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Abstract: Merlin’s Disappearing Act: NF2 loss conjures pancreatic cancer survival in the hostile tumor microenvironment:

Sofia Ferreira & Laura D. Attardi comment on Yi Xu et al.: https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI194395

1Division of Radiation and Cancer Biology, Department of Radiation Oncology, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.

2Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA.

Address correspondence to: Laura D. Attardi, Stanford University School of Medicine, 269 Campus Drive, CCSR-South, Room 1,255, Stanford, California, 94,305, USA. Phone: 650.725.8424; Email: [email protected].

Sweet Deception: How Mycobacteria Exploit Immune Receptors to Survive

A new study reveals that Mycobacterium tuberculosis can dodge the host’s immune defenses by targeting an innate pattern recognition receptor on macrophages.

This interaction helps promote the mycobacteria’s ability to survive within the host cells.

Read more.

A sugar on mycobacteria binds to the immune receptor dectin-1 on host macrophages, helping the bacteria survive and driving susceptibility to infection.

Prospective Audit and Feedback to Reduce Antibiotic Overuse at Hospital Discharge

Cluster RCT: A discharge-focused prospective audit and feedback intervention did not reduce overall antibiotic use at hospital discharge but improved optimal discharge prescribing for common infections; broader approaches are needed.

Question Does a discharge-focused prospective audit and feedback process decrease antibiotic overuse at hospital discharge?

Findings In this stepped-wedge cluster-randomized clinical trial across participating units at 10 hospitals with 21 842 admissions, the frequency and duration of antibiotic prescribing at hospital discharge did not decrease after implementing a prospective audit and feedback process. However, in selected patients with uncomplicated infections, optimal antibiotic-prescribing increased once the intervention went into effect.

Meaning Discharge-focused prospective audit and feedback was not effective in reducing general antibiotic overuse at hospital discharge, but it did improve antibiotic prescribing in a subset of patients, suggesting that other strategies are needed to prevent unnecessary antibiotic use at this transition of care.

New 3D-printed solar cells for windows offer semi-transparency

These flexible cells achieve 9.2 percent energy efficiency while maintaining 35 percent transparency.

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have created semi-transparent, color-tunable solar cells.

Interestingly, these can be 3D-printed onto windows, building façades, and flexible surfaces.

These panels shed the bulky, industrial look of solar arrays, giving designers the choice between a slightly transparent window or a vibrant, color-tinted architectural feature.

Origin cells for common malignant brain tumor in young adults uncovered

IDH-mutant glioma, caused by abnormalities in a specific gene (IDH), is the most common malignant brain tumor among young adults under the age of 50. It is a refractory brain cancer that is difficult to treat due to its high recurrence rate.

Until now, treatment has focused primarily on removing the visible tumor mass. However, a Korean research team has discovered for the first time that normal brain cells acquire the initial IDH mutation and spread out through the cortex long before a visible tumor mass harboring additional cancer mutations forms, opening a new path for early diagnosis and treatment to suppress recurrence.

Direct evidence for poison use on microlithic arrowheads in Southern Africa at 60,000 years ago

Hunter-gatherers in southern Africa laced their stone arrow tips with poison roughly 60,000 years ago, a new Science Advances study finds.

The discovery pushes back the timeline for poison weapon use from the mid-Holocene to the Late Pleistocene.

Earliest proof of plant poisons on arrows reveals complex Pleistocene hunting in southern Africa.

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