Search

Astrocyte calcium increases can alter brain state, but their dynamics during different behaviors have not been fully described. Here, the authors use multicore fiber optic imaging in freely moving mice to show that astrocyte engagement in behavior is influenced by the motivational state.

The authors previously pinpointed OLAH (oleoyl-ACP-hydrolase) as a driver of life-threatening viral diseases. Here, the authors identify increased IL-18Rα expression on CD8⁺ T cells, which acquire a reduced cytotoxic signature, correlates with severe respiratory viral infection of influenza A virus, RSV and COVID-19.

Oncofetal (OnF) reprogramming, driven by YAP and AP-1, induces phenotypic plasticity and therapy resistance in WNT-dependent colorectal cancer (CRC). Targeting the OnF state in combination with chemotherapy substantially attenuates tumor growth in mouse models and patient-derived CRC tumoroids.

The molecular and cellular underpinnings of cribriform prostate cancer aggressiveness remain to be explored. Here, the authors perform single-cell RNA-sequencing, TCR sequencing and histology and reveal cancer cell intrinsic pathways and an immunosuppressive tumour microenvironment.

Repeat-rich sequences play a role in 3D genome architecture in higher eukaryotes; however, this remains unexplored in brain cells. Here, the authors show that upregulation of endogenous retroviral (ERV) sequences is linked to changes in the 3D structure in the brain, which is also observed by comparison of mouse strains with recent retrotransposon expansion.

The physical organization of the genome in non-bilaterian animals and their closest unicellular relatives is characterized; comparative analysis shows chromatin looping is a conserved feature of genome architecture and spatial genome regulation emerged early in animal evolution.

What features distinguish speech from song? Here, the authors show that consistent acoustical spectro-temporal features are sufficient to distinguish speech and song across different societies throughout the world.

An individual tumour is often heterogeneous and its various features can be visualised noninvasively using medical imaging. Here, the authors analyse large computed tomography data sets using radiomic algorithms to identify heterogeneity, and find that some of these tumour features have prognostic value across cancer types.

Zhao et al. generated models from whole blood gene expression to predict amyotrophic lateral sclerosis case-control status and combined gene features with clinical variables to predict survival, both validated in an external independent dataset.

Mice generalize complex task structures by using neurons in the medial frontal cortex that encode progress to task goals and embed behavioural sequences.

A pooled genetic, transcriptomic and immunopathologic analysis of over 500 tumors from patients with advanced renal cell cancer suggests that response to PD-1 blockade depends on both CD8⁺ T cell infiltration and enrichment of tumor-intrinsic somatic alterations.

Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play key roles in the immune response but their properties at the single-cell level are less well understood. Here, the authors characterize differential features of lncRNAs and protein-coding genes upon Ebola infection in macaques at single-cell resolution.

Recognition of tumour antigen induces dendritic cell activation and migration to the lymph node. Here, the authors use photoconvertible mice to demonstrate that some activated dendritic cells are retained in tumours and gradually lose function, but their ability to support local anti-tumour responses can be augmented by anti-PD-L1 blockade.

Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have increased risk for venous thromboembolism, but mechanistic insight is still lacking. Using both mouse experimental colitis models and IBD patient biopsies, here the authors implicate increased tissue factor activity on colitogenic T cells as a potential link.

Calcium-calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) is well known for its roles in synaptic plasticity. Using a series of molecular replacement experiments, the authors show that the kinase function of CaMKII is required for long-term plasticity and basal AMPA receptor-mediated transmission.

CREBBP and KMT2D mutations frequently co-occur in B cell lymphomas with unclear significance. Here the authors show that they cooperate to skew B cell fate decisions and induce a CD8-depleted immune-evasive microenvironment to facilitate lymphomagenesis.

Escherichia coli ST58 has recently emerged as a globally disseminated extra-intestinal pathogen. Here, Reid et al. present a pan-genomic analysis of a global collection of ST58 isolates from animal and human sources, showing that ColV plasmid acquisition likely contributed to the divergence of a major sub-lineage that has a broad host range but is more commonly found in poultry and swine.

A comprehensive analysis of omics data from biopsies and blood samples from more than 12,000 cases of heart, lung, liver and kidney transplants provides insights into shared mechanisms of allograft dysfunction across organs.

The cellular atlas of Pristina leidyi reveals cell type diversity in adult annelids by single cell transcriptomics, discovering several novel cell types and suggesting a pluripotent stem cell signature associated with adult cell type differentiation

Alfonsa et al. show that wakefulness causes shifts in cortical EGABA_A, weakening synaptic inhibition and resulting in markers of local sleep pressure, and identify Cl⁻ regulation as a link between sleep–wake history, cortical activity and behavior.

Although genetically bland, the posterior fossa group A subgroup of ependymomas, found often in infants and associated with poor prognosis, exhibit widespread epigenetic alterations, namely a CpG island methylator phenotype; these tumours are shown to be susceptible both in vitro and in vivo to various compounds that target epigenetic modifications, such as DNA methylation and H3K27 tri-methylation.

Aarrestad et al. show that, in contrast to psychedelics, the nonhallucinogenic psychoplastogen tabernanthalog promotes neuroplasticity through 5-HT_2AR activation without immediately increasing extracellular glutamate levels or immediate early gene expression.

An analysis of POLE and POLD1 mutations distinguishes driver mutations from passengers and explores their functionality. Driver mutations are associated with specific mutational signatures and correlate with immune checkpoint blockage response.

Dextran sulfate sodium is a colitis inducer that stimulates a ROS–Src–IP6K2 signaling axis to generate 5-IP₇, which sterically inhibits PI(4,5)P₂ phosphatases to promote PI(4,5)P₂-mediated E-cadherin endocytosis and epithelial junction breakdown.

A single-cell ex vivo screening of repurposable drugs in glioblastoma and machine learning of drug–target networks show that anti-tumor neuroactive drugs converge on the AP-1/BTG pathway, based on which prediction models and experimental in vivo and in silico validation identify the anti-depressant vortioxetine as a potential therapeutic agent.

Species’ traits and environmental conditions determine the abundance of tree species across the globe. Here, the authors find that dominant tree species are taller and have softer wood compared to rare species and that these trait differences are more strongly associated with temperature than water availability.

DNA:RNA hybrids are linked to genetic instability in several pathological situations. Here, the authors report that various types of DNA lesions can trigger hybrid formation in yeast and humans, calling for a re-examination of the causality between these structures and genetic instability.

Gut ecosystem colonization impacts lifelong health. Here, authors track mother-infant gut viruses over time, reveal feeding’s influence on early viral colonization, and demonstrate the co-transmission of bacteriophages and bacteria from mothers to infants.

Bacteria evolving within humans employ strategies to overcome trade-offs. Here, the authors report that the cystic fibrosis-associated pathogen Burkholderia dolosa alternates phenotypes in vivo by accumulating successive de novo mutations.

Combination of immune checkpoint inhibitors with chemoradiation is now standard of care for patients with locally advanced cervical cancer (LACC). Here, the authors report the results of a phase I trial of neoadjuvant vs concurrent atezolizumab (anti-PD-L1) with chemoradiation for LACC.

The clinical management of metastatic melanoma requires predictors of the response to checkpoint blockade. Here, the authors use immunological assays to identify potential prognostic/predictive biomarkers in circulating blood cells and in tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes from patients with resected stage III melanoma.

Here, the authors developed a plasma cell-free RNA test for early PDAC detection in high-risk and symptomatic patients.

Base editing of the pathogenic trinucleotide repeat expansions underlying Huntington’s disease and Friedreich’s ataxia introduces repeat interruptions that reduce somatic expansion in patient cells and mice.

Analyses of the TRACERx study unveil the relationship between tissue morphology, the underlying evolutionary genomic landscape, and clinical and anatomical relapse risk of lung adenocarcinomas.

Brain-computer interface (BCI) can improve motor skills on stroke patients. This study shows that BCI-controlled neuromuscular electrical stimulation therapy can cause cortical reorganization due to activation of efferent and afferent pathways, and this effect can be long lasting in a brain region specific manner.

Myeloid cells are the predominant cell type in the tumor microenvironment of human and murine glioblastoma (GBM). By generating a mouse model deficient for all monocyte chemoattractant proteins, here the authors show that blocking monocyte recruitment promotes a compensatory neutrophil influx and that concomitant neutrophil inhibition is required to improve survival in GBM preclinical models.

Episodic memory and allocentric spatial navigation are interwoven in the activity of hippocampal neuron ensembles via Hebbian plasticity, which allows rats to encode journey-specific episodes.

A large, open dataset containing parallel recordings from six visual cortical and two thalamic areas of the mouse brain is presented, from which the relative timing of activity in response to visual stimuli and behaviour is used to construct a hierarchy scheme that corresponds to anatomical connectivity data.

A transient perturbation of transcriptional silencing mediated by Polycomb proteins is sufficient to induce an epigenetic cancer cell fate in Drosophila in the absence of driver mutations.

An analysis of the localization and intensity of intracortical microstimulation in three participants with cervical spinal cord injury shows that overlapping projected fields from multiple electrodes produce sensations that are more easily localizable.

During spermatogenic meiosis, chromatin changes due to transcription, homologous recombination, and chromosome synapsis must be coordinated. Here they show that A-MYC and BRDT regulate release of paused RNA PolII to induce a transcriptional burst during pachytene of prophase I.

Axonal injury, induced in the white matter by expansion of early tumour cells, is a key driver of glioblastoma progression.

Portable robots may assist subjects with disabilities. However, upper limb movements are hard to fine-tune. Here, the authors design a personalized AI intention detection model to decode user’s motion intention from IMU and compression sensors.

In this work, susceptibilities to two key antimalarials, dihydroartemisinin and lumefantrine, were associated with multiple genetic polymorphisms in Plasmodium falciparum, and were lower in northern Uganda, where resistance-mediating mutations have emerged, compared to eastern Uganda.

Tumor-derived soluble PD-L1 drives immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) resistance and has recently been reported to be removed by therapeutic plasma exchange (TPE). Here, the authors report a phase I clinical trial investigating the combination of radiotherapy, TPE, and ICI rechallenge in patients with ICI-refractory metastatic melanoma with high PD-L1.

The survival of chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells strongly depends on the presence of a supportive microenvironment. Here, the authors show that LYN kinase is essential for the reprogramming of stromal cells towards a leukemia-supportive phenotype that facilitates disease progression.

In vaccination there may be differences between the sexes in terms of protection. Here the authors show that male mice are less well protected by Plasmodium liver stage vaccines compared to female mice and this is due to lower hepatic memory CD8⁺ T cell density and reduced recruitment of these memory T cells, which are affected by the presence of testicular hormones.

Here, through parallel profiling of the mucosal transcriptome and microbiome of intestinal biopsies derived from patients with IBD and from non-IBD controls, the authors characterize interactions between gene expression and microbiota composition associated with traits of patients with inflammatory bowel diseases. Peer Review Information: Nature Communications thanks Robert Häsler, and the other, anonymous, reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available.