Can HIV become resistant to lenacapavir?
An analysis of clinical isolates identifies mutations that shift the capsid protein’s lenacapavir binding pocket and endow resistance, but shows these mutations often come at a high fitness cost.
Read more in.
Treatment-emergent capsid mutations elicited by lenacapavir monotherapy showed variable drug resistance and viral fitness impacts.
The researchers used advanced laboratory and experimental models to uncover how B-cells contribute to immunotherapy resistance in liver cancer. Using liver cancer mouse models, they tested treatments that either blocked B-cells or targeted immune pathways.
They found that when tumors stopped responding to immunotherapy, B-cells moved into the tumor and formed clusters that looked like special immune structures called tertiary lymphoid tissues.
“Combining B-cell depletion with immunotherapy (anti-PD-1 ICB or the STING agonist BMS-986301) significantly improved survival and reduced metastasis,” said the author. “These exciting findings suggest that targeting B-cells or their signaling pathways could overcome acquired resistance and enhance the effectiveness of cancer immunotherapy, including in cases where the disease has spread.”
Scientists have identified a promising strategy to improve liver cancer immunotherapy: targeting B-cells. While immunotherapy has transformed cancer treatment by activating T-cells—a type of immune cell that fights cancerous cells—many patients still fail to respond. New research shows that B-cells—another type of immune cells that fight infections—may play a surprising role in limiting immunotherapy’s effectiveness.
The study was recently published in Nature Communications. The study’s principal investigator said that most current research efforts are focusing on activating T-cells against cancers. This study showed tumor-associated B-cells can create an environment that suppresses T-cell activity, allowing cancer cells to escape immune attacks.
“We observed a significant rise in B-cell activity in the tumor, suggesting they may play an important role in how cancer escapes treatment,” said the author. “By blocking these immunosuppressive B-cells, we may be able to remove this barrier and enhance the power of immunotherapy.”
Stephen Wolfram, a physicist, computer scientist and founder of Wolfram Research, has been hunting for a theory of everything since his first days as a particle physicist at Caltech. Wolfram put that mission to the side to focus on his business, but the success of artificial intelligence and computational science has encouraged Wolfram to pick up the quest to understand the universe once again, with renewed vigour.
–
Learn more ➤https://www.newscientist.com/article–…
Subscribe ➤ https://bit.ly/NSYTSUBS
Get more from New Scientist:
Official website: https://bit.ly/NSYTHP
Facebook: https://bit.ly/NSYTFB
Twitter: https://bit.ly/NSYTTW
Instagram: https://bit.ly/NSYTINSTA
LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/NSYTLIN
About New Scientist:
New Scientist was founded in 1956 for “all those interested in scientific discovery and its social consequences”. Today our website, videos, newsletters, app, podcast and print magazine cover the world’s most important, exciting and entertaining science news as well as asking the big-picture questions about life, the universe, and what it means to be human.
New Scientist.
Mars, often depicted as a barren red planet, is far from lifeless. With its thin atmosphere and dusty surface, it is an energetic and electrically charged environment where dust storms and dust devils continually reshape the landscape, creating dynamic processes that have intrigued scientists.
Planetary scientist Alian Wang has been shedding light on Mars’s electrifying dust activities through a series of papers. Her latest research, published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, explores the isotopic geochemical consequences of these activities.
Read more here.
By Tom Garlinghouse
Physicists have long known that some materials behave strangely at their edges, conducting electricity without resistance even as their interiors remain insulating. These boundary phenomena, called topological edge states, form the basis of quantum technologies and exotic “topological phases” of matter. But despite decades of study, scientists could only infer how these quantum edges behave—no one had actually seen their microscopic structure in action.
Now, a collaborative team of researchers have achieved a remarkable first: they directly imaged the internal structure of these edge states in monolayer graphene, using one of the most precise tools in modern physics—scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Their results, published last week in Nature, reveal how fundamental interactions between electrons reshape the very edge of a quantum material, upending long-held theoretical assumptions and opening a new window onto quantum topological behavior.
📄 This JAMA Patient Page describes the types of prostatitis and its risk factors, diagnosis, and treatment.
Prostatitis involves infection, inflammation, or pain in the prostate gland and affects about 9% of men during their lifetime.
Patients with acute prostatitis typically have fever, chills, pelvic pain, sudden onset of frequent urination, and pain or burning during urination.
📄 Risk Factors, Diagnosis, and Treatment of CP/CPPS
Approximately 267 000 men in the US are diagnosed with CP/CPPS each year. Risk increases after age 50 years. Although other risk factors for CP/CPPS are unclear, men with CP/CPPS are more likely to have chronic pain syndromes such as fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and irritable bowel syndrome and higher rates of depression, anxiety, and panic disorder than unaffected men.
Monthly subcutaneous SHR-1918, a fully human monoclonal antibody targeting ANGPTL3, was associated with reduced LDL-C in adults with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia on stable lipid-lowering therapy.
Question Does SHR-1918, a fully human monoclonal antibody targeting angiopoietinlike 3 (ANGPTL3), lower the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) level in adults with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH) taking stable lipid-lowering therapy?
Findings In this phase 2 nonrandomized clinical trial of 26 patients, SHR-1918 at 600 mg every 4 weeks was associated with a substantial reduction in LDL-C level exceeding half in adults with HoFH taking stable lipid-lowering therapy and was also associated with lower levels of other lipids, with evidence of a manageable safety profile.
Meaning The promising findings observed in this trial support the launch of a double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 randomized clinical trial to verify the effect and safety of SHR-1918 for HoFH management.
The secret to a healthier and “younger” heart lies in the vagus nerve. A recent study published in Science Translational Medicine has shown that preserving bilateral cardiac vagal innervation is an anti-aging factor. In particular, the right cardiac vagus nerve emerges as a true guardian of cardiomyocyte health, helping to preserve the longevity of the heart independently of heart rate.
‘When the integrity of the connection to the vagus nerve is lost, the heart ages more rapidly,’ explains the senior author.
‘Even partial restoration of the connection between the right vagus nerve and the heart is sufficient to counteract the mechanisms of remodelling and preserve effective cardiac contractility,’ adds another author.
‘We have developed an implantable bioabsorbable nerve conduit designed to promote and guide the spontaneous regeneration of the thoracic vagus nerve at the cardiac level,’ explains a co-author.
Treated adult male minipigs displayed improved global circumferential, longitudinal, and radial strains and reduced diastolic dyssynchrony. Histological analysis revealed partial repair with about 20% viable vagal fascicles, restoration of myocardial parasympathetic fibers, normalization of oxidative stress and aging markers, and prevention of interstitial fibrosis.