Research on the heavyweight highlights that Nature magazine had to read in December

Time is always fleeting, and December is coming to an end What are the highlights of nature's research worth learning in the coming December? The editor sorted out the relevant articles and studied with you 【1】 Nature: heavyweight! Scientists have identified special proteins that control the self-renewal of human blood stem cells! Doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1790-2 recently, in a research report published in the international journal Nature, scientists from the University of California found a relationship between a special protein and the self-renewal ability of anthropological stem cells The researchers said that activating the protein may promote blood stem cells Self renewal at least 12 times under laboratory conditions In vitro, the proliferation of blood stem cells can greatly improve the treatment options of blood cancer (such as leukemia) and a variety of inherited blood diseases Researcher Dr Hanna Mikkola said that although we have studied the biological characteristics of blood stem cells for many years, we still face many key challenges, namely, how to promote the self-renewal of human blood stem cells under laboratory conditions, and now we have to overcome these problems through research Blood stem cells, or hematopoietic stem cells, exist in the bone marrow In the bone marrow, they can self renew and differentiate into many types of blood cells Moreover, bone marrow transplantation can also be used to treat patients with blood or immune system diseases However, there are obvious limitations in bone marrow transplantation, so it is not always feasible to find a suitable bone marrow donor, and the patient's own immunity The epidemic system also rejects exogenous cells, and sometimes the number of stem cells transplanted is not enough to successfully treat patients' diseases 【2】 Nature: scientists have successfully understood the working mechanism of cell transporters at the single molecular level Doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1747-5 can help passengers cross the river Just like transporters, they can transport materials across the cell membrane This process is very important for us to The health function of human and other organism cells is very important Previously, researchers could only infer its function from the behavior of hundreds of transporters working with these transporters Recently, in a research report published in the international journal Nature, scientists from St Judas children's research hospital and other institutions developed a new type of transporter through research Technology, which can study the function and working mechanism of transporters at the single molecule level Dr Scott Blanchard, the researcher, said that by observing the activity at the single molecule level, we can clarify part of the mechanism behind the activity of transporters, which is crucial for the later study of many clinical related proteins in the family This study relies on a single molecule fluorescence resonance energy Transfer) technology, which can help researchers collect accurate measurement data from single transporter activity, is also a powerful tool to study the mechanism of disease action and mutation mechanism, and can be used in a few laboratories around the world 【3】 Nature: scientists have developed a new generation of car-t cells resistant to "fatigue" state to successfully resist solid tumor doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1805-z Recently, in a research report published in the international journal Nature, scientists from Stanford University Medical Center have developed a new method through research, which may reprogram car-t cells (immune cells against cancer) to extend their own activity and increase the potential of human cancer cells in defense laboratory culture and mouse body Genetically engineered cells often feel "tired" after experiencing the initial active state, and the effective way to avoid this "tired" ability is to develop a new generation of car-t cells, which are very effective for the treatment of solid tumors But up to now, researchers are not clear about the molecular mechanism involved In this study, the researchers studied mice carrying human leukemia and bone cancer cells The researchers hope to start clinical trials on leukemia patients in the next 18 months, and eventually expand the clinical trials to solid tumor patients 【4】 Nature: scientists are expected to develop a new therapy against pneumonia induced viruses such as respiratory syncytial virus doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1759-1 Recently, in a research report published in the international journal Nature, scientists from Nanyang University of science and technology and other institutions found a new method to inactivate respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and human metapneumovirus (hMPV) after clarifying the key component structure of human metapneumovirus (hMPV) RSV and hMPV are two closely related viruses, which can cause serious and life-threatening respiratory diseases, such as pneumonia and bronchiolitis The high-risk groups include premature infants, infants, the elderly and people with weak immune system According to UNICEF data, in 2018 alone, pneumonia will cause one child to die every 39 seconds around the world, but there is no effective vaccine or antiviral therapy to protect against the virus 【5】 Nature: by targeting cancer stem cells or promising to cure acute myeloid leukemia doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1835-6 recently, in a research report published in the international journal Nature, scientists from Peter McCullen cancer center and other institutions in Australia found a root targeted acute myeloid leukemia (AML, acute) New methods of myeloid leukemia) and related research findings may help to develop new therapies for the treatment of malignant refractory blood cancer In this paper, researchers identified a special target in AML stem cells that can be used to develop new drugs AML stem cells are the key to support the development of leukemia Although these stem cells are very rare, they are the main reason to induce AML resistance to current anti-cancer therapy Researchers mark Dawson said that the current treatment of AML is good at eliminating major cancer cells, but it often leaves very rare leukemic cells, leading to cancer recurrence after treatment Photo source: Jun Wei et al Nature (2019) Doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1821-z [6] nature: breakthrough! Scientists have successfully reprogrammed T cells to improve the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy! Doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1821-z recently, in a research report published in the international journal Nature, scientists from St Jude Children's research hospital and other institutions developed a new treatment strategy to effectively enhance cancer immunotherapy, which may effectively slow down the growth of tumor and prolong the life span of cancer bearing mice This study found that it may provide a promising strategy for the development of more effective adoptive cell therapy, such as car T-cell therapy; immunotherapy aims to utilize patients' own tumors Specific T cells are used for cancer treatment Before these T cells are reinjected into the patient's body, researchers will collect and expand their functions When they are reinjected into the patient's body, some patients will have a significant response to the treatment, while the adoptive cell therapy may not be able to effectively resist solid tumors According to researcher Hongbo Chi, our goal is to increase the durability and antitumor efficiency of tumor specific T cells This study has found or can provide us with a way to reprogram tumor specific T cells to be as long-lived as primitive or memory T cells, and at the same time, to show strong killing activity like normal effector T cells 【7】 Nature: breakthrough! Scientists have found a new type of human inflammatory disease CRIA syndrome! Doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1828-5 recently, in a research report published in the international journal Nature, scientists from Walter and Eliza Research Institute and other institutions in Australia have identified the inheritance of a previously unknown human autoimmune disease (AID) through research For this reason, researchers call this kind of autoimmune disease CRIA syndrome (cleavage resistant ripk1 induced autoinflammation), which is induced by mutation of a key cell death component Lalaoui said that in this study, we identified a new type of human inflammatory disease, and also found that a key mutation related to cell death molecules drove the occurrence of this disease Cell death pathway will develop a series of built-in mechanisms to regulate inflammatory signals and cell death In the process of disease occurrence, ripk1 mutation will overcome all existing normal check and balance mechanisms, thus inducing cell death and inflammation out of control 【8】 Nature: great progress! It is revealed that caspase-8 is a molecular switch of three cell death pathways doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1770-6 In order to protect the normal operation of healthy tissues, cells use different cell death mechanisms to deal with unnecessary cells (such as infected or aging cells) Apoptosis is a kind of "cell suicide program", which does not cause tissue damage, and is induced by caspase-8 Necrotiosis is another way to regulate cell death It causes cell damage and usually takes effect when caspase-8 is inhibited Apoptosis describes an inflammatory pattern of regulated cell death process, which is usually activated when microbial pathogens invade, and is essential to enhance anti microbial immunity In a new study, Hamid kashkar and his team from the University of Cologne in Germany reported that caspase-8 also induced cell scorch, and this induction did not require the participation of enzyme activity of this enzyme Based on this, they found that this enzyme not only controls cell apoptosis and necrotic apoptosis, but also controls cell scorching The related research results were recently published in Nature journal 【9】 Nature: challenge the routine! A new study shows that stem cell therapy can help the heart recover from heart attack, but this recovery is not due to the biological reasons proposed 20 years ago as the basis of the current clinical trials It points out that cardiac stem cells help the damaged heart in a completely different way, rather than by replacing the damaged or dead heart cells as originally proposed The results of the study were recently published in the journal Nature This study reported that injecting live or even dead cardiac stem cells into the injured hearts of mice can trigger an acute inflammatory process, which then produces a wound healing like response, thus enhancing the mechanical properties of the injured parts of the heart The researchers say that this secondary healing process, mediated by macrophages in the immune system, has certain benefits for the cardiac function after a heart attack; this innate immune response will dramatically change the cell activity around the injured area of the heart, making the heart form more optimized scar tissue during healing, and has improved contractibility The significance of our research is very direct