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

Time is always in a hurry In an instant, February is coming to an end In the next two months, what are the highlights of nature's research worth learning? The editor sorted out the relevant articles and studied with you Photo source: the Sanger Institute / UCL [1] nature: more healthy cells in the lungs of smokers can reduce the risk of lung cancer doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-1961-1 In a new study, researchers from London University College, Cambridge University and the Sanger Institute of the welcom foundation in the UK determined that protective cells in the lungs of ex smokers may explain why quitting smoking reduces the risk of lung cancer They found that smokers had more genetically healthy lung cells than current smokers, so the risk of lung cancer was much lower The results were published in the journal Nature The study is part of a project called the mutations of cancer The project tests DNA "signatures" that show the cause of the damage to better understand the cause of cancer and to find causes we may not be aware of The study showed that quitting smoking not only prevented further lung damage, but also allowed new healthy cells to actively replenish the inner walls of the respiratory tract This shift in the proportion of healthy cells to damaged cells can help prevent cancer These results highlight the benefits of quitting completely at any age Lung cancer is the most common cause of cancer death in the UK, accounting for 21% of all cancer deaths Smoking causes DNA damage, which greatly increases the risk of lung cancer In the UK, about 72% of the 47000 cases of lung cancer each year are caused by smoking In the United States, it is estimated that about 229000 cases of lung cancer will be diagnosed by 2020 Novel coronavirus (Nature): the outbreak of pneumonia in China is likely to be caused by the new coronavirus originated from bat In the past twenty years, the coronavirus has caused two large-scale outbreaks: severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) Doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2012-7: 2 It is generally believed that the SARS related coronavirus (SARS r-cov), mainly found in bats, may lead to future outbreaks In a new study, researchers from the Wuhan Virus Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other institutions reported a series of pneumonia outbreaks of unknown etiology in Wuhan, Hubei Province, in Central China Starting from a local seafood market, by January 26, 2020, the epidemic has spread to 2050 people in China, 56 of whom died, and 35 in 11 other countries Importantly, Nature journal received the manuscript of this paper in January 20, 2020, accepted this paper on January 29, and published this paper online in the form of "accelerated article preview" The typical clinical symptoms of these patients are fever, dry cough, dyspnea, headache and pneumonia Progressive respiratory failure (as seen on transverse CT images of the chest) and even death may occur after the onset of the disease due to alveolar damage According to the clinical symptoms and other criteria, including clinical temperature rise, lymphocyte and leukocyte decrease (sometimes leukocyte is normal), new lung infiltration appears on the chest X-ray film, no obvious improvement is found after three days of antibiotic treatment, and the clinician identified the disease as viral pulmonary inflammation Most of the early cases seem to have had contact with the original seafood market, but now the disease has developed into human to human transmission Novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV and China's emerging respiratory diseases, doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2008-3, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Zika (Nature) pose a major threat to public health [3] Despite extensive research, there is still considerable uncertainty about how, when and where new diseases will emerge A serious respiratory disease has recently been reported in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China Since the first patient was hospitalized on 12 December 2019, at least 1975 cases have been reported as of 25 January 2020 Epidemiological investigation indicates that the outbreak is related to a seafood market in Wuhan In a new study, researchers from Fudan University, China Center for Disease Control and prevention, Huazhong University of science and technology and Wuhan Center for Disease Control and prevention studied a patient working in the seafood market who was admitted to Wuhan Central Hospital on December 26, 2019 and developed severe respiratory syndrome, including fever, dizziness and cough, and related research The results were published in nature The patient in the study was a 41 year old male with no history of hepatitis, tuberculosis or diabetes He was admitted to Wuhan Central Hospital on December 26, 2019, six days after the onset of the disease The patient developed fever, chest tightness, weak cough, pain, and weakness one week after the visit Cardiovascular, abdominal and neurological examinations were normal Mild lymphocytopenia (less than 900 cells per cubic millimeter) was observed, but leukocyte and platelet counts were normal on the CBC test In the blood chemistry test, the C-reactive protein (CRP, blood 41.4 mg / L, reference range 0-6 mg / L) was increased, and the levels of aspartate transaminase, lactate dehydrogenase and creatine kinase were slightly increased Arterial blood gas (ABG) tests showed that the patient had mild hypoxemia with a blood oxygen level of 67mmhg On the first day of admission (the sixth day after the onset of the disease), the chest X-ray picture was abnormal, accompanied by air cavity shadow, such as ground glass opacity, bilateral lung focal consolidation and patchy consolidation CT scan showed bilateral focal consolidation, lobar consolidation and patchy consolidation, especially in the lower lung Chest X-ray showed diffuse patchy fuzzy shadow on both sides on the 5th day (11th day) after admission 【4】 Nature: revealing the mechanism of drug interaction, it is expected to develop a new anti malarial therapy doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1918-4 Crystallization is the core of drug development, petrochemical processing and other industrial activities, but scientists say they are still studying the complex interactions in the formation and dissolution process Recently, in a research report published in the international journal Nature, scientists from the University of Houston and other institutions explained it at the molecular level for the first time through research What happens when two compounds that inhibit crystal formation combine, such as antimalarial drugs Researcher Jeffrey rimer said that you may think that using two drugs that attack crystals in different ways will have synergistic effect, or at least additional effect, but in fact, the two drugs can resist each other; antagonistic cooperation Cooperation means that the effect of the combination of the two drugs is worse than that of the single drug In this paper, researchers hope to design an effective malaria treatment When researchers modify the molecules, they find that a small change in the molecular structure can greatly change its function 【5】 Nature: revealing the fine structure of human thyroglobulin to help understand the production and regulation mechanism of thyroid hormone doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-1995-4 recently, an international journal, nature, entitled "the structure of human" In the report of "thymoglobulin", scientists from the MRC Molecular Biology Laboratory of Cambridge University revealed the structure of human thyroglobulin (TG) Thyroglobulin is a special protein precursor of thyroid hormone, which is essential for the growth, development and metabolism control of vertebrates As a macromolecular glycoprotein secreted by thyroid follicular epithelial cells, most of it is synthesized and released by thyroid cells into the residual cavity of thyroid follicles Thyroglobulin synthesizes hormones in the thyroid through the iodization and coupling of tyrosine, and is completed through the hydrolysis of thyroglobulin; the proximity of tyrosine in thyroglobulin is considered to be the cause of coupling reaction, but at present, researchers have not clearly identified the tyrosine produced by hormones, and have not revealed the three-dimensional structure of thyroglobulin This may limit scientists' research and understanding of its related mechanism Photo source: Wikimedia [6] nature: scientists have successfully achieved in vivo imaging of primitive hematopoietic stem progenitor cells doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-1971-z recently, an international magazine named "live animal imaging of native haematopoietic stem and progenitor" was published in nature In the Research Report of cells, scientists from Harvard University and other institutions successfully imaged the original haematopoietic stem and progenitor cells in living animals At present, the biological research of HSCs (haematopoietic stem cells) is mainly carried out under the condition of transplantation Therefore, it is very challenging for scientists to study the behavior of HSCs As far as the researchers know, the researchers have not yet realized the visualization research of HSCs in the natural habitat of living animals In this study, the researchers described a dual genetic strategy, which can limit the reporter gene marker to the quietest subsets of long-term hematopoietic stem cells (LT HSCs), and it can be compatible with the current in vivo imaging methods of head bone marrow 【7】 Nature: heavyweight! Reveal the molecular characteristics of RNA changes in cancer! Doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-1970-0 recently, in a research report published in the international journal Nature, scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory revealed the characteristics of RNA changes in cancer through research Cancer is a disease caused by DNA mutation, and DNA mutation is induced by environmental factors or aging of the body At present, researchers rarely study how these changes of genome affect the changes of RNA, and later researchers need to conduct more in-depth research to understand whether the changes of RNA are the results of mutation, and how it induces the occurrence and progress of cancer Differences in RNA expression, splicing, and subtype change are directly related to many types of cancer, in which researchers use transcriptome molecules to study tumors In terms of the cancer specific changes found in RNA, researchers have identified a variety of unrecognized mechanisms of cancer genome changes that are not currently found in a separate DNA analysis 【8】 Nature: scientists have identified a new potential target for the treatment of multiple sclerosis doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-1999-0 recently, an international journal Nature was published entitled "mafG driven astrocytes promote CNS In the Research Report of "inflammation", scientists from Harvard Medical School and other institutions revealed the molecular mechanism of mafG driven astrocytes promoting inflammation of central nervous system Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system, and it is also a rare disease MS is often found in young and middle-aged people aged 20-40 The damage and peeling of the myelin sheath of the patient's body lead to the damage and peeling of the spinal cord, brain and