A Chinese multi-omics analysis of the largest triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) database compiled to date has identified three new distinct TNBC metabolic-pathway-based subtypes (MPSs), which could be targeted therapeutically.

Researchers at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, the research arm of New York-based Northwell Health, illuminated the precise pathway from the brainstem to the spleen that controls inflammation in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS). Essentially, the work demonstrates how scientists could use the vagus nerve to hack the immune system, enabling them to turn down the excessive response that underlies autoimmune disease without the use of biologics or immunosuppressive drugs.

BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: Reversal of pumping direction is reversal of fortune for tumor cells; Cholesterol drug affects checkpoint blockade via MHC1; Heart development protein has role in adult immunity.

"RNA was long thought to be an 'undruggable' target for small molecules, because most cellular RNAs have extensive secondary structure, but only limited tertiary structure," Matthew Disney told BioWorld Science.

Single-cell genomic analysis has shown that mutations in the KRAS oncogene co-opt a proto-oncogenic enhancer network in inflammation-induced metaplastic progenitor cells, initiating pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Chinese researchers reported in the November 3, 2020, edition of Nature Cancer.

BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: CDK 4/6 inhibitors affect transcriptional landscape.

Japanese researchers have developed a new organoid biobank with which to identify molecular subtypes of rare gastroentero-pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms using genotype-phenotype mapping, they reported in the November 6, 2020, online edition of Cell.