Volume 27 Issue 11, November 2021

Greater convergence between national regulators will help prepare for the next pandemic

Funders’ goals for diversity, equity and inclusion are laudable, but they will only be successful if the funders prioritize health disparities research and address biases in the funding application process.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is committed to increasing the participation of underrepresented groups in science and medicine, through changes in our funding and recruitment processes. These actions provide a blueprint for the global research community.

STEMM organizations must be proactive in advancing diversity, equity and inclusion.

Racial equity and global inclusion are essential if biomedical science is to fulfil its mission to improve human health.

A phase 3 study with dalpiciclib reinforces the efficacy of CDK4/6 inhibitors in select patients with metastatic breast cancer; with several such inhibitors available, more evidence is needed to help guide treatment decisions.

A translational study reveals a role for interleukin-1–fibroblast–neutrophil signaling in drug-resistant inflammatory bowel disease, opening a potential path to targeted treatment.

SGLT-2 inhibitors show promise for treatment of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, but clinical data are nuanced. Appropriate endpoint selection will be key to deciphering their benefits.

New studies highlight the immunological benefits of COVID-19 vaccine boosters, but questions remain over how to best make use of a limited global supply.

As polygenic risk scores move closer to widespread clinical use, this Perspective summarizes the benefits, risks and challenges to be overcome.

The STORMS tool provides guidance for concise and complete reporting of microbiome studies to facilitate manuscript preparation, peer review, reader comprehension of publications, and comparative analysis of published results.

CD8 T cell activity or neutralizing antibodies might control HIV-1 viral rebound after cessation of anti-retroviral therapy.

The multicenter phase 2 TRIUMPH trial shows the utility of ctDNA genotyping as a screening platform to select patients with HER2-amplified metastatic colorectal cancer who benefit from dual-HER2 blockade with trastuzumab and pertuzumab

In the multicenter, phase 3 DAWNA-1 trial, the combination of dalpiciclib, a new cyclin-dependent kinase 4 and 6 inhibitor, with fulvestrant, in patients with HR⁺HER2⁻ advanced breast cancer who progressed or relapsed on endocrine therapy, improved progression-free survival with manageable safety and may represent a new treatment option.

In a phase 2 trial, the combination of chemotherapy with durvalumab, an anti-PD-L1 antibody, exhibited promising clinical activity in patients with previously untreated, unresectable mesothelioma, with additional analyses providing insights into genomic and immunologic features potentially associated with response.

Genomic analyses in the UK Biobank show that clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential in the lymphoid lineage is associated with a higher risk of developing lymphoid malignancies

Clinical and genetic phenotyping of consanguineous family cases of neonatal syndromic diabetes and type 2 diabetes, combined with in-depth functional studies in pluripotent stem cells, reveals a role for genetic variants of ONECUT1 in monogenic and multifactorial diabetes.

Studies in mature human adipocytes demonstrate that obesity and hyperinsulinemia can induce reentry into the cell cycle and induce senescence.

In a multicenter, randomized trial, the SGLT2 inhibitor dapagliflozin improved the health status and exercise function of patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), a condition for which effective treatments are lacking.

Fenebrutinib, an oral Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitor, reduces disease activity in patients with chronic spontaneous urticaria refractory to antihistamines, suggesting that this treatment type could be an alternative to standard of care anti-IgE therapy.

Transcriptomic and histological profiling of gut biopsies from multiple independent cohorts of patients with inflammatory bowel disease identifies distinct histopathological, molecular and cellular features associated with treatment response, providing insights for patient stratification and precision therapy.

A preclinical safety study of adeno-associated viruses (AAVs) for RNA interference (RNAi) for spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 therapy showed toxicity in nonhuman primates but not rodents, due to unexpected AAV inverted terminal repeat transcriptional activity that was mitigated on altering the RNAi expression environment.

SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies and memory B cells are significantly reduced, but CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells are robustly activated, in patients with multiple sclerosis on anti-CD20 monotherapy versus healthy controls after BNT162b2 or mRNA-1273 mRNA vaccination.

After two doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine, virus-specific antibodies and T cells were reduced in patients with solid tumors as compared to individuals without cancer, but neutralizing antibodies increased in most patients who received a third vaccine dose.

A randomized trial in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 showed no benefit and potentially increased harm associated with the use of convalescent plasma, with subgroup analyses suggesting that the antibody profile in donor plasma is critical in determining clinical outcomes.

Preliminary and exploratory analyses show that a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine mRNA-1273 or variant-modified boosters can boost levels of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 variants.

Defined levels of SARS-CoV-2-specific binding and neutralizing antibodies elicited by the COVID-19 vaccine ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 are identified as correlates of protection against symptomatic infection.

A new study from the WHO African Region identifies features of countries that predict timing of the first case and the per capita mortality rate for the first and second waves of the COVID-19 epidemics.