition, the results indicate that different stroke subtypes have different underlying genetic architectures.

SAMHD1 restricts the replication of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 by depleting the intracellular pool of deoxynucleoside triphosphates

Lahouassa, H. et al. Nat. Immunol. doi:10.1038/ni.2236 (12 February).

The authors show that SAMHD1 restricts HIV-1 infection of myeloid cells by hydrolyzing dNTPs, resulting in insufficient dNTP concentrations for viral replication. These results suggest that nucleotide depletion may be a general strategy for protecting host cells from agents like HIV that replicate through a DNA intermediate.