This week’s articles describe how the stroma promotes tissue regeneration in the stomach; show how mitosis, the DNA sensor cGAS, and CDK inhibitors contribute to antitumor immunity; and describe the mechanism of action of an allosteric beta blocker.
TISSUE REGENERATION
Stromal support for regeneration
Sigal et al. report that myofibroblast-derived R-spondin 3 promotes regeneration of the stomach epithelium by activating Wnt signaling in Axin2+ stem cells.
TUMOR IMMUNOLOGY
cGAS fuels innate immunity
Mackenzie et al. show that the cytoplasmic DNA sensor cGAS detects DNA in ruptured micronuclei and activates an innate immune response to tumors.
Let 'em divide
Harding et al. discover that mitotic progression is critical to the cGAS-mediated inflammatory response to tumors and the efficacy of therapies that combine genotoxic agents with immunotherapy.
CDK4/6 inhibitors are immunostimulatory
Goel et al. show that inhibition of the cell cycle kinases CDK4 and CDK6 not only induces tumor cell cycle arrest but also promotes antitumor immunity by increasing the amount of intracellular double-stranded RNA in tumors and inhibiting the proliferation of regulatory T cells.
STRUCTURAL BIOLOGY
Close-up of a beta blocker
Liu et al. reveal the crystal structure of the β2 adrenergic receptor in complex with compound 15, an allosteric modulator that binds to an alternative binding pocket.