News & Comment

Anti-retroviral therapy with drugs like dolutegravir is a powerful tool in both the treatment and prevention of HIV, but is limited by strict adherence to a daily therapeutic regimen. In a recent study, Deodhar, Sillman, and colleagues developed a dolutegravir prodrug that offers long-lasting protection against HIV infection, with the potential to dramatically improve anti-retroviral therapy efficacy.

While recent advances in plant single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) have made numerous strides in identifying novel regulatory events, transcriptional profiling of certain cell types, such as phloem poles, has not yet been thoroughly investigated. A recent article by Otero et al. utilized cell-type specific marker lines and a second-generation single-cell approach to uncover transcriptomic landscapes specifying protophloem-adjacent cells, as well as identify a set of important transcription factors (TFs) signifying early phloem development.

The viruses infecting bacteria, known as phages, carry a wondrous diversity of enzymes known as endolysins, which are responsible for opening cellular doors, like the membrane or wall, so that newly minted phages are set free. In a recent study, Oechslin and colleagues explored the evolutionary mystery of lactococcal endolysin biodiversity, suggesting that these endolysins are flexible and can be used as kinds of skeleton keys to open a broad range of cellular doors.

Oligodendrocytes are derived from a subtype of glia called oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs). The potential functions of OPCs beyond oligodendrogenesis however, have remained elusive. In their latest study, Auguste et al. demonstrate that OPCs could play a regulatory role in synaptic connectivity in the developing and adult mouse visual cortex - a function that is independent of oligodendrogenesis.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most aggressive cancers, with less than 10% of patients surviving more than five years. A major challenge of PDAC is understanding the complexity of the tumor architecture and identifying targetable cellular phenotypes that can inform clinical decision-making. Hwang et al. recently harnessed spatially-resolved transcriptomics to characterize gene expression profiles across PDAC tumor slices and identified recurrent expression patterns in malignant and fibroblast cellular neighborhoods that correlated with treatment outcomes.

Soil microbiota, including arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), are critical for plant nutrition in non-agricultural ecosystems. A new study by Edlinger et al. shows that agricultural soils are negatively impacted by fungicide use and generally have lower AMF diversity and abundance.

More than twenty years have passed since the first complex genetic circuits were implemented in the model bacteria, Escherichia coli. Yet, translating these circuits to other clinically-relevant bacteria remains a challenge. In a recent study, Huang and colleagues applied engineered transcription factors to control the growth of a microbial community of Bacteroides species.

Many genetic disorders are a result of single or multiple genome abnormalities. A possible approach to circumvent genetic disorders is to use gene editing agents to correct these mistakes, but a major challenge remains in the mode of delivery of gene editing agents to different regions of the body. Banskota et al. present the use of engineered DNA-free virus-like particles (eVLPs) to deliver base editors to different organs in a mice model for improved outcomes, highlighting the potential of eVLPS to deliver base editors and as an efficient delivery mechanism, leveraging the advantages of viral and nonviral delivery methods.