Pancreatic cancer is difficult to treat and has a poor prognosis, but a new study from Tokyo University of Science highlights a gene that could change this outlook. By analyzing large cancer datasets, researchers found that the gene CTDNEP1 is significantly reduced in pancreatic tumors and associated with early disease progression and poorer survival. The findings suggest that CTDNEP1 may act as a tumor suppressor, offering promising opportunities for early detection and future treatment strategies.

This review explains how the metabolite itaconate actively shapes immunity by regulating inflammation, cellular metabolism, oxidative stress, and programmed cell death. The researchers show how two key modifications—S-itaconation and K-itaconation—directly alter protein function and influence pathways such as interferon signaling, glycolysis, pyroptosis, and ferroptosis. The study highlights how itaconate affects infection control, tumor behavior, and immune balance, and outlines its therapeutic promise in sepsis, colitis, neurodegeneration, autoimmunity, and cancer.

Guan’s group reports a nanorobot with ultrasensitive chemotaxis for precision cancer therapy. After intravenous injection, the nanorobots achieved a 209-fold increase in tumor targeting efficiency compared with conventional passive nanocarriers. When loaded with only 1% of the dose of anticancer drugs, the nanorobots achieved a tumor growth inhibition rate of up to 92.7%. The nanorobots boost the tumor suppression efficacy by approximately 49-fold compared with the passive counterparts.