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The ion channel NALCN regulates cell shedding in mice and enhances metastasis in mouse models of cancer. Disseminated cells without oncogenic mutations form normal structures at secondary sites, suggesting that cell shedding is a physiological process that is hijacked during tumorigenesis.

Power exhaust is one of the biggest challenges stopping fusion energy. This article shows experimental evidence for strategically shaping the power exhaust region as a solution to this challenge, utilising physics understanding to strike a balance between engineering complexity and power exhaust benefits, consistent with reduced models and simulations.

Identification of a metabolic checkpoint involving lipid signalling that is specific to regulatory T cells (T_reg cells) in the tumour microenvironment raises the possibility of targeting this checkpoint for treatment of cancer.

Over 170 susceptibility loci have been identified by genome-wide association studies in breast cancer. Here, the authors interrogated the role of risk-associated variants from non-breast tissue, and using expression quantitative trait loci, identify potential target genes of known breast cancer susceptibility variants, as well as 11 regions not previously known to be associated with breast cancer risk.

The genome of the wild grass Brachypodium distachyon (Brachypodium), a member of the Pooideae subfamily, is sequenced. The Pooideae are one of three subfamilies of grasses that provide the bulk of human nutrition and may become major sources of renewable energy. Availability of the genome sequence should help establish Brachypodium as a model for developing new energy and food crops.

In this immunological ancillary study of the PREVAC trial, the authors show that approved Ebola virus vaccines induce memory T-cell responses that persist during the five year follow-up after initial vaccination.

It is unclear whether trait trade-offs and optimality principles observed at the individual level scale up to the ecosystem level. Here, the authors show that plant trait coordination principles also predict patterns between community-level traits and ecosystem-scale processes.

In this study, the authors report that a bat influenza A (H9N2) virus shows receptor binding features similar to avian influenza viruses, efficiently infects ex-vivo human respiratory cells and replicates in the lungs of mice and upper respiratory tract of ferrets following airborne transmission.

Data collected from 138,015 hospital-based singleton births in four sub-Saharan African countries revealed an association between heat exposure in the week leading up to the birth and perinatal mortality.

Swarm Learning is a decentralized machine learning approach that outperforms classifiers developed at individual sites for COVID-19 and other diseases while preserving confidentiality and privacy.

Accumulation of intermediates of haem biosynthesis, porphyrins, is harmful and usually inherited, but it is unclear how the same mutation may make some individuals more ill than others. Here, the authors show that a porphyrin transporter ABCB6 is a modulator of porphyria, and that patients with functionally defective ABCB6 show more severe symptoms.

Plasma extracellular vesicles contain quantifiable amounts of TDP-43 and full-length tau, allowing the accurate assessment of pathology in frontotemporal dementia, frontotemporal dementia spectrum disorders and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Length scale dependence is important for understanding the collective relaxation dynamics in glass-forming liquids. Here, the authors find in liquid Ca_0.4K_0.6(NO₃)_1.4 a change in the dominant relaxation mechanisms around 2.6 Å, below which the relaxation process exhibits a temperature independent distribution and more Arrhenius-like behavior.

Moculus is a virtual reality headset for mice that allows realistic display of three-dimensional environments. The system improves performance in visual-learning tasks and can be combined with various microscopes to study neural circuitry.

The common dust mite allergen Der p 2 is shown to replace MD-2 as the lipopolysaccharide-binding component and facilitates signalling through TLR4. It is suggested that Der p 2 tends to be targeted by adaptive immune responses because of its auto-adjuvant properties.

Viral infection of the respiratory system induces exuberant fibroblast activity, resulting in extensive remodelling of the extracellular matrix and cytokine release, which promote immune cell infiltration of the affected area at the expense of respiratory function.

The innate sensors of SARS-CoV-2 are still being determined. Kanneganti and colleagues find that SARS-CoV-2 envelope protein is sensed by TLR2 and this drives pathogenic inflammatory cytokine production.

A newly developed RIPK3 inhibitor blocks necroptosis of lung cells, reduces lung inflammation and prevents mortality in a mouse model of influenza A virus infection.

How signals derived from dendritic cells regulate T cell lineage fate remains unclear. Chi and colleagues identify p38α in dendritic cells as a central integrator of instructive signals for T_H17 differentiation.

The tau protein is theorized to spread transneuronally in Alzheimers disease, though this theory remains unproven in humans. Our simulations of epidemic-like protein spreading across human brain networks support this theory, and suggest the spreading dynamics are modified by β-amyloid

Hartung et al. investigate the use of magnetic particle imaging (MPI) for radiation-free guidance of vascular procedures. Using a cadaveric perfusion model, they successfully visualize the femoral artery with MPI, demonstrating MPI’s potential as a safe, reliable alternative for vascular interventions.

Prostate cancer (PrCa) involves a large heritable genetic component. Here, the authors perform multivariate fine-mapping of known PrCa GWAS loci, identifying variants enriched for biological function, explaining more familial relative risk, and with potential application in clinical risk profiling.

Highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) viruses of clade 2.3.4.4b underwent an explosive geographic expansion in 2021 among wild birds and domestic poultry. Here, Kandeil et al. show that the Western movement of this clade was followed by reassortment with viruses circulating in wild birds in North America which resulted in different genotypes exhibiting a wide range of disease severity in mammal models (mice, ferrets, chicken) ranging from asymptomatic disease to severe neurological pathology.

The pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-1ß promotes the accumulation of pathologic Th17 lymphocytes that contribute to colitis. Here the authors show that the critical role of IL-10 in colitis suppression can be explained by its inhibition of IL-1ß production in macrophages.

PDEδ is a widely expressed factor that sustains the spatial organization and signalling of Ras family proteins. Here the authors describe the activity of Deltazinone 1, a new highly selective PDEδ inhibitor of KRAS-dependent cancer cell growth with low cytotoxic side effects.

By comparing data from real-world grassland communities with data from two of the longest-running grassland biodiversity–ecosystem functioning experiments, the authors show that conclusions derived from experimental systems are robust to the removal of unrealistic experimental communities.

Replacing the extracellular domains of heterodimeric cytokine receptors in chimeric antigen receptor T cells with two leucine zipper motifs leads to optimal JAK/STAT signalling and augments the effector function of the T cells.

Splicing dysfunction has been observed in Alzheimer’s disease but it remains unclear whether splicing defects have a causal role. Here the authors generate a mouse model with perturbed U1 snRNP activity, recapitulating RNA splicing defects, neuron hyperexcitability, neurodegeneration and synergy with the amyloid cascade when crossed with 5xFAD mice.