This week’s articles describe a cause of chronic inflammation in Gaucher disease, a method for improving the efficacy of T cell–mediated cancer immunotherapy, a type of oncogene amplification that enhances tumor heterogeneity, and a mechanism whereby mechanical stress maintains epithelial homeostasis.
IMMUNOLOGY
Fueling the cycle of chronic inflammation
Pandey et al. show that glucosylceramide accumulation in patients with Gaucher disease causes chronic inflammation through the complement cascade.
CANCER
Improving cancer immunotherapy
Eyquem et al. improved the antitumor activity of T cells by expressing a chimeric antigen receptor from an endogenous T cell receptor locus (see also Maus).
Extrachromosomal oncogene amplification
Turner et al. found that extrachromosomal amplification of oncogenes promotes tumor heterogeneity more than does chromosomal amplification.
MECHANOSENSITIVE CHANNELS
Epithelial cells use the force
Gudipaty et al. report that the mechanical strain caused by an epithelium having too few or too many cells induces compensatory changes in cell proliferation or extrusion through the mechanosensitive channel Piezo1 (see also Heisenberg).
