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In the bone marrow, granulocyte-derived TNFα acts on endothelial cells to maintain the vasculature under steady-state conditions and to promote its regeneration after injury or transplantation.
The massive cell death that occurs during myocardial infarction releases self-DNA and triggers an interferon response in infiltrating leukocytes via a cGAS–STING–IRF3 pathway. Interference with this response—either by genetic disruption of the pathway or antibody blockade of the type I interferon receptor—is beneficial in mice subjected to myocardial infarction.
In rodent models of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and epilepsy, seizure-dependent induction of ΔFosB results in epigenetic silencing of calbindin. Hippocampal inhibition of ΔFosB or elevation of calbindin rescues spatial memory deficits in mouse models of AD.
Frequent loss-of-function mutations in KEAP1, a master regulator of the NRF2 antioxidant pathway, accelerate mutant KRAS driven lung carcinogenesis, but also impose a dependency of these tumors on glutaminolysis. Using a precision medicine–based approach, this work uncovers a metabolic vulnerability of KRAS–KEAP1-mutant lung cancers that can be therapeutically exploited using currently available glutaminase inhibitors and provides a scientific rationale for patient selection in clinical trials.
Treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors results in a survival benefit in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). However, relapse due to persistent leukemic stem cells (LSCs) requires additional selective targets for efficient eradication of the disease. Metabolomic analyses on patient-derived CML LSCs reveal that these have an increased dependency on oxidative metabolism that renders them sensitive to treatment with tigecycline, an FDA-approved inhibitor of mitochondrial translation. These findings uncover a new metabolic vulnerability in CML and provide a rational approach for further clinical evaluation.
The N6-methyladenosine (m6A) modification in mRNAs, generated by the enzyme METTL3, controls normal human hematopoietic stem/progenitor cell differentiation and maintains the undifferentiated leukemic phenotype of human acute myeloid leukemia cells.
John Harty and colleagues report that, in mouse models of malaria, regulatory T cells expand, as in humans, and inhibit conventional T cells and germinal center B cells, thereby impairing protective responses against blood-stage disease. Timed blockade of the inhibitory receptor CTLA-4 cured infection in mice and promoted cross-protective blood-stage immunity against a different Plasmodium species.
Inactivating mutations in ACTRT1 or surrounding noncoding sequences transcribed into functional enhancer RNAs cause aberrant activation of Hedgehog signaling in both sporadic and inherited forms, such as Bazex–Dupré–Christol syndrome, of basal cell carcinoma. These findings identify a new tumor-suppressor gene and underscore the functional relevance of genomic alterations in noncoding transcribed regions in tumor development.
GDF15 has potent anti-obesity effects, but its receptor was previously unknown. GFRAL has now been identified as the receptor for GDF15, and it mediates the effects of GDF15 via central actions in the hindbrain.
On the basis of new mechanistic studies of a mutant form of the apolipoprotein apoC-III that protects against coronary heart disease, Khetarpal et al. have developed therapeutic apoC-III-targeting monoclonal antibodies that lower circulating apoC-III protein and triglyceride levels in mice.
Mutations in SPOP, the gene encoding a component of the E3 ubiquitin ligase complex, impair ubiquitination-dependent degradation of BRD2, BRD3 and BRD4 proteins and result in activation of ATK–mTORC1 signaling and resistance to BET inhibitors. Pharmacological blockade of AKT represents a viable strategy to restore the sensitivity of SPOP-mutant prostate tumors to BET inhibitors. These results, together with findings by Dai et al. and Janouskova et al., uncover a new nongenetic mechanism of resistance to BET inhibition involving cancer-type-specific mutations in SPOP, and support the evaluation of SPOP mutation status to inform the administration of BET inhibitors in the clinic.
Recurrent mutations in SPOP-encoding a Cullin 3-based E3 ubiquitin ligase- in prostate cancer disrupt the recognition and degradation of ubiquitination substrates, including BET proteins. Consequently, stability of BET proteins is enhanced and this increases the resistance to BET inhibitors in SPOP-mutant prostate tumors. These results, together with those in Janouskova et al. and Zhang et al., uncover a novel non genetic mechanism of resistance to BET inhibition involving cancer type-specific mutations in SPOP, and support the evaluation of SPOP mutations to inform the administration of BET inhibitors in the clinic.
Charles Chiu and colleagues analyze the gut viromes of recipients of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation and identify characteristics associated with the severity of graft-versus-host disease in the gut.
An HDR-independent therapeutic genome-editing approach corrected the splice-site mutation in Lama2 in a mouse model of congenital muscular dystrophy type 1A, and may be applied more broadly to correct splice-site mutations associated with other diseases.
In a rat model of hydrocephalus triggered by intraventricular hemorrhage, Kristopher Kahle and colleagues show that TLR4–NF-κB-dependent inflammatory signaling in the choroid plexus causes hypersecretion of cerebrospinal fluid that drives hydrocephalus. Targeting TLR4–NF-κB-mediated signaling or the NKCC1–SPAK complex ameliorates hydrocephalus.
A protocol based on chemical modulation of WNT activity is used to efficiently generate colonic organoids that recapitulate the molecular features of human colon tissue. Colonic organoids generated from induced pluripotent stem cells from patients with familial adenomatous polyposis provide an in vitro platform for disease modeling and preclinical drug testing.