Volume 28 Issue 3, March 2022

Local communities protect the rainforest, but lack adequate healthcare.

The poor health outcomes of people in the Brazilian Amazon have been exacerbated by COVID-19, and can only be improved with a health equity approach that involves local people.

Women in academia have fallen behind with publications and grant funding during the COVID-19 pandemic and risk dropping out of the research workforce altogether, unless urgent action is taken by institutes and funders.

Healthcare is increasingly provided in a patient’s home, with potential cost savings and clinical improvements. But the hospital-at-home also raises unique liability issues not only for physicians and hospitals but also for caregivers and patients.

Tests to identify chromosomal abnormalities in embryos and in early pregnancies are frequently used to make important decisions, including terminations, but many rely on outdated science. Regulation of these genetic tests is urgently needed to ensure transparency and validation.

New data confirm that the COVID-19 vaccine booster dose is crucial for the generation of neutralizing antibody responses against Omicron, while better therapeutic antibodies are needed for this and future variants.

New technologies are expanding the reach and accessibility of preimplantation genetic testing of human embryos. But what these advances can deliver is still unclear, and a frank assessment of their profound ethical implications is urgently needed.

A first-in-class therapeutic that targets neuroactive microbial metabolites in the gut shows promising target engagement, safety and behavioral improvements in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder.

A prospective meta-analysis supports the cardiovascular safety of the dual incretin receptor agonist tirzepatide, after promising clinical outcomes in the SURPASS-4 study.

Bone marrow transplantation causes peripheral cells to engraft the brain by an unclear mechanism. Microglia, the brain’s immune cells, lose their regenerative capacity when the bone marrow transplantation chemotherapy agent busulfan arrests their cell cycle. This causes a gradual decrease in microglial density, creating a niche for peripheral donor cells to engraft the brain and become resident macrophages.

Analyses of primary myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) samples from the largest cohort ever evaluated demonstrate that the hematopoietic stem cell populations that originate MDS have distinct differentiation phenotypes and associated signaling pathways. These differences can be targeted with selective therapies that could benefit patients with progressed disease.

In this Perspective, the authors discuss the new digital communications landscape in relation to vaccines and argue that trust is key to overcoming vaccine hesitancy.

This Review provides an overview of the psychology of misinformation, from susceptibility to spread and interventions to help boost psychological immunity.

First responders to the World Trade Center disaster, who were exposed to particulate matter containing potential carcinogens, have a high burden of somatic mutations in blood cells, raising their risk for cancer and other diseases and highlighting the need for enhanced health screening of these individuals.

Peripheral ancestral SARS-CoV-2 spike-specific CD4⁺ and CD8⁺ T cells induced by BNT162b2 vaccination cross-react to the Omicron variant at higher levels than those induced by prior SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Neutralization of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant is markedly impaired in sera from recipients of two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine BNT162b2 or from convalescent individuals, but is robustly increased in both groups following a booster vaccine dose.

BNT162b2 booster vaccination in individuals who had previously received two doses of CoronaVac elevates neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant, but titers remain reduced compared with those against the ancestral SARS-CoV-2 virus and the Delta variant.

Serum neutralizing antibody titers against the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant markedly increase after a third dose of BNT162b2 vaccine in individuals who previously received either two doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine or two doses of the CoronaVac vaccine.

New in vitro data suggest that the new SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant is likely to escape neutralization by most therapeutic antibodies currently available.

High levels of neutralizing antibodies are successfully elicited against SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, including omicron, after three exposures to the viral spike protein, mediated by vaccination with BNT162b2 alone or by a combination of vaccination and infection.

Findings from the COVID-19 in Pregnancy in Scotland (COPS) study reveals low levels of vaccination uptake by pregnant women compared to women in the general population and that not being vaccinated is associated with increased risk of severe complications of COVID-19 in pregnancy, including perinatal mortality.

A computational approach combining whole-genome sequencing of parental genomes and genotyping of preimplantation embryos allows accurate prediction of the inherited genomes of embryos and calculation of polygenic risk scores.

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation chemotherapy with busulfan causes senescence of brain microglia, rapid loss of adult neurogenesis and engraftment of peripheral donor macrophages into the brain of mice post transplantation.

An open-label clinical trial of an oral absorbent that sequesters phenolic molecules in the gut shows safety and tolerability in adolescents with autism, reduces levels of gut-derived metabolites in circulation and reduces anxiety and irritability.

An analysis of metagenomic sequencing of stool samples from multiple cohorts of patients with melanoma treated with immune checkpoint blockade uncovers microbiome correlates of response to therapy and also reveals widespread variability across populations.

Integrated analysis of microbiome and host cell transcriptional data on clinically annotated cohorts of patients with melanoma who were treated with anti-programmed cell death protein-1, uncovers new associations of streptococcus species with immune-related adverse effects and finds consistent microbiome associations with clinical outcomes.

Extensive characterization of the stem and progenitor cell hierarchies of myelodysplastic syndromes reveals compensatory survival mechanisms underpinning the failure of hypomethylating agents, and uncovers biomarkers that predict second-line clinical response to venetoclax-based therapy.

In a multinational trial, empagliflozin has clinical benefit when administered to hospitalized patients with acute heart failure, extending the reach of SGLT2 inhibitor therapy to this patient population.

Deep learning applied to endomyocardial biopsy images, developed using datasets from three different countries, can detect rejection of transplanted hearts and determine the subtype and grade of rejection, with potential for reducing the interobserver variability inherent in manual interpretation of these biopsies.

Individuals with COVID-19 are at increased long-term risk for a wide range of cardiovascular disorders, even for individuals who were not hospitalized during the acute phase of the infection.

Meta-analysis of cardiovascular secondary outcomes from the SURPASS program, testing efficacy of a new novel dual GIP/GLP-1 receptor agonist tirzepatide, demonstrates cardiovascular safety in patients with type 2 diabetes.