Contents
10 June 2015
Vol 7, Issue 291
Vol 7, Issue 291
Contents
Focus
- Prescription for a pharmacyte
The homing capacity of T cells was used to deliver drug-laden nanoparticles to lymphoma cells resident in lymph nodes.
- Understanding disease pleiotropy: From puzzle to solution
The total amount of functional mutant protein produced by cells underpins disease pleiotropy in the ciliopathies.
- From passengers to co-pilots: Patient roles expand
The premier position of medical research on the U.S. national policy agenda marks a pivotal point in the evolution of patient engagement.
Research Articles
- Genetic variants associated with autoimmunity drive NFκB signaling and responses to inflammatory stimuli
Genetic variants associated with multiple sclerosis result in increased NFκB signaling in CD4 T cells and a decreased threshold for activation.
- Active targeting of chemotherapy to disseminated tumors using nanoparticle-carrying T cells
Nanoparticle-functionalized T cells actively transport a cytotoxic drug to systemic sites of lymphoma dissemination, enhancing the efficacy of antitumor chemotherapy.
- MK2 inhibitory peptide delivered in nanopolyplexes prevents vascular graft intimal hyperplasia
Nanopolyplexes formulated from a pH-responsive, endosomolytic polymer with a peptide inhibitor of MAPKAP kinase 2 block inflammatory and migratory signaling in vascular smooth muscle cells and prevent intimal hyperplasia in human saphenous vein grafts.
- Integration of Hedgehog and mutant FLT3 signaling in myeloid leukemia
Activation of the Hedgehog pathway drives FLT3-mutated leukemia, and dual pathway inhibition effectively inhibits tumor growth.
- Basal exon skipping and genetic pleiotropy: A predictive model of disease pathogenesis
Basal exon skipping, a mechanism by which a cell compensates for deleterious mutations, explains pleiotropic disease pathogenesis in patients with mutations in two different ciliopathy-associated genes.
Editors' Choice
- Beware, pneumonia is in the air
Carbon and wood smoke particulates impair alveolar macrophage-mediated immunity and increase the risk for pulmonary infection.
- The slow road to memory loss
β-Amyloid pathology may impair memory function in Alzheimer’s disease and aging by decreasing slow wave activity during sleep.
- Drugging immune regulation
A chemical screen highlights a new pathway controlling regulatory T cell differentiation.
- On the origin of fat fibrosis
Perivascular adipocyte progenitors can be tipped to fibrose by growth factor signaling in white adipose tissues.
- Timing is everything
Prenatal exposure to famine has a critical time period for DNA-methylation alterations in blood cells later in life.
About The Cover
ONLINE COVER Going Backpacking. One postcollege rite of passage is backpacking—Europe, Patagonia, Mount Kilimanjaro; no matter where, everything is packed properly for a seamless trip. Huang et al. engineered T cells with their own backpacks to trek to hard-to-reach tumors. T cells expressing lymph node–homing ligands were strapped to nanoparticles containing a chemotherapeutic. Upon reaching lymphoid tissues in mice, the T cells unloaded their toxic cargo, killing cancer cells. Such "pharmacytes"—depicted in various flavors on the cover—capitalize on the normal functions of cells and could be used to treat human cancers, as discussed in the Focus by Hubbell. [CREDIT: V. ALTOUNIAN/SCIENCE TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE]