Welcome to eLife Magazine Highlights – a fortnightly newsletter featuring some of the latest content published in our magazine. In today’s newsletter, discover how mechanical pressure makes breast cancer cells more invasive, a new approach against an antibiotic-resistant bacterium, and why a strategy for treating pain might be failing. Plus, hear the authors of eLife papers discuss their research in the latest episode of our podcast.
– Julia Deathridge, Associate Features Editor
A female moth that is a carrier for Wolbachia bacteria. Credit: Hiroshi Arai (CC BY 4.0)
For decades, targeting the neuropeptides Substance P and CGRPα has been widely believed to be an effective approach to treat pain. However, both laboratory studies and clinical trials have shown limited success. Now, research published in eLife suggests that these neuropeptides may have a less significant role in pain transmission than previously thought. In this Insight article, Weihua Cai and Arkady Khoutorsky discuss how future experiments could further support this fundamental result.
Disaster hits, and images of those affected start to fill our screens. Will we decide to help? In this behavioral study, a group of researchers explores how perceptions of who ‘needs’ and ‘deserves’ help influence our altruistic behavior.
The bacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics, prompting scientists to explore monoclonal antibodies as an alternative treatment. While antibodies created from mouse cells have been largely unsuccessful, a recent study suggests that those developed from the blood of cystic fibrosis patients may offer a more promising solution.
A group of microorganisms called Wolbachia boost their spread by eliminating the male offspring of their insect hosts, as only females can pass the infection on to the next generation. But how exactly do these bacteria carry out this male-killing strategy?
As cancer cells multiply, they create an increasingly cramped environment packed full of neighboring cells. The resulting mechanical pressure drives tumor cells to spread and invade nearby tissues. Research published in eLife reveals how this ‘cell crowding’ alters the behavior of a calcium channel, resulting in breast cancer cells becoming more invasive. In this Insight article, Rui Hua and Jean Jiang explain how this mechanism was uncovered, and its intricate role in driving cancer progression.
Our brains can pick out specific sounds, like a friend’s voice, from background noises such as traffic on a busy street. This skill relies on octopus neurons, which may process information in more complex ways than scientists previously thought.
Need a break from reading? Listen to our latest podcast and hear the authors of eLife papers discuss their research. Find out how parasites act as molecular matchmakers, the impact of education on brain structure, and what movies can reveal about the organization of the infant visual system.
When researchers sequence the genetic code of an organism, they usually upload this information to a database – but who legally owns this data? If a biotechnology company uses this resource to develop a drug, should the original scientists, or the country where the organism was found, have a share in the profits? This article published in Undark explores the murky waters of re-using genetic data. “Some refer to the search for new and useful products in nature as bioprospecting,” writes Peter Andrey Smith. “Others see a more parasitic framework, and contend that profiting off biodiversity without paying back royalties is a form of theft, like stealing precious resources without paying the locals a dime. Regardless of these varying perspectives, one thing is clear: The existing legal framework was not designed for the digital age."
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