Researchers from the University of Osaka found that hepatocyte-derived extracellular vesicles treated with sPLA2 (SPLEVs) induce a lipid counterstorm that counteracts cytokine storm in mice with acute respiratory distress syndrome. SPLEVs also demonstrated significant beneficial effects in mouse models of sepsis, coagulopathy, liver injury, colitis, and pneumonia. As lysophosphatidylglycerols were identified as a key mediator of SPLEV activity, these findings suggest a promising approach for developing inexpensive, cell-free anti-inflammatory treatments.

Cells tightly control which genes are activated when and where, and misregulation of this process can lead to dysfunction or disease. Using cutting-edge methods that allow them to test subtle variations in regulatory DNA sequences called enhancers, researchers investigated how binding of proteins called transcription factors regulates gene activity. The researchers found that when multiple transcription factors bind to an enhancer, this increases the accessibility of the nearby genomic region through a collective effect, allowing gene expression to take place.