This week’s articles describe new treatments for heart failure and its associated symptoms and a sequential gene delivery system to regenerate fractured bone.
HEART FAILURE
BETting on a new heart failure treatment
Duan et al. found that inhibiting the epigenetic “reader” BRD4 treats heart failure by blocking the induction of innate inflammatory and profibrotic gene networks.
A brainy treatment for heart failure
Foster et al. show that inhibiting β-adrenergic signaling in the brain may restore respiratory function and prevent diaphragm atrophy in heart failure.
BONE REGENERATION
Bubbles and BMP-6 for bone repair
Bez et al. developed a two-step therapy to treat bone fractures by first implanting a collagen sponge at the fracture site that recruited progenitor cells and then injecting DNA encoding bone morphogenetic protein-6 (BMP-6) along with microbubbles that helped the progenitor cells take up BMP-6.