Reviews & Analysis

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  • Human T cells that target tumor-specific mutations are attractive for cancer immunotherapy, but obtaining these T cells is challenging. A new study shows that tumor mutation–specific T cells can be isolated from the peripheral blood of patients with melanoma.

    • Ton N Schumacher
    • Wouter Scheper
    News & Views
  • Current dogma suggests that high-energy–consuming photoreceptors depend on glucose. A new study reveals that the retina also uses fatty acid b-oxidation for energy, and that dysregulated lipid and glucose photoreceptor energy metabolism may drive neovascular age-related macular degeneration (AMD).

    • Raju V S Rajala
    • Thomas W Gardner
    News & Views
  • In a recent study, beige adipocytes were derived from the capillaries of human subcutaneous adipose tissue. When implanted into mice, these cells enhanced glucose tolerance, thus providing evidence for their potential therapeutic use.

    • Vanessa Pellegrinelli
    • Antonio Vidal-Puig
    News & Views
  • A study has demonstrated that transplanting human embryonic stem cell–derived, insulin-producing cells shielded in capsules made with an optimized biomaterial can achieve long-term cure of diabetes in mice without the need for any immunosuppression.

    • Qizhi Tang
    • Tejal A Desai
    News & Views
  • Two new studies show that mechanisms of acquired resistance to targeted therapy in lung cancer do not necessarily pre-exist in resistant subclones. Instead, some cancers may harbor the potential to acquire a variety of drug-resistance mechanisms after response to targeted therapy.

    • Geoffrey R Oxnard
    News & Views
  • A new study of the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) highlights the importance of mitochondria and mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the generation of neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) that have the enhanced potential to elicit interferon-induced gene expression.

    • Sylviane Muller
    • Marko Radic
    News & Views
  • A new study has located 'hot spots' in the rat spinal cord that are associated with leg flexion and extension in rats. Electrical stimulation applied in an alternating pattern between these hot spots facilitated locomotion after the hindlimbs were paralyzed as a result of spinal cord injury (SCI).

    • Arthur Prochazka
    News & Views
  • Roberts and Kim discuss the mechanistic roles played by EZH2 in cancer as well as efforts to therapeutically target this epigenetic modifier.

    • Kimberly H Kim
    • Charles W M Roberts
    Review Article
  • Altered microbial colonization associated with cesarean section (C-section) birth could potentially have adverse effects on host development. The first interventional study of its kind attempts to reconfigure the early microbiota composition in C-section–delivered newborns to resemble that associated with vaginal birth.

    • Alexander Khoruts
    News & Views
  • A new study in mice suggests that pharmacologically targeting the apoptosis proteins BCL-2 and BCL-xL can clear senescent cells from bone marrow and ameliorate stem cell function during aging, bringing us a step closer to preventing senescence-associated tissue attrition in the clinic.

    • Hartmut Geiger
    News & Views
  • Sentinel macrophages in the lymph node provide a first line of defense against invading viruses. A new study visualizes inflammasome activation in virally infected nodal macrophages in mice and shows that this activation augments both innate and adaptive immunity.

    • Heather D Hickman
    News & Views
  • A new study shows that aggregated forms of tau that cause frontotemporal dementia impair proteasome activity. Furthermore, proteasome inhibition can be alleviated by a small molecule that leads to proteasome phosphorylation and activation, thereby reducing tau accumulation.

    • David C Rubinsztein
    News & Views