Lifeboat Foundation

Cytotoxic T-lymphocytes are important effectors in the clearance of virally infected and cancerous cells, and defects in their function give rise to many pathologies.

Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) are key effectors of the adaptive immune system that recognize and eliminate virally infected and cancerous cells. In naive CD8⁺ T cells, T-cell receptor (TCR) engagement drives a number of transcriptional, translational and proliferation changes over the course of hours and days leading to differentiation into CTLs. To gain a better insight into this mechanism, we compared the transcriptional profiles of naive CD8⁺ T cells to those of activated CTLs. To find new regulators of CTL function, we performed a selective clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) screen on upregulated genes and identified nuclear factor IL-3 (NFIL3) as a potential regulator of cytotoxicity. Although NFIL3 has established roles in several immune cells including natural killer, Treg, dendritic and CD4⁺ T cells, its function in CD8⁺ CTLs is less well understood. Using CRISPR/Cas9 editing, we found that removing NFIL3 in CTLs resulted in a marked decrease in cytotoxicity. We found that in CTLs lacking NFIL3 TCR-induced extracellular signal-regulated kinase phosphorylation, immune synapse formation and granule release were all intact while cytotoxicity was functionally impaired in vitro. Strikingly, NFIL3 controls the production of cytolytic proteins as well as effector cytokines. Thus, NFIL3 plays a cell intrinsic role in modulating cytolytic mechanisms in CTLs.

CD8⁺ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) are key effectors of the adaptive immune response that precisely recognize and eliminate virally infected and cancerous cells. In naive CD8⁺ T cells, T-cell receptor (TCR) engagement induces a number of transcriptional, translational and proliferation changes over the course of hours and days leading to differentiation into CTLs [1,2]. TCR ligation of differentiated CTLs drives a rapid response and the formation of a transient area of plasma membrane specialized in signalling and polarized secretion, termed the immune synapse [3]. CTLs undergo rapid rearrangements in microtubule and actin cytoskeletons as the centrosome and microtubule network polarize towards the synapse and cortical actin is transiently depleted [4–7].

The researchers from UCL created a reusable vest to diagnose hypertrophic cardiomyopathy–an inherited heart muscle condition.

Vaccines and antivirals are already undergoing trials.

Inside her small office, with a window overlooking the iconic Kerckhoff Hall student centre at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), chemical biologist Mireille Kamariza is pursuing her big dream. Since 2015, she has steadily worked to stop transmission of deadly tuberculosis (TB) superbugs, which in 2022 infected more than 10 million people and killed more than one million.

As a PhD student working with Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi, now a chemist at Stanford University in California, she developed a fluorescent diagnostic test that could be used for quick detection of TB, especially in resource-poor settings. In 2019, alongside Bertozzi, Kamariza founded the biotech start-up company OliLux Biosciences, based in Los Angeles, to develop reliable tools for detecting TB that are tailored to the complex needs of poorer countries. Nature sat down with Kamariza to talk about her progress in testing these diagnostic tools for use in the real world, and the uphill battle in fighting the spread of TB.

A new advance by Stanford engineers could lead to particle accelerators being widely available in science, medicine, and industry.

Stanford researchers are getting closer to building a tiny electron accelerator based on “accelerator-on-a-chip” technology with broad potential applications in studying physics as well as medical and industrial uses.

The researchers have demonstrated that a silicon dielectric laser accelerator, or DLA, can now both speed up and confine electrons, creating a focused beam of high-energy electrons. “If the electrons were microscopic cars, it’s as if, for the first time, we’re steering and we have our foot on the gas,” said Payton Broaddus, PhD ’23 in electrical engineering and the lead author on a paper published on February 23 detailing the breakthrough in Physical Review Letters.

The pursuit of a cure for Alzheimer’s disease is becoming an increasingly competitive and contentious quest with recent years witnessing several important controversies.

In July 2022, Science magazine reported that a key 2006 research paper, published in the prestigious journal Nature, which identified a subtype of brain protein called beta-amyloid as the cause of Alzheimer’s, may have been based on fabricated data.

One year earlier, in June 2021, the US Food and Drug Administration had approved aducanumab, an antibody-targeting beta-amyloid, as a treatment for Alzheimer’s, even though the data supporting its use were incomplete and contradictory.

“Cannabis use is increasing in both prevalence and frequency, while conventional tobacco smoking is declining,” said Salomeh Keyhani, MD, MPH. “Cannabis use by itself might, over time, become the more important risk factor.”

Can smoking cannabis bring the same risk of heart attack and stroke as smoking cigarettes? This is what a recent study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association hopes to address as a team of researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) investigated the likelihood that cannabis use would lead to a heart attack and/or stroke. This study comes as recreational cannabis use is slowly becoming legal across the United States and holds the potential to help researchers, medical professionals, legislators, and the public better understand the long-term health risks associated with cannabis use, specifically smoking cannabis.

For the study, the team compared data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey between 2016 and 2020 across 27 American states and 2 territories and 434,104 survey participants between ages 18 and 74 to ascertain a link between their cannabis use and likelihood for heart problems. The team classified cannabis use as the number of times a participant smoked cannabis within a previous 30 days while accounting for self-reported heart issues and tobacco use, as well.

Continue reading “Daily Cannabis Use Linked to Increased Heart Attack and Stroke Risk” »

Researchers in Imperial College London’s Department of Materials have developed a new portable maser that can fit the size of a shoebox.

Imperial College London pioneered the discovery of room-temperature solid-state masers in 2012, highlighting their ability to amplify extremely faint electrical signals and demonstrate high-frequency stability. This was a significant discovery because microwave signals can pass through the Earth’s atmosphere more easily than other wavelengths of light. Additionally, microwaves have the capability to penetrate through the human body, a feat not achievable by lasers.

Masers have extensive applications in telecommunications systems—everything from mobile phone networks to satellite navigation systems. They also have a key role in advancing quantum computing and improving medical imaging techniques, like MRI machines. They are typically large, bulky, stationary equipment found only in research laboratories.

A team of Stanford Medicine doctors and biomedical engineers are among the first to integrate a new augmented reality tool into surgical practice. The technology, Apple Vision Pro, is a headset that provides a form of human-computer interaction — it allows its wearer to navigate their surroundings using real-time visual data in combination with virtual elements.

“The novel use of augmented reality in the operating room exemplifies Stanford Medicine’s mission of serving patients in a digitally driven, human-centered care environment,” said Lloyd Minor, dean of the School of Medicine and vice president of medical affairs at Stanford University. “Our health system has long stood at the vanguard for the use of digital technologies in medicine, and I’m proud that through initiatives like RAISE Health, we also define the safe, responsible and equitable use of these innovations.”

Continue reading “Stanford Medicine uses augmented reality for real-time data visualization during surgery” »