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A faint gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) has been recently detected in coincidence with the gravitational wave (GW) event GW 170817. Here, the authors report that another faint short GRB at a cosmological distance (GRB150101B) and its late time emission are analogous to the neutron star merger event GRB 170817A.
UNESCO World Heritage located in low-lying coastal areas is increasingly at risk from flooding and erosion due to sea-level rise. This study shows that up to 82% of cultural World Heritage sites located in the Mediterranean will be at risk from coastal flooding and over 93% from coastal erosion by 2100 under high-end sea-level rise.
Nuak1 is an autism spectrum disorder candidate gene. Here the authors report behavioral and cortical development in mice heterozygous for Nuak1, suggesting loss of function mutations in one copy of Nuak1 may contribute to neurodevelopmental disorders.
Cell-free DNA (cfDNA) released from damaged or dead cells can activate DNA sensors that exacerbate the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Here the authors use ~40 nm cationic nanoparticles to scavenge cfDNA, and demonstrate the potential for nanomedicine to relieve debilitating RA symptoms.
The success of extinction learning is not predictive of long-term retrieval of an extinction memory. Using fMRI to study consolidation of fear extinction in human subjects, the authors show that reactivation in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex during memory retrieval predicts extinction memory retrieval, and that increasing dopaminergic signaling increases the number of these activations.
PWWP2A is a chromatin-binding transcriptional regulator that mediates mitosis-progression. Here, the authors provide evidence that PWWP2A directly interacts with H2A.Z nucleosomes, DNA and H3K36me3, binds to an MTA1-specific subcomplex of the NuRD complex (M1HR) and promotes changes to histone acetylation.
Testing the association between genetic variants and a range of phenotypes can assist drug development. Here, in a phenome-wide association study in up to 697,815 individuals, Diogo et al. identify genotype–phenotype associations predicting efficacy, alternative indications or adverse drug effects.
Our brains predict the likely sensory consequences of actions we take; one theory is that these sensory responses are suppressed, but another theory is that they are sharpened. Here, the authors show using fMRI evidence consistent with the sharpening account for sensory consequences of hand movements.
Expression of the checkpoint molecule programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) is considered a marker of T cells exhaustion. Here the authors show that CD8T cells isolated from breast cancer patients are perfectly functional despite PD-1 expression while those isolated from melanoma patients are not.
Urinary tract infections are a common side effect of urethral catheters. Here, the authors report on the development of antibiotic loaded NPs with functional polymer coatings which attach too and are removed by motile bacteria to trigger the release of antibiotic.
Listeria monocytogenes causes meningitis in newborns. Here, Pägelow et al. present a mouse model of neonatal cerebral listeriosis, and show that nasal inoculation, but not intragastric administration, leads to early brain infection in the absence of bacteraemia during the neonatal period.
Progressive diseases tend to be heterogeneous in their underlying aetiology mechanism, disease manifestation, and disease time course. Here, Young and colleagues devise a computational method to account for both phenotypic heterogeneity and temporal heterogeneity, and demonstrate it using two neurodegenerative disease cohorts.
Resistance to anti-HER2 therapy in breast cancer remains a major obstacle in the clinic. Here the authors performed a CRISPR-selective vulnerability screen to identify transaldoloase as a target that is synthetically lethal with HER2 inhibition in breast cancer cells.
Cognitive decline in Huntington’s disease (HD) may be due to impaired hippocampal synaptic plasticity. In this study the authors show that AMPA receptor surface diffusion, a key player in synaptic plasticity, is deregulated in multiple HD mouse models as a result of impaired BDNF signalling that underlies the memory deficits, and can be pharmacologically rescued.
Enabling concurrent, high throughput analysis of single nano particles would greatly increase the capacity to study size, composition and inter and intra particle population variance. Here, the authors present a comprehensive platform for single particle automated Raman trapping analysis without any target modification.
Phagocytic cells of the innate immune system play critical roles in defence against invading pathogens including the opportunistic pathogen Candida albicans. Here the authors show that C. albicans derived Candidalysin in addition to being a cell-damaging toxin to mononuclear phagocytes is a trigger of NLRP3 inflammasome activation in these cells.
Whether DNA viruses contact specific regions of host genomes or make random contacts is unclear. Here, the authors use Hi-C and show that HBV cccDNA and Ad5 DNA contact preferentially active chromatin at CpG islands for the former and at transcription start sites and enhancers for the latter.
Similar to cancers, somatic mutations might lead to neurodegenerative diseases. Here, the authors perform ultra-deep sequencing of 102 genes in 173 adult human brains, detect somatic mutations in 54 brains, and develop a mathematical model to estimate the frequency of mutated foci in human brains.
Advancing phenological timing is a risk for migratory birds, particularly in the Arctic where change is most rapid. Here, the authors show that bar-tailed godwits can adjust for phenological shifts by fuelling faster at staging areas to arrive at breeding sites in time.
The degree to which species diversity is bounded by limited niche space is under debate. Here, Larcombe and colleagues show that bounded and unbounded processes contribute more-or-less equally to conifer diversification, and that it may be niche dimensionality that facilitates these opposing forces.