Research Highlights

In a recent study, Tagore et al. find that the formation of synapse-like structures that serve to transfer GABA between premalignant melanocytes and keratinocytes promotes melanoma initiation by the BRAF^V600E oncogene.

Rahme et al. establish an in vivo model for low-grade glioma, and use it to demonstrate that Pdgfra insulator loss and Cdkn2a promoter silencing are epigenetic drivers of gliomagenesis.

In this study, Guirguis et al. show mechanistically how preventing m⁶A RNA modification through inhibition of METTL3 can promote anti-tumour immunity.

Bland et al. show that cancer types with heterozygous somatic hotspot mutations in the spliceosome component SF3B1 are vulnerable to PARP inhibition, which causes a defective response to replication stress.

Two independent studies published together in Nature find that AT1 cells can have a role in both the initiation and suppression of lung adenocarcinoma.

In this study, Conn et al. functionally link circular RNA and DNA interactions with chromosomal translocation in leukaemogenesis.

Girish et al. designed a method to genetically remove extra chromosomes from human aneuploid cancer cells to show that they are important for malignant growth and not just a bystander.

Inducing ferroptosis in cancer cells has become a realistic method for promoting cancer cell death. In this study, Nakarmua et al. identify a novel ferroptosis suppressor 1 (FSP1) inhibitor that promotes FSP1 relocalization through phase separation, priming ferroptosis and ultimately impairing tumour growth.

Two independent studies published in Nature have collectively addressed the long-standing question of sex bias in cancer and implicated non-hormonal genes of the Y chromosome in aggressive features of colorectal and bladder cancers in men.

In this study, Malladi and colleagues reveal the mechanism by which mitochondrial fragmentation enables latent brain metastatic breast cancer cells to increase fatty acid oxidation to maintain cellular energetics and redox homeostasis.

Wang et al. demonstrate how tumour-derived extracellular vesicles and particles dysregulate liver function to promote fatty liver disease and diminish chemotherapeutic efficacy.

Krishna et al. investigated the potential mechanisms by which glioblastomas remodel neural circuits.

In this study, Insco et al. find patient-specific CDK13 mutations to impede RNA surveillance, leading to the accumulation and translation of prematurely terminated RNAs that drive malignancy in melanoma models.

Sloan and colleagues demonstrate that anthracycline chemotherapy drives metastatic progression by stimulating a cancer cell-mediated increase in nerve fibre activity in the tumour microenvironment, which can be reversed by the use of β-blockers.

In a recent study on castration-resistant prostate cancer, Cui et al. uncover a role for cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) in inducing androgen synthesis in prostate cancer cells.

In a recent Nature study, Hill et al. provide mechanistic evidence that air pollution promotes lung tumorigenesis in cells with pre-existing oncogenic mutations.

Blanpain and colleagues provide evidence that the small RHO GTPase, RHOJ, mediates resistance to chemotherapy in tumour cells that have undergone epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition by enabling these cells to tolerate replicative stress and promote DNA damage repair.

In this study, Weems et al. demonstrate that detachment-induced dynamic blebbing leads to the assembly of pro-survival signalling molecules at the plasma membrane, which protects melanoma cells from anoikis.

Han et al. employed an in vivo imaging workflow that coupled positron emission tomography imaging to micro-computed tomography and 3D serial block-face electron microscopy to produce a detailed structural and functional map of mitochondrial networks in lung cancer.