Umbilical & Placental Cell News

[Canadian Affairs] Researchers at the University of British Columbia and B.C. Children’s Hospital Research Institute have recently discovered how to use stem cells to create the immune cells needed for effective cell therapy.

[Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences of The United States of America] The authors demonstrated that the nonoxidative pentose phosphate pathway, mediated by transketolase and transaldolase, is critical for CD8+ T cell activation, proliferation, and memory formation by maintaining NADPH homeostasis.

[Nature Communications] Scientists identified DNA-PK-mediated phosphorylation of murine STAT6 at serine 807 (Ser807) as a crucial post-translational modification for preventing macrophage senescence.

[Cell] Scientists equipped human chimeric antigen receptor-T cells with two proteins derived from fungi that enable import and hydrolysis of cellobiose, and demonstrated that cellobiose supplementation during glucose withdrawal restores key anti-tumor T-cell functions: viability, proliferation, cytokine production, and cytotoxic killing.

[Science] Investigators described an intranasal liposomal formulation combining toll-like receptor 4 and 7/8 ligands with a model antigen, ovalbumin, that provided broad, durable protection in mice for at least 3 months against infection with SARS-CoV-2 and Staphylococcus aureus.

[Bone Marrow Transplantation] The authors explore key insights gained from hematologic applications of CAR T cells and T cell engagers, and discuss how these lessons can guide the clinical use of these therapies in autoimmune diseases.

[Nature Aging] Scientists identified defects in dendritic cell (DC) migration during aging, alongside a dysfunction-associated gene signature in migratory DCs, and implicated these defects in the diminished vaccine response observed in aging.

[Nature Reviews Cardiology] The authors summarize the mechanisms, epidemiology and management of T cell therapy-associated cytokine release syndrome and subsequent cardiotoxicity.

[Nature Chemical Biology] Scientists combined rational design and library-based optimization of a protein–protein interaction (PPI) of human origin to develop venetoclax-controlled drug-regulated off-switch PPI -CARs.

[Nature] Cryo-electron microscopy structures of deoxynucleoside triphosphohydrolase enzyme in activated and suppressed states reveal how dTTP and p3diT control distinct allosteric sites and regulate effector function.

[Iscience] Researchers hypothesized that T cells determine the healing of Achilles tendons after acute rupture and can be used as prognostic indicator of healing outcomes.

[Science] Investigators reported that transcription factor Etv3 was preferentially expressed in mature dendritic cells (DCs), including tissue-derived migratory DCs, and facilitates their homeostatic maturation and CCR7-dependent migration.