Volume 26 Issue 5, 1 May 2020

Healthcare workers are having to work under incredibly stressful conditions. Videoconferencing can be harnessed to provide mental-health support, but some report ‘tele-health’ fatigue. To protect public health, prepare for the mental-health surge among healthcare workers.

Previous crises have shown how an economic crash has dire consequences for public health. But in the COVID-19 pandemic, the world is entering uncharted territory. The world’s leaders must prepare to preserve health.

In just a few weeks’ time, leaders across the globe will have to start making decisions about lifting lockdown policies, with considerable social, economic and political consequences. We propose a framework for what is arguably the most difficult health challenge that governments have faced since the beginning of this century: a responsible lockdown exit strategy.

The 2007–2008 economic crash has had long-lasting effects on Greece’s biomedical research landscape. It has exposed a gap in support for countries that are classified as high income but are living under austerity measures. A new model is needed for optimal utilization of the intellectual and natural resources that such countries can offer to improve the global research landscape.

In the COVID-19 pandemic, the most vulnerable people are most likely to be the hardest hit. What can we learn from past epidemics to protect not only refugees but also the wider population?

Interleukin-8, produced by intratumoral and circulating myeloid cells, correlates with an immunosuppressive myeloid-enriched tumor microenvironment and adverse cancer prognosis.

Deaths from opioid overdose in the USA have followed three distinct waves that have all affected baby boomers, generation X and millennials.

A ‘fast-fail’ clinical-trial approach for depression indicates that engaging κ-opioid-receptor antagonism improves reward-circuit dysfunction and anhedonia.

PrEP is being incorporated into national HIV-prevention strategies in African countries, with key at-risk populations being prioritized. Expansion of these programs will require better access to and communication about these therapies.

The Cancer Core Europe centers share their experience on caring for patients with cancer during the COVID-19 pandemic ― a time of challenges and opportunities for cancer health professionals, researchers and patients alike.

Presymptomatic transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is estimated to account for a substantial proportion of COVID-19 cases.

A study of 246 individuals with seasonal respiratory virus infections randomized to wear or not wear a surgical face mask showed that masks can significantly reduce detection of coronavirus and influenza virus in exhaled breath and may help interrupt virus transmission.

An analysis of single-cell transcriptomics datasets from different tissues shows that ACE2 and TMPRSS2 are co-expressed in respiratory, corneal and intestinal epithelial cell populations, and that respiratory expression of ACE2 is associated with genes involved in innate immunity.

In a retrospective analysis of data from four phase 3 clinical trials, elevated baseline serum IL-8 levels were associated with worse clinical outcomes in patients with multiple tumor types treated with anti-PD-1 monotherapy or anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 combinatorial therapy.

In a retrospective analysis of data from three clinical trials, increased baseline peripheral and tumor IL-8 levels were associated with worse clinical outcomes in patients with metastatic urothelial carcinoma and metastatic renal cell carcinoma treated with anti-PD-L1 therapy.

A new age–period–cohort analysis reveals distinct generational patterns in deaths from opioid overdose in the United States, suggesting increased risks for Baby Boomers and Millennials.

Mutations in Klebsiella pneumoniae that lead to gain or loss of capsule production affect pathogenicity and associate with bloodstream or urinary tract infections, respectively.

CAR T cells administered intracerebroventricularly or intratumorally exhibit more rapid kinetics, reduced systemic toxicity and greater therapeutic potency as compared to intravenously delivered CAR T cells in atypical teratoid/rhabdoid tumor xenograft mouse models.

Intraventricularly delivered monovalent and trivalent CAR T cells exhibit greater therapeutic efficacy as compared with intravenously delivered CAR T cells in medulloblastoma xenograft mouse models and show potency in ependymoma xenograft mouse models.

In a first-in-human phase I trial of patients with advanced lung cancer, infusions of autologous T cells edited to delete the PD-1 gene via CRISPR–Cas9 were well tolerated and did not lead to severe treatment-related adverse events.

Plasmodium vivax can cause a clinically silent liver-stage infection that can reactivate, triggering blood-stage disease. A new test measuring antibody responses can identify P. vivax carriers for targeted treatment intervention.

Fine-scale geospatial mapping of overweight and wasting (two components of the double burden of malnutrition) in 105 LMICs shows that overweight has increased from 5.2% in 2000 to 6.0% in children under 5 in 2017. Although overall wasting decreased over the same period, most countries are not on track to meet the World Health Organization’s Global Nutrition Target of <5% in over half of LMICs by 2025.

A phase 2 proof-of-mechanism trial shows that a κ-opioid receptor antagonist improves reward-related functioning in the brain and a clinical measure of anhedonia in patients with mood and anxiety disorders, serving as a model for implementing the ‘fast-fail’ approach to psychiatric treatment development.

Large-scale, comprehensive proteomic profiling of Alzheimer’s disease brain and cerebrospinal fluid reveals disease-associated protein coexpression modules and highlights the importance of glia and energy metabolism in disease pathogenesis.

Genetically engineered mouse models representing the spectrum of human cutaneous melanoma provide a platform for studying clinical responses to immunotherapy.

A set of ready-to-use tools for profiling fresh and frozen clinical tumor samples using scRNA-Seq and snRNA-Seq facilitates the implementation of single-cell technologies in clinical settings and the construction of single-cell tumor atlases.