Volume 30 Issue 6, June 2024

Growing interest in non-invasive brain–computer interfaces, rather than implants, might improve accessibility for patients, but resolution needs to be improved.

African nations now lead the world in the rollout of pre-exposure prophylaxis against HIV — in part thanks to social media influencers who promote use of the life-saving drug.

Patient educators and nurses can demonstrate the real-life use of health technologies.

The cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the health impacts of climate change must be better understood in order to plan interventions that mitigate harm.

In healthcare, many artificial intelligence models could be used in settings other than those for which they were approved. But such off-label use must include an empirical or mechanistic evaluation to ensure patient safety.

Food allergy treatment is undergoing a paradigm shift with new therapies emerging, including the recent FDA approval of omalizumab — but without evidence of disease modification and with uncertain quality-of-life improvement, it may not be a panacea for all.

Large language models can translate the archaic language of pharmacy prescriptions into plain English, but reducing medication errors for patients will require interventions that go further.

A pilot study suggests that the bispecific T cell engager blinatumomab may provide a new therapy for patients with refractory rheumatoid arthritis; larger studies and deep phenotyping will be crucial to thoroughly evaluate and optimize this approach.

In an era of expanding perioperative approaches for resectable non–small-cell lung cancer, new data demonstrate that dual neoadjuvant immunotherapy targeting PD-1 and LAG-3 is feasible; future analyses may enhance patient selection by identifying immune signatures predictive of response.

A machine learning-derived gene signature that integrates germline HLA characteristics with a distinct spatial community of CD8⁺ T cells and tumor-associated macrophages showing immunogenic interactions is predictive of the response to immunotherapy in patients with advanced kidney cancer.

A longitudinal multiomic dataset was assembled to characterize the immune landscape in myocardial infarction and chronic coronary syndromes. Multiomics factor analysis (MOFA) revealed immune signatures that associate with disease stage or treatment outcomes. This work opens new directions for future mechanistic and clinical studies on coronary artery disease and myocardial infarction.

This study distinguished age- and metabolism-related gut microbiota signatures and constructed gut microbial age metric using data from a large, prospective cohort. Longitudinal analysis showed that younger microbial age seems to counteract the increased cardiovascular disease risk in metabolically unhealthy older people, indicating an interplay between gut microbiota and host age and metabolism.

We quantified liver, pancreas, heart and kidney fibrosis using MRI T1 mapping in over 40,000 individuals. Using genetic association analyses, we identified a total of 58 loci, 10 of which overlapped across organs. A high burden of fibrosis in three or more organs was associated with an increased risk of mortality.

A lack of biomarkers for frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) hinders clinical trials of therapies for these disorders. We now show that blood extracellular vesicles contain proteins associated with ALS and FTD that can act as biomarkers to reliably detect the molecular pathology that underlies these disorders.

This Review explores the intersectionality between women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights against the backdrop of technological advances and global crises and provides a set of actionable priorities to advance this cause.

Sustained safety outcomes were seen at 2-year follow-up after induced pluripotent stem cell-derived mesenchymal stromal cell infusion in 15 individuals with steroid-resistant acute graft-versus-host disease.

A survey of 23,000 adults in 23 countries in 2023 reports that the pandemic experience reduced participants’ willingness to be vaccinated for COVID-19 and receive routine vaccinations and reduced trust in recommendations from public health authorities.

Analyses from the US Department of Veterans Affairs databases reported residual elevated risk and health burden of long COVID at 3 years in hospitalized individuals after SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Tailored to detect and prevent potential medication direction errors in a digital pharmacy data processing pipeline, a large language model is shown to increase efficiency and decrease burden for technicians and pharmacists in a prospective application.

In a phase 2 trial of dazodalibep, a CD40 ligand, with a crossover stage in two distinct populations of patients with Sjögren’s disease, the compound was well tolerated and led to significantly improved disease activity.

In a case series of six patients with multidrug-resistant rheumatoid arthritis, the CD19xCD3-targeting bispecific T cell engager blinatumomab reduced disease activity and led to reductions in autoantibodies.

In an open-label phase 2 trial, patients with non-small-cell lung cancer received neoadjuvant anti-PD-1 with or without anti-LAG-3, showing that curative intent surgery after combined blockade of PD-1 and LAG-3 is feasible, and leads to preliminary clinical responses.

In a prespecified interim analysis of the multicenter, randomized, phase 3 FLAMES trial, maintenance therapy with a PARP inhibitor in patients with ovarian cancer showed prolonged progression-free survival compared with placebo in all subgroups defined by BRCA or homologous recombination status.

A neural epigenetic signature detectable via plasma analyses is prognostic in patients with glioblastoma, resembling an oligodendrocyte-progenitor- and neuronal-progenitor-cell-like state and showing increased neuro-to-glioma synapse formation.

A phase 1 trial of PSCA-targeting CAR T cell therapy in patients with PSCA-positive, metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer demonstrates that the treatment, using a protocol with reduced lymphodepletion, is safe and shows preliminary clinical activity.

In a tumor-agnostic phase 2 basket trial, the oral FGFR1–FGFR3 inhibitor pemigatinib elicits responses in tumor types beyond cholangiocarcinoma and bladder cancer and in tumor types with rarer FGFR alterations, with insights provided into resistance mechanisms.

Detection of circulating tumor DNA using MRD-EDGE, a machine-learning-guided single-nucleotide variant and copy-number variant detection platform for signal enrichment, enables monitoring of minimal residual disease and immunotherapy response in settings of low tumor burden.

Multiomics and spatial mapping of tumor samples derived from a real-world cohort of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma, as well as integration of transcriptomics and human leukocyte antigen genotyping data, provides a machine learning-derived signature of response to immune checkpoint blockade.

In a prospective observational study, symptoms of anxiety and/or depression were associated with worse response to first-line treatment with immunotherapy in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer.

Using plasma samples collected over several time points during pregnancy from three different cohorts, associations between circulating placental IGFBP1 levels, metabolic traits and birth anthropometric measurements were measured, with low IGFBP1 levels identified as a potential risk factor for gestational diabetes mellitus.

Multiomic factor analysis of blood multiomic data, including single-cell transcriptomics, for individuals with either acute or chronic coronary syndrome identifies immune cell signatures that correlate with treatment outcomes.

A proteomic risk score for cardiorespiratory fitness, comprising as few as 21 proteins, is dynamic with exercise training and helps predict the risk of mortality and a range of cardiovascular, metabolic and neurological conditions.

Data from two large longitudinal cohorts in China, in which the participants were clustered into five groups based on their metabolic characteristics, show that a signature of microbiome age modulates the risk of cardiovascular disease in metabolically unhealthy individuals.

A health impact assessment found that 88% of ozone-related mortality in 35 European countries is attributable to transboundary transported ozone.

Cognitive variability with age has been examined in 21,051 recallable volunteers and has highlighted a potential role of microglia and glycogen metabolism in the individual differences in general cognitive ability.

T1 mapping noninvasively assesses fibrosis in multiple organs and enables risk stratification of mortality and provides insights into shared and organ-specific pathways underlying fibrosis.

A phase 2a trial of LM11A-31 in mild to moderate Alzheimer disease suggests that p75^NTR modulation is safe and attenuates measures of degeneration.

Plasma extracellular vesicles contain quantifiable amounts of TDP-43 and full-length tau, allowing the accurate assessment of pathology in frontotemporal dementia, frontotemporal dementia spectrum disorders and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.