Cells in the immune system don’t always fight; they often rest and wait for threats, like viruses or bacteria. When such threats emerge, the cells activate to defend the body. This delicate balance between rest and activation is crucial to our health—immune cells must be poised for activation to protect against threats, but if they’re overly active, autoimmune diseases can result.

But what controls this important balance?

In a new study published in Nature, scientists from Gladstone Institutes and UC San Francisco (UCSF) focused on T cells—which serve a vital role in the immune system—and pinpointed how a network of different proteins controls rest and activation.

Human fingerprints are detailed, unique, difficult to alter, and durable over the life of an individual, making them suitable as long-term markers of human identity. Could the same concept be used to help identify cancer? A new study by researchers at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona reveals different types of cancer have unique molecular “fingerprints” that are detectable in the early stages of the disease and can be picked up with near-perfect accuracy by small, portable scanners in a few hours. The discovery lays the groundwork for creating new, noninvasive diagnostic tests that detect different types of cancer faster and earlier than currently possible.

The findings are published in the journal Molecular Cell in an article entitled “Epitranscriptomic rRNA fingerprinting reveals tissue-of-origin and tumor-specific signatures.”

“Our ribosomes are not all the same. They are specialized in different tissues and carry unique signatures that reflect what’s happening inside our bodies,” explained ICREA research professor Eva Novoa, PhD, lead author of the study and researcher at the CRG. “These subtle differences can tell us a lot about health and disease.”

A research team from the Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine has discovered a promising way to slow the progression of heart failure in mice. They fed mice a diet rich in the soybean protein, β-conglycinin (β-CG), which can support heart health by influencing gut bacteria. Their analysis revealed that the soybean protein rich diet increased the production of the short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) in the intestine that play a role in protecting the heart. Their findings were published in Clinical Nutrition.

Many people with heart problems try to eat a nutritious diet to reduce their risk of disease. As part of a healthy diet, soybeans have long been recognized for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Based on this, the researchers suspected that proteins in soy may help prevent heart damage.

Dr. Nozomi Furukawa and colleagues fed the soy-derived protein β-CG to mice prone to heart failure and investigated its effects on the heart. The mice showed improved heart function, less muscle thickening, and reduced scarring of the heart tissue, common problems associated with the progression of heart disease.

Ultimately, the goal is to find ways to stop deadly disease caused by Cryptococcus neoformans from developing in humans and animals. But until that time, finding new and better ways to treat already existent disease and its symptoms is a high priority.

The laboratory of Kirsten Nielsen in the Center for One Health Research has taken a step toward improved treatment of Cryptococcus, completing a six-year study to examine the virulence of 38 clinical isolates from various strains of Cryptococcus. The results are published in Nature Communications.

“The question that we’ve been addressing is: Can we predict severe disease outcomes in patients?” said Nielsen, professor of microbiology and immunology in the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine. “If we can predict disease outcome, then we can treat patients better. In these studies, we identified not just the genes that allow Cryptococcus to cause disease, but also the gene alleles that allow it to cause more disease or less disease.”

A new UC Davis Health study has uncovered how Salmonella bacteria, a major cause of food poisoning, can invade the gut even when protective bacteria are present. The research, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, explains how the pathogen tricks the gut environment to escape the body’s natural defenses.

The digestive system is home to trillions of bacteria, many of which produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) that help fight harmful pathogens. But Salmonella manages to grow and spread in the gut, even though these protective compounds are present. The study asks: How does Salmonella get around this defense?

“We knew that Salmonella invades the small intestine, although it is not its primary site of replication. The colon is,” said the lead author of the study Andreas Bäumler is a UC Davis distinguished professor and vice chair of research in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology.