Issues

Summary: Screening programs using zebrafish could reshape traditional approaches to antiepileptic drug discovery. Here we describe steps to develop zebrafish models that represent human epilepsies, with an emphasis on a zebrafish model of Dravet syndrome.

Summary: Recent research in fruit flies has demonstrated that tumors rewire their metabolism by using diverse strategies that involve feedback regulation, nutrient sensing, intercellular or even inter-organ interactions, yielding new molecules as potential cancer markers or drug targets.

Summary: This Review presents cell competition as an active selection mechanism, from its more established molecular pathways to the recently proposed ones in neurodegenerative diseases.

Summary: We describe a new mechanism of benign prostate disease, initiated by fetal chemical exposure, which durably increases prostatic noradrenergic axon density and causes smooth muscle hyperactivity and urinary voiding dysfunction.

Editor's choice: We developed a new mouse model of childhood HIV-associated nephropathy (HIVAN) and showed that circulating FGF-2 precipitated HIVAN in young HIV-Tg₂₆ mice by inducing the pERK pathway.

Summary: Analysis of canine and feline hemangiosarcoma reveals many genetic similarities to human angiosarcoma, including recurrently mutated driver genes, differing mutational profiles between tissues and UV mutational signature, in some cases.

Summary: Vacuolar-type H⁺-ATPase (V-ATPase) mutations cause necrosis-like death of mechanosensory hair cells in zebrafish. This work identifies new cell-type-specific V-ATPase functions and may help understand the causes of sensorineural deafness.

Summary: A zebrafish model for studying how aging and exercise affect cardiomyocyte turnover in the human heart reveals a decrease in the proliferative capacity of the heart, which is not prevented by exercise.

Summary: A mouse model of spinocerebellar ataxia type 7 (SCA7) with at least 266 CAG repeats exhibits profound breathing deficits along with respiratory motor neuron degeneration and neuroinflammation.

Summary: We generated a collection of nine Drosophila knock-in models that mimic VCP-related diseases and revealed novel pathologies, including sex-dependent effects and laminopathies.

Summary: We developed new tools for lineage-specific gene editing in neutrophils or macrophages based on leukocyte-specific Cas9 expression, that can be used with injected synthetic gRNAs.

Summary: The generation of a patient-derived orthotopic xenograft allowed in-depth molecular and therapeutic studies in aggressive extramedullary multiple myeloma, revealing new cytogenetic aberrations, mutations, hypermethylated genome and drug responses.