Volume 2 Issue 4, April 2020

He et al. highlight the potential, and some of the drawbacks, of applying single-cell analyses in ageing research.

Brett et al. demonstrate that voluntary exercise improves quiescent muscle stem cell (MuSC) function and regenerative capacity in old but not young mice through exercise-induced upregulation of Cyclin D1 and repression of TGF-β activity in quiescent MuSCs.

Tumour recurrence is a common cause of death for patients with cancer. Here Fox et al. show how the antioxidant transcription factor Nrf2 is activated in dormant residual tumour cells and promotes their proliferation and tumour growth by inducing a metabolic reprogramming aimed to maintain redox homeostasis and nucleotide synthesis.

Metabolic compensation equips tumours with the plasticity to circumvent individual nutrient pathway perturbation. Méndez-Lucas et al. demonstrate the power of synergistic targeting of multiple metabolic pathways to stymie liver tumourigenesis.

The ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus is known to maintain energy homeostasis by controlling locomotor activity and thermogenesis. Here van Veen and Kammel et al. identified heterogeneous neuronal populations with sexually dimorphic gene expression and functions by using single-cell RNA analysis.

Yang et al. report that adenosine kinase possesses NRH kinase activity that enables it to convert NRH into NAD⁺, thus revealing a new salvage pathway for NAD⁺ biosynthesis operating in mammalian cells.