Preclinical research articles from across Nature Portfolio

The opioid abuse epidemic is a major health concern that requires new pain management strategies. Findings now show that suvorexant, a dual hypocretin receptor antagonist, reverses the anatomical and circuit alterations induced by opioids and decreases addictive behavior while maintaining the analgesic properties of the drugs.

Despite standard treatment efforts, patients with glioblastoma (GBM), an aggressive form of brain cancer, inevitably succumb to recurrent disease. Integrative genomic analyses reveal that tumor cells hijack normal neurodevelopmental pathways to promote GBM growth and invasion. To target this pathway, we engineer a CAR T cell therapy that blocks the growth of GBM and other invasive brain cancers.

Androgen is a sex hormone that may contribute to sex biases in autoimmunity. Here the authors show that in T cells androgen induces the expression of Ptpn22 phosphatase to negatively regulate T cell activation, thereby contributing to protecting males from major autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus and type 1 diabetes.

Administration of exogenous mitochondria from mice or humans, or stimulation of mitochondria transfer from haematopoietic cells through bone marrow transplant from wild-type mice, is shown to improve morbidity and mortality in a mouse model of the mitochondrial disease Leigh syndrome.

Biomaterials are revolutionizing organoid development by offering tunable platforms that provide instructive cues, which enhance cell fate transitions, tissue-level functions and reproducibility. These advances are crucial for harnessing the translational potential of organoids.

The opioid abuse epidemic is a major health concern that requires new pain management strategies. Findings now show that suvorexant, a dual hypocretin receptor antagonist, reverses the anatomical and circuit alterations induced by opioids and decreases addictive behavior while maintaining the analgesic properties of the drugs.

Despite standard treatment efforts, patients with glioblastoma (GBM), an aggressive form of brain cancer, inevitably succumb to recurrent disease. Integrative genomic analyses reveal that tumor cells hijack normal neurodevelopmental pathways to promote GBM growth and invasion. To target this pathway, we engineer a CAR T cell therapy that blocks the growth of GBM and other invasive brain cancers.

Myocardial infarction can damage the heart muscle and lead to heart failure. Research on recovery typically focuses on infiltrating immune cells, damaged cardiomyocytes, over-stimulated fibroblasts and changes in vasculature. Haykin et al. now describe a multi-organ circuit linking these entities, including the brain and liver, in the repair process.