New research from Boston Children’s Hospital, published in Cell, finds that the brain’s resident immune cells, microglia, amass mutations in specific cancer-driving genes yet they don’t manifest as cancer. Instead, these mutations may help drive Alzheimer’s disease. These findings may provide insights into new Alzheimer’s disease diagnostics and treatments.

Precancerous oral lesions can progress to oral cancer and are typically ablated or surgically removed as a preventive measure

Direct injection of nivolumab immunotherapy into lesions reduced toxicities and reduced lesion size by an average of 60%, decreasing the risk of cancer progression

More than 80% of treated lesions were cancer-free after one year, and patients reported improved quality of life and tolerable side effects

Direct injection approach offers benefits over systemic nivolumab, which could bring excessive toxicities for patients without cancer

Researchers at Tulane University School of Medicine have discovered that if animal cells gain an extra set of chromosomes, a condition known as polyploidy, they activate a stress signaling pathway that causes them to become more mobile and capable of engulfing neighboring cells with normal chromosome numbers. The study, to be published April 21 in the Journal of Cell Biology (JCB), could provide new ways to target polyploid cancer cells, which are thought to promote tumor aggressiveness and therapy resistance.