Nature

ANP produced from self-amplifying RNA improves cardiac function after MI

Research Highlight Published: 24 March 2026 Acute coronary syndromes Gregory B. Lim1 Nature Reviews Cardiology volume 23, page 302 (2026)Cite this article 214 Accesses 1 Altmetric Metrics details Treatment with self-amplifying RNA (saRNA) to increase the production of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) preserved ventricular function and reduced cardiac fibrosis in mouse and pig models of myocardial infarction (MI). This finding comes from a new study published in Science, in which the investigators induced ANP production using intramuscular injection of lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) containing saRNA encoding the pro-protein of ANP (pro-ANP).ANP is an endogenous hormone released by the atria in response to stretch that has antihypertrophic, proangiogenic and antifibrotic effects on the heart. The expression of Nppa (encoding pro-ANP) is upregulated in the border zone after MI in neonatal mice and, to a lesser extent, in adult mice, which have worse adverse cardiac remodelling. Therefore, the investigators hypothesized that this reduced production of ANP in adult mice might underlie their attenuated myocardial regenerative capacity. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access options Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription $32.99 / 30 days cancel any time Subscribe to this

Magmatic intrusions in real time

News & Views Published: 13 June 2025 Fibre optics Lishu Wu1 Nature Physics volume 21, page 877 (2025)Cite this article Conventional geodetic techniques — such as electronic distance measurements, borehole strainmeters, tilt measurements and satellite-based methods — lack the spatiotemporal resolution needed to resolve rapid magma intrusion dynamics, such as the evolution and emplacement of magma volume in real time.To address this issue, Li and colleagues deployed a distributed acoustic sensor in Keflavík and converted a 100-km-long telecommunication fibre cable — running along the coastline from Keflavík through Grindavík — into a sensing array with 10,000 recording channels. The system contained a low-pass filter with a 0.01-Hz cutoff frequency and a spatial median filter to remove common-mode noise. As magma deforms the Earth’s crust, it alters the phase of the scattered light propagating through the fibre. By analysing these phase shifts across the channels, the sensing set-up could track strain rates and map subsurface magma migration in real time. This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution Access options Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription $32.99 / 30 days cancel any time Subscribe to this journal Receive 12 print

Roman Empire’s collapse created a genetic melting pot in Europe

This skeleton from the early medieval site of Altheim belonged to a woman whose ancestors migrated from northern Europe several generations earlier.Credit: SAM/HarbeckAfter the collapse of the Roman Empire, its northern frontier became a melting pot of soldiers, farmers and ‘barbarians’, finds an analysis of ancient genomes from hundreds of burials in southern Germany.The populations and family practices present after the Empire’s fall in ad 476, in many ways, resemble those of modern Europe.Seven generations of a prehistoric family mapped with ancient DNAThe findings, published on 29 April in Nature1, rebut popular ideas of northern barbarian tribes overrunning Roman territory. Instead, they point to gradual genetic and cultural shifts that occurred through small-scale migration and intermarriage.“That’s really important to put to bed — these romantic images of great peoples moving across the European countryside and destroying the Roman Empire,” says Patrick Geary, a medieval historian at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, who was not involved in the study.Ancestry patternsThe collapse of the western Roman Empire reverberated across Europe, reshaping political, religious and social systems. Ancient genomics has uncovered shifts in the genetic make-up of people in different parts of Europe during this time. But it was

Why you should ‘feed a cold’: eating primes immune cells for action

T cells, shown here attacking a tumour cell, might provide a better defence after a person has eaten.Credit: selvanegra/GettyThe best time to get an infection might be after a meal, suggest experiments in mice and humans that found that certain immune cells, known as T cells, seem to get a boost from food.The findings, published on 29 April in Nature1, could identify ways to improve immune therapies, help physicians to decide when to give vaccinations and eventually show how diet can improve immunity.The brain fires up immune cells when sick people are nearby“There’s the old adage: starve a fever, feed a cold. And we think that there’s some value in this,” says study co-author Greg Delgoffe, an immunologist at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. He thinks that researchers should reassess how diet influences the immune response. “We don’t really ask, when have you eaten last and what did you eat?” he says. “But that may make a big difference to how effective those T cells are.”“I think this is really an exciting study,” says Lionel Apetoh, an immunologist at Indiana University in Indianapolis who was not involved in the work. He notes that previous T-cell research has looked at

Synthetic blood clots snap cells together to staunch bleeding — fast

Natural blood clots, which include platelets (light blue clumps) and red blood cells in a fibrin mesh, can take minutes to form.Credit: Anne Weston, EM STP, The Francis Crick Institute/Science Photo LibraryRed blood cells modified with Nobel-prizewinning chemistry can snap together to form clots that staunch bleeding in seconds. That’s according to a study, published on 29 April in Nature1, that tested the technology in rats.The method, called click clotting, produces clots that are stronger than either natural clots or a commercial product used to stop bleeding. If shown to be safe and effective in people, the approach could provide a rapid way to induce haemostatis, the body’s natural process for controlling bleeding, and to stem potentially deadly blood loss during surgery or after injuries.“It’s really cool,” says Ashley Brown, a biomedical engineer jointly at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University in Raleigh, who was not involved in the study. “Particularly in emergency medicine, there’s a large need for materials that can be easily transported and rapidly induce haemostasis.”Thinking outside the clotThe engineered clots are unusual: red blood cells are not primarily responsible for initiating natural blood clots. Instead, specialized cells called platelets,

Forest pests hit trees hard as temperatures rise

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT 30 April 2026 Damage by certain insects and fungi tends to be greatest in US woodlands where maximum temperatures during the warmest months are increasing. Some woodlands in the United States have incurred extra pest damage because of climate change. Credit: Jack Dykinga/Nature Picture Library Decades of data on US forests suggest that climate change has exacerbated the damage caused by insects and disease, leading to the death and injury of more trees than might have otherwise occurred1. Access options Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription $32.99 / 30 days cancel any time Subscribe to this journal Receive 51 print issues and online access $199.00 per year only $3.90 per issue Rent or buy this article Prices vary by article type from$1.95 to$39.95 Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout Additional access options: Log in Learn about institutional subscriptions Read our FAQs Contact customer support doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-01288-z Subjects Latest on: Forestry Predicting the fate of tropical forests under intensifying heat News & Views 14 JAN 26 Carbon implications of wood harvesting and forest management Matters Arising 29 OCT 25 Brazil’s COP30 legacy should be to

An electrifying test to find a good coffee

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT 30 April 2026 Technique determines roast level and strength by applying voltage to the brew. A coffee’s strength can be assessed from the electrical current generated when a voltage is applied to the liquid. Credit: Getty A quick electrical test is as good as a person’s taste buds at determining the strength and roast of a cup of coffee1. Access options Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription $32.99 / 30 days cancel any time Subscribe to this journal Receive 51 print issues and online access $199.00 per year only $3.90 per issue Rent or buy this article Prices vary by article type from$1.95 to$39.95 Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout Additional access options: Log in Learn about institutional subscriptions Read our FAQs Contact customer support doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-01289-y Subjects Latest on: Chemistry The news is not all bad: five inspiring science stories to lift your mood News 01 MAY 26 Continuously graded-doped SnO2 for efficient n–i–p perovskite solar cells Article 30 APR 26 ‘Beyond COP’ climate summit puts scientists at the centre of the action News 30 APR 26

Blood test hints at breast-tumour response to treatment

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT 30 April 2026 A biomarker shows which people with certain types of breast cancer are more likely to respond to an immune-based therapy. Breast tumours (pictured, tumour cells, artificially coloured) can shrink in people who take a therapy that stimulates T cells. Credit: Steve Gschmeissner/Science Photo Library Immunologists have developed a blood-based biomarker that can predict a person’s response to breast-cancer treatment1. Access options Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription $32.99 / 30 days cancel any time Subscribe to this journal Receive 51 print issues and online access $199.00 per year only $3.90 per issue Rent or buy this article Prices vary by article type from$1.95 to$39.95 Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout Additional access options: Log in Learn about institutional subscriptions Read our FAQs Contact customer support doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-01353-7 Subjects Latest on: Cancer The news is not all bad: five inspiring science stories to lift your mood News 01 MAY 26 Long-lived immune cells show promise against cancer in world-first trial News 30 APR 26 Evolutionary characterization of lung cancer metastasis Article 29 APR 26

Prestigious European science funder scraps stricter rules after researcher backlash

The European Research Council proposed the rule change in response to an increasing volume of grant applications.Credit: Tom Werner/GettyThe European Research Council (ERC) has reversed a policy it introduced to help deal with a deluge of applications to its coveted awards, after a huge researcher backlash against the measure.On 16 April the ERC, Europe’s most prestigious funder of basic research, said it would tighten restrictions on how soon researchers could reapply after failing to secure funding, to help peer reviewers to cope with growing demand and a static annual budget of around €2.3 billion (US$2.66 billion).European funder must increase capacity to meet the ambition of scientistsBut many researchers strongly opposed the changes, which might have meant some unsuccessful applicants having to wait up to 4 years before they could apply for funding again. The council’s plan was “3000% the wrong direction”, wrote Anthony Guihur, a molecular biologist at the healthcare company Labcorp, in Geneva, Switzerland, on the social media platform Bluesky. An open letter that quickly gathered more than 1,000 signatories argued that longer exclusion periods risked discouraging bold ideas and pushing talent away from Europe.In a statement published on 29 April, the ERC scientific council, which decides the body’s

Ageing - Latest research and news

Featured Multimorbidity defines glycaemic individuality in ageing A recent study published in Nature Metabolism finds that the co-occurrence of chronic diseases, rather than any single condition, drives the progressive deterioration of glycaemic control in older adults, reframing glucose management as a multimorbidity-informed challenge. Latest Research and Reviews Face aging rate quantifies change in biological age to predict cancer outcomes Chronological age is a known predictor of cancer survival, but it cannot fully capture variations in biological aging rates. Here, the authors introduce Face Aging Rate (FAR) as a non-invasive biomarker that predicts biological age from serial facial photographs using artificial intelligence, which can serve as a prognostic factor in cancer patients. Fridolin HauggGrace LeeRaymond H. Mak News and Comment Prevailing views of cell senescence overlook its biological complexity David Bernard and colleagues discuss the complexity of roles of cell senescence and argue that it is crucial to study their contributions to both normal develoment and physiology, and to disease states in order to understand and manipulate cell senescence for therapeutic purposes. Nadine MartinHan LiDavid Bernard Multimorbidity defines glycaemic individuality in ageing A recent study published in Nature Metabolism finds that the co-occurrence of chronic diseases, rather than any single condition,

ADHD - Latest research and news

Latest Research and Reviews News and Comment Shaping the future of ADHD genetic research through ancestral diversity Genomic studies of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have advanced the understanding of its neurobiology but are still constrained by one of the most pronounced Eurocentric biases in psychiatric genetics. Expanding ADHD genomics to under-represented populations, particularly in Latin America, offers a unique opportunity to yield transformative discoveries by capturing the genetic diversity of admixed individuals. We call for a global, coordinated effort to prioritize diversity in ADHD research, not only to foster innovation in precision psychiatry but also to ensure that these advancements benefit all populations equitably. Bruna Santos da SilvaClaiton Henrique Dotto BauNicolás Garzón Rodríguez Connecting clinical and genetic heterogeneity in ADHD Understanding clinical heterogeneity in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is important for improving personalized care and long-term outcomes. A study exploits the large scale and breadth of phenotyping of the iPSYCH cohort to link clinical heterogeneity to genetic heterogeneity in ADHD. Chloe X. YapJacob Gratten Treatment dilemmas in childhood ADHD Stimulants and α2-adrenergic agonists both improve symptoms of ADHD in preschool-age children, but they have different side effects. Karen O’Leary