Featured
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Outlook |
Immune cells that remember inflammation could offer treatment targets for atherosclerosis
A type of immune-cell priming called trained immunity is helping researchers to understand the disease mechanisms behind the build up of fatty deposits in arteries.
- Amanda B. Keener
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Outlook |
Cells or drugs? The race to regenerate the heart
Researchers are debating how to convince the heart to heal itself instead of laying down scar tissue after a heart attack.
- Benjamin Plackett
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Outlook |
Ranking the risk of heart disease
By accounting for the additive effect of multiple genetic variants, researchers can develop a system that improves their ability to identify the most vulnerable.
- Michael Eisenstein
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Outlook |
Is there more to a healthy-heart diet than cholesterol?
A high-fat diet is thought to increase the risk of a heart attack. But some say that the long-held dogma of ‘bad’ cholesterol might be flawed.
- Natalie Healey
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Outlook |
Women’s heart health is not just about hormones
Heart-disease risk increases as women get older but explanations that centre on changes after menopause don’t tell the full story.
- Jumana Saleh
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Outlook |
Inflammation in heart disease: do researchers know enough?
Anti-inflammatory therapies for cardiovascular disease are nearing the clinic. But whether scientists understand how inflammation contributes to fatty-deposit build-up well enough to target it effectively is open to debate.
- Sarah DeWeerdt
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Outlook |
COVID’s cardiac connection
Coronavirus infections might cause lasting harm to the heart, even in those who have never had symptoms.
- Elie Dolgin
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Research Highlight |
How fit can you get? These blood proteins hold a clue
Scientists pinpoint almost 150 biomarkers linked to intrinsic cardiovascular fitness, and 100 linked to fitness gained from training.
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Research Highlight |
How a sugary, fatty diet threatens the gut’s immune defences
Fed on the regimen known as the Western diet, intestinal microbes unleash changes that make the gut more prone to infection.
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Article |
Mitochondrial TNAP controls thermogenesis by hydrolysis of phosphocreatine
Tissue nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (TNAP) within mitochondria hydrolyses phosphocreatine to initiate a futile cycle of creatine dephosphorylation and phosphorylation in thermogenic fat cells.
- Yizhi Sun
- , Janane F. Rahbani
- & Bruce M. Spiegelman
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Article |
Response of the microbiome–gut–brain axis in Drosophila to amino acid deficit
In Drosophila, an amino acid deficit triggers the expression of the neuropeptide CNMamide in gut enterocytes, which promotes a compensatory appetite for essential over non-essential amino acids, and this process is modulated by the microbiome.
- Boram Kim
- , Makoto I. Kanai
- & Won-Jae Lee
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Research Highlight |
The world’s northernmost bird is a clock-watcher
Ptarmigan that live far above the Arctic Circle generate circadian rhythms, despite summer’s eternal sunshine.
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Article |
PIK3CA and CCM mutations fuel cavernomas through a cancer-like mechanism
Aggressive cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are found to grow through a three-hit cancer-like mechanism, involving gain of function of a gene that promotes vascular growth, and loss of function of genes that suppress it.
- Aileen A. Ren
- , Daniel A. Snellings
- & Mark L. Kahn
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Article |
Meningeal lymphatics affect microglia responses and anti-Aβ immunotherapy
Meningeal lymphatic drainage can affect the microglial inflammatory response and anti-amyloid-β immunotherapy in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease.
- Sandro Da Mesquita
- , Zachary Papadopoulos
- & Jonathan Kipnis
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Research Highlight |
A century of US data documents obesity’s racially skewed rise
An analysis also finds that obesity is common at a much younger age among people born in the early 1980s than those born in the late 1950s.
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News & Views |
Life in a carbon dioxide world
Microorganisms living in hydrothermal vents that emit carbon dioxide gas provide a striking example of metabolic finesse. This pathway sheds light on microbial ecology in extreme environments and offers clues to early life on Earth.
- Martina Preiner
- & William F. Martin
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Research Highlight |
The easy test that predicts the size of your next few meals
One simple measurement provides a quantitative description of hunger.
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Outlook |
Sports science
The importance of science in elite sport — from helping athletes to train safely to protecting sporting integrity.
- Richard Hodson
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Outlook |
Could mitochondria help athletes to make gains?
The muscles of elite endurance athletes boast high numbers of extra-efficient mitochondria. Unlocking the secrets of these cellular components could yield gains for future Olympians.
- Anthony King
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Outlook |
The science helping athletes to beat the heat
As global temperatures rise, athletes and sports bodies are following the science to ensure that events can take place safely.
- Sarah O’Meara
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Outlook |
Data scientists are predicting sports injuries with an algorithm
Machine learning can tell athletes when to train and when to stop.
- Andrada Fiscutean
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Outlook |
Why clean sport is more than just drug-free
Doping is just one form of cheating in sport. To protect sporting integrity, all unethical behaviours must be treated equally, says Andrea Petróczi.
- Andrea Petróczi
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Outlook |
How athletes hit a fastball
To strike a ball moving at lightning speeds in baseball, tennis and cricket, athletes and coaches are increasingly embracing training techniques involving virtual reality.
- Liam Drew
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Outlook |
The future of sex in elite sport
Sex has long been used to divide sporting competitions in the name of fairness, but are the current rules and enforcement practices fit for purpose?
- Julianna Photopoulos
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Outlook |
Do microbes affect athletic performance?
Some studies suggest that the community of microorganisms that live in the gut are associated with athleticism.
- Simon Makin
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News & Views |
Relax to grow more hair
A stress hormone has been found to signal through skin cells to repress the activation of hair-follicle stem cells in mice. When this signalling is blocked, hair growth is stimulated. Stressed humans, watch out.
- Rui Yi
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Article |
REV-ERB in GABAergic neurons controls diurnal hepatic insulin sensitivity
REV-ERB in GABAergic neurons orchestrates the rhythmic sensitivity of hepatic glucose production to insulin-mediated suppression that peaks at wakening, with implications in the extended dawn phenomenon.
- Guolian Ding
- , Xin Li
- & Zheng Sun
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Research Highlight |
Can people get too much exercise? Mitochondria hint that the answer is yes
Elite athletes help to reveal the costs of intense physical activity.
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Article |
Inherent mosaicism and extensive mutation of human placentas
Phylogenies of human placental cells based on whole-genome sequencing of bulk samples and microdissections reveal extensive mutagenesis in placental tissue, and suggest that mosaicism is a typical part of normal placental development.
- Tim H. H. Coorens
- , Thomas R. W. Oliver
- & Sam Behjati
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Where I Work |
Tackling the number-one killer in my community
Molecular biologist Desireé Leach studies the mechanisms of heart disease, the leading cause of death among Black people in the United States.
- Amber Dance
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Research Highlight |
An antibody joins forces with the pancreas to delay diabetes
An immune molecule props up cells that make insulin, thereby restoring production of the crucial hormone.
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News & Views |
Cancer aided by greasy traitors
Cancer can evade destruction by the immune system if aided by immunosuppressive regulatory T cells. These cells depend on a lipid-production pathway in the tumour environment, a vulnerability that might be used to target them.
- Caroline Perry
- & Ulf H. Beier
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Article
| Open AccessSulfur sequestration promotes multicellularity during nutrient limitation
Depriving unicellular Dictyostelium discoideum of nutrients generates reactive oxygen species that sequester cysteine within glutathione, which maintains this amoeba in a nonproliferating state that promotes aggregation into a multicellular organism.
- Beth Kelly
- , Gustavo E. Carrizo
- & Erika L. Pearce
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Research Highlight |
Impervious to cold? A gene helps people to ward off the chills
A mutation that is common in northern Europe is less so in Africa.
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Article |
Creatine kinase B controls futile creatine cycling in thermogenic fat
Upon induction by thermogenic stimuli, creatine kinase B traffics to mitochondria to trigger the futile creatine cycle in thermogenic fat.
- Janane F. Rahbani
- , Anna Roesler
- & Lawrence Kazak
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News & Views |
New-found brake calibrates insulin action in β-cells
Insulin is produced by pancreatic β-cells. The identification of a regulator of insulin signalling in these cells cements the long-standing idea that this pathway has a key role in β-cell biology.
- Rohit N. Kulkarni
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Article |
Inceptor counteracts insulin signalling in β-cells to control glycaemia
The insulin inhibitory receptor (inceptor) is identified as a negative regulator of insulin and IGF1 signalling that could be targeted for β-cell regeneration in treatments for diabetes.
- Ansarullah
- , Chirag Jain
- & Heiko Lickert
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News & Views |
Reversal of immune-cell shutdown protects the ageing brain
Immune cells called macrophages have been found to shut down major metabolic pathways during ageing. Restoring metabolism in these cells is sufficient to alleviate age-associated cognitive decline in mice.
- Jonas J. Neher
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News & Views |
Anti-ageing effects of protein restriction unpacked
Two animal studies show that restricting the dietary intake of branched-chain amino acids can extend lifespan by modulating the mTOR signalling pathway. But more research is needed before this diet should be recommended in people.
- Cristal M. Hill
- & Matt Kaeberlein
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Article |
Evolving schema representations in orbitofrontal ensembles during learning
Rats learning to solve a succession of odour-sequence problems developed an orbitofrontal cortical representation that reflected the structure—or schema—common across problems.
- Jingfeng Zhou
- , Chunying Jia
- & Geoffrey Schoenbaum
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Nature Careers Podcast |
Kindness alone won’t improve the research culture
Postdocs and other early-career researchers need better trained lab leaders, not just nicer ones, Julie Gould discovers.
- Julie Gould
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Outlook |
Sustainable nutrition
The world’s population is estimated to reach 10 billion by 2050. Providing everyone with a nutritious diet and protecting the planet requires a global response.
- Catherine Armitage
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Outlook |
Could a better diet improve mental health?
Brain function and food are thought to be connected through the community of microorganisms that live in the gut.
- Clare Watson
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Article |
A brainstem peptide system activated at birth protects postnatal breathing
A peptidergic brainstem circuit is identified that supports the initiation and establishment of breathing by providing a supplementary respiratory drive immediately after birth.
- Yingtang Shi
- , Daniel S. Stornetta
- & Douglas A. Bayliss
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Article |
Reprogramming to recover youthful epigenetic information and restore vision
Expression of three Yamanaka transcription factors in mouse retinal ganglion cells restores youthful DNA methylation patterns, promotes axon regeneration after injury, and reverses vision loss in a mouse model of glaucoma and in aged mice, suggesting that mammalian tissues retain a record of youthful epigenetic information that can be accessed to improve tissue function.
- Yuancheng Lu
- , Benedikt Brommer
- & David A. Sinclair
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Article |
Tension heterogeneity directs form and fate to pattern the myocardial wall
Differences in the mechanical properties of individual cardiomyocytes drive their segregation into compact versus trabecular layer, thereby transforming the myocardium in a developing heart from a simple epithelium into an intricately patterned tissue with distinct cell fates.
- Rashmi Priya
- , Srinivas Allanki
- & Didier Y. R. Stainier
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Article |
Paracrine signalling by cardiac calcitonin controls atrial fibrogenesis and arrhythmia
Heart atria produce a large pool of calcitonin (previously well-recognized as a thyroid-secreted hormone with roles in calcium and bone metabolism) that in the heart acts as a paracrine signal controlling atrial fibrosis and fibrillation.
- Lucia M. Moreira
- , Abhijit Takawale
- & Svetlana Reilly
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Article |
Values encoded in orbitofrontal cortex are causally related to economic choices
Direct electrical stimulation of the brain in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) predictably varied subjective valuation and choices, linking valuation and economic decision making to the orbitofrontal cortex.
- Sébastien Ballesta
- , Weikang Shi
- & Camillo Padoa-Schioppa