The Coevolution of Placentation and Cancer

Author(s):  
Günter P. Wagner ◽  
Kshitiz ◽  
Anasuya Dighe ◽  
Andre Levchenko

Analogies between placentation, in particular the behavior of trophoblast cells, and cancer have been noted since the beginning of the twentieth century. To what degree these can be explained as a consequence of the evolution of placentation has been unclear. In this review, we conclude that many similarities between trophoblast and cancer cells are shared with other, phylogenetically older processes than placentation. The best candidates for cancer hallmarks that can be explained by the evolution of eutherian placenta are mechanisms of immune evasion. Another dimension of the maternal accommodation of the placenta with an impact on cancer malignancy is the evolution of endometrial invasibility. Species with lower degrees of placental invasion tend to have lower vulnerability to cancer malignancy. We finally identify several areas in which one could expect to see coevolutionary changes in placental and cancer biology but that, to our knowledge, have not been explored. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Animal Biosciences, Volume 10 is February 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Noam Chomsky

By mid-twentieth century, a working consensus had been reached in the linguistics community, based on the great achievements of preceding years. Synchronic linguistics had been established as a science, a “taxonomic” science, with sophisticated procedures of analysis of data. Taxonomic science has limits. It does not ask “why?” The time was ripe to seek explanatory theories, using insights provided by the theory of computation and studies of explanatory depth. That effort became the generative enterprise within the biolinguistics framework. Tensions quickly arose: The elements of explanatory theories (generative grammars) were far beyond the reach of taxonomic procedures. The structuralist principle that language is a matter of training and habit, extended by analogy, was unsustainable. More generally, the mood of “virtually everything is known” became “almost nothing is understood,” a familiar phenomenon in the history of science, opening a new and exciting era for a flourishing discipline. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 7 is January 14, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


Author(s):  
Robert J. Johnston ◽  
Peter S. Lee ◽  
Pavel Strop ◽  
Mark J. Smyth

It is increasingly clear that the nectin family and its immunoreceptors shape the immune response to cancer through several pathways. Yet, even as antibodies against TIGIT, CD96, and CD112R advance into clinical development, biological and therapeutic questions remain unanswered. Here, we review recent progress, prospects, and challenges to understanding and tapping this family in cancer immunotherapy. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Cancer Biology, Volume 5 is March 4, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


2020 ◽  
Vol 72 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elizabeth A. Thompson ◽  
Jonathan D. Powell

Cancer immunotherapy has revolutionized the way that we think about treating cancer. Although checkpoint blockade therapy, including anti-PD-1/PD-L1 and anti-CTLA-4, has shown remarkable success, the responses are limited to only a subset of patients. This discrepancy highlights the many overlapping avenues for immune evasion or suppression that can be employed by a tumor. One such mechanism of immunosuppression is adenosinergic signaling within the tumor microenvironment. We provide an overview of the current status of clinical trials targeting the adenosine pathway, including CD73, CD39, and adenosine receptors. Additionally, we highlight several avenues that may be explored to further potentiate responses in the clinic by combining adenosine-targeting agents to target multiple arms of the pathway or by using conventional immunotherapy agents. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Medicine, Volume 72 is January 27, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Lounsbury ◽  
Christopher W.J. Steele ◽  
Milo Shaoqing Wang ◽  
Madeline Toubiana

In this article, we take stock of the institutional logics perspective and highlight opportunities for new scholarship. While we celebrate the growth and generativity of the literature on institutional logics, we also note that there has been a troubling tendency in recent work to use logics as analytical tools, feeding disquiet about reification and reductionism. Seeding a broader scholarly agenda that addresses such weaknesses in the literature, we highlight nascent efforts that aim to more systematically understand institutional logics as complex, dynamic phenomena in their own right. In doing so, we argue for more research that probes how logics cohere and endure by unpacking the role of values, the centrality of practice, and the governance dynamics of institutional logics and their orders. Furthermore, we encourage bridging the study of institutional logics with various literatures, including ethnomethodology, phenomenology, professions, elites, world society, and the old institutionalism, to enhance progress in these directions. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Sociology, Volume 47 is July 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Audring

In recent years, construction-based approaches to morphology have gained ground in the research community. This framework is characterized by the assumption that the mental lexicon is extensive and richly structured, containing not only a large number of stored words but also a wide variety of generalizations in the form of schemas. This review explores two construction-based theories, Construction Morphology and Relational Morphology. After outlining the basic theoretical architecture, the article presents an array of recent applications of a construction-based approach to morphological phenomena in various languages. In addition, it offers reflections on challenges and opportunities for further research. The review highlights those aspects of the theory that have proved particularly helpful in accommodating both the regularities and the quirks that are typical of the grammar of words. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Linguistics, Volume 8 is January 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


Author(s):  
Annette Paschen ◽  
Ignacio Melero ◽  
Antoni Ribas

Resistance to immunotherapy is due in some instances to the acquired stealth mechanisms of tumor cells that lose expression of MHC class I antigen–presenting molecules or downregulate their class I antigen–presentation pathways. Most dramatically, biallelic β2-microglobulin (B2M) loss leads to complete loss of MHC class I expression and to invisibility to CD8+ T cells. MHC class I expression and antigen presentation are potently upregulated by interferon-γ (IFNγ) in a manner that depends on IFNγ receptor (IFNGR) signaling via JAK1 and JAK2. Mutations in these molecules lead to IFNγ unresponsiveness and mediate loss of recognition and killing by cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Loss of MHC class I augments sensitivity of tumor cells to be killed by natural killer (NK) lymphocytes, and this mechanism could be exploited to revert resistance, for instance, with interleukin-2 (IL-2)-based agents. Moreover, in some experimental models, potent local type I interferon responses, such as those following intratumoral injection of Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9) or TLR3 agonists, revert resistance due to mutations of JAKs. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Cancer Biology, Volume 6 is April 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Morten Axel Pedersen ◽  
Kristoffer Albris ◽  
Nick Seaver

Attention has become an issue of intense political, economic, and moral concern over recent years: from the commodification of attention by digital platforms to the alleged loss of the attentional capacities of screen-addicted children (and their parents). While attention has rarely been an explicit focus of anthropological inquiry, it has still played an important if mostly tacit part in many anthropological debates and subfields. Focusing on anthropological scholarship on digital worlds and ritual forms, we review resources for colleagues interested in this burgeoning topic of research and identify potential avenues for an incipient anthropology of attention, which studies how attentional technologies and techniques mold human minds and bodies in more or less intentional ways. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Anthropology, Volume 50 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew K. Scherer

The mid-1990s through the first decade of the new millennium marked an increase in publications pertaining to war and violence in the ancient past. This review considers how scholars of the past decade have responded to that work. The emerging consensus is that war and violence were endemic to all societies studied by archaeologists, and yet the frequency, intensity, causes, and consequences of violence were highly variable for reasons that defy simplistic explanation. The general trend has been toward archaeologies of war and violence that focus on understanding the nuances of particular places and historical moments. Nevertheless, archaeologists continue to grapple with grand narratives of war, such as the proposition that violence has decreased from ancient to modern times and the role of war and violence in state formation and collapse. Recent research also draws attention to a more expansive definition of violence. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Anthropology, Volume 50 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


Author(s):  
Marc Dobler ◽  
Marina Moretti ◽  
Alvaro Piris

Financial crises are a recurring feature of modern economies. This article summarizes the lessons learned from policy interventions and tools used to resolve banking crises from a practical, operational perspective and in light of the experiences and challenges faced during and since the 2008 global financial crisis. Managing a systemic banking crisis is a complex, multiyear process and requires a comprehensive framework for addressing systemic banking problems while minimizing taxpayers’ costs. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Financial Economics, Volume 13 is March 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


Author(s):  
Szu-Ying Chen ◽  
Ons Mamäi ◽  
Rosemary J. Akhurst

Discovered over four decades ago, transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) is a potent pleiotropic cytokine that has context-dependent effects on most cell types. It acts as a tumor suppressor in some cancers and/or supports tumor progression and metastasis through its effects on the tumor stroma and immune microenvironment. In TGFβ-responsive tumors it can promote invasion and metastasis through epithelial-mesenchymal transformation, the appearance of cancer stem cell features, and resistance to many drug classes, including checkpoint blockade immunotherapies. Here we consider the biological activities of TGFβ action on different cells of relevance toward improving immunotherapy outcomes for patients, with a focus on the adaptive immune system. We discuss recent advances in the development of drugs that target the TGFβ signaling pathway in a tumor-specific or cell type–specific manner to improve the therapeutic window between response rates and adverse effects. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Cancer Biology, Volume 6 is April 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.


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