Search

Chronic care manages long-term, progressive conditions, while acute care handles short-term ones. Here, authors show chronic conditions account for most of the global health burden, with 68% of DALYs and 93% of YLDs attributed to chronic care needs.

Estimates from the Global Dietary Database indicated that 2.2 million new type 2 diabetes and 1.2 million new cardiovascular disease cases were attributable to sugar-sweetened beverages worldwide in 2020, with the highest burdens in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Comprehensive mapping of binary protein-protein interactions requires to combine several complementary assays. Here, the authors show that complete coverage could be reached with a minimal number of assays as long as they explore various experimental conditions.

A global network of researchers was formed to investigate the role of human genetics in SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 severity; this paper reports 13 genome-wide significant loci and potentially actionable mechanisms in response to infection.

A low energy demand, 1.5 ^∘C compatible pathway is provided for Europe from a country scale modelling perspective. The pathway shows in 2050 a 50% reduction of final energy demand and a 100% renewable energy share, with very limited needs for imports.

Whole-genome sequencing, transcriptome-wide association and fine-mapping analyses in over 7,000 individuals with critical COVID-19 are used to identify 16 independent variants that are associated with severe illness in COVID-19.

Petrels are wide-ranging, highly threatened seabirds that often ingest plastic. This study used tracking data for 7,137 petrels of 77 species to map global exposure risk and compare regions, species, and populations. The results show higher exposure risk for threatened species and stress the need for international cooperation to tackle marine litter.

Recent estimates of sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) intake are generally unavailable. Here the authors show a global SSBs intake of 2.7 servings/week in 2018 in adults (range: 0.7 South Asia, 7.8 Latin America/Caribbean); intakes were higher among males, younger, more educated, and urban adults.

In an open field, the preferential firing of grid cells on a hexagonal lattice is formed by integrating external as well as self-motion cues. Here, the authors show that on a 1D circular track, path integration cues shape the spatial selectivity of grid cells while external cues determine the scale of the grid.

In a mouse model of prostate cancer, neural progenitors from the central nervous system that express doublecortin infiltrate tumours and metastases, and can generate new adrenergic neurons in tumours.

Dysfunction of the potassium-chloride cotransporter KCC2 has been linked to many neurological diseases, including pain, anxiety and epilepsy. Now, Yves De Koninck and his colleagues report that they have developed a novel small-molecule compound that is orally bioavailable and can activate KCC2 and reduce chronic pain in rats.

A new method to quantify three masting components from individual tree-years has revealed that globally, masting is uncommon in tree species that depend on mutualist dispersers, with its distribution further mediated by climate and nutrient availability.

An analysis based on data from the Global Dietary Database shows mean animal-sourced food intakes among children and adolescents increased modestly from 1990 to two portions per day in 2018, but remain low in sub-Saharan Africa, India and Bangladesh.

Dietary quality is reported at the global, regional and national level across 185 countries. Though diet quality increased modestly since 1990 at the global level, in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa it did not improve. In some regions, children’s dietary quality is lower than that of adults.

This paper reports an approach to measure equilibrium binding affinities for interacting proteins in high throughput, allowing the rapid and quantitative profiling of the specificity of interaction motifs.

The E3 ligase Hakai can interact with the m⁶A methylation machinery but its function is still unclear. Here, the authors show that Hakai is a conserved component of the m⁶A methyltransferase complex and provide functional and molecular insights into its role in regulating m⁶A levels in Drosophila.

The modelling of the SARS-CoV-2 spatial organization within a cell-like volume combined with physical virus/host contacts profiling brings a realistic spatial representation of SARS-CoV-2/human interactome.

Integrating bioenergetic models and global coral reef fish community surveys, the authors show that there are functional trade-offs, meaning that no community can maximize all functions, and that dominant species underpin local functions, but their identity varies geographically.

The relationships that control seed production in trees are key to understand evolutionary pressures that have shaped forests. A global synthesis of fecundity data reveals that while seed production is not constrained by a strict size-number trade-off, it is influenced by taxonomy and nutrient allocation.

Bhattacharjee and Schaeffer et al. map exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) in 94 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), finding increased EBF practice and reduced subnational variation across the majority of LMICs from 2000 to 2018. However, only six LMICs will meet WHO’s target of ≥70% EBF by 2030 nationally, and only three will achieve this in all districts.

Chromosome-scale genome assemblies of triploid Cavendish and Gros Michel reveal the banana cultivars’ origins, disease resistance and fruit ripening mechanism.

Modeling analysis from the Global Dietary Database estimated that 70% of new global cases of type 2 diabetes are attributable to suboptimal intake of 11 dietary factors, with substantial differences in dietary risks across world regions and nations.

Most Amazon tree species are rare but a small proportion are common across the region. The authors show that different species are hyperdominant in different size classes and that hyperdominance is more phylogenetically restricted for larger canopy trees than for smaller understory ones.

A randomized trial in patients hospitalized with COVID-19 showed no benefit and potentially increased harm associated with the use of convalescent plasma, with subgroup analyses suggesting that the antibody profile in donor plasma is critical in determining clinical outcomes.

A human binary protein interactome map that includes around 53,000 protein–protein interactions involving more than 8,000 proteins provides a reference for the study of human cellular function in health and disease.

Narcolepsy has genetic and environmental risk factors, but the specific genetic risk loci and interaction with environmental triggers are not well understood. Here, the authors identify genetic loci for narcolepsy, suggesting infection as a trigger and dendritic and helper T cell involvement.

A SARS-CoV-2-human protein contactome map uncovers an inhibitor of viral replication.

Chlamydiae are sensitive to beta-lactam antibiotics, which target cell-wall peptidoglycan (PG), but it is unclear whether these bacteria possess PG. Pilhofer et al. now demonstrate that cell walls of a chlamydial species, Protochlamydia amoebophila, contain a PG layer.

Biosynthesis of peptidoglycan requires carefully orchestrated transpeptidation reactions to maintain the structural integrity of this essential component of the bacterial cell wall. Now, rotor-fluorescent d-amino acids have been shown to enable real-time tracking of these transpeptidation reactions in live bacterial cells. These powerful tools allow visualization of peptidoglycan biosynthesis with high spatiotemporal resolution.

The final report of the phase 1/2 lentiviral gene therapy trial in severe β-hemoglobinopathies, HGB-205, shows a long-term safety profile and sustained reduction of transfusion requirements in patients with β-thalassemia and of sickle cell crises in patients with sickle cell disease.

A multi-ancestry genome-wide association study of prostate cancer performed in 156,319 cases and 788,443 controls identifies 187 novel risk variants associated with the disease. Genetic risk scores associated with overall risk, and risk of aggressive disease in men of African ancestry.

Fluorescent d-amino acid incorporation reveals host–prey cell wall modification during Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus predation including pore formation and l,d-transpeptidase-mediated prey strengthening.

Interfacial inhibitors bind to the interfaces of macromolecular machines (for example, polymerases or ribosomes) and stall their progress. A number of natural product and synthetic interfacial inhibitors are in the clinic for the treatment of cancer and bacterial infections. Here, Pommier and Marchand review the concept of interfacial inhibition, and discuss the rationale and methods for the discovery of novel interfacial inhibitors.

The authors measured high-resolution fMRI activity from eight individuals who saw and memorized thousands of annotated natural images over 1 year. This massive dataset enables new paths of inquiry in cognitive neuroscience and artificial intelligence.

Adolfo Ferrando and colleagues identify frequent inactivating mutations and deletions in the X chromosome gene PHF6 in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. PHF6 mutations are found almost exclusively in males and are associated with leukemias driven by aberrant expression of TLX1 and TLX3.

The authors report on a subpopulation of neurons in retrosplenial cortex that is more sensitive to head direction in a local, visually defined reference frame than to global head direction. These neurons may be the means by which visual landmark information can influence the overall sense of direction.