Science - USA (2020-10-02)

CREDITS (FROM TOP): WANG

ET AL

.; JAMES CAVALLINI/SCIENCE SOURCE

70 2 OCTOBER 2020 • VOL 370 ISSUE 6512 sciencemag.org SCIENCE

and that cross-reactive T cells

can specifically recognize a

SARS-CoV-2 epitope as well as

the homologous epitope from

a common cold coronavirus.

These findings underline the

importance of determining the

impacts of preexisting immune

memory in COVID-19 disease

severity. —PNK

Science, this issue p. 89

ORGANIC CHEMISTRY

Paper in, product out

A typical chemist running a

known reaction will start by

finding the method described

in a published paper. Mehr et

al. report a software platform

that uses natural language

processing to translate the

organic chemistry literature

directly into editable code,

which in turn can be compiled

to drive automated synthesis

of the compound in the labora-

tory. The synthesis procedure

is intended to be universally

applicable to robotic systems

operating in a batch reaction

architecture. The full process

is demonstrated for synthesis

of an analgesic as well as com-

mon oxidizing and fluorinating

agents. —JSY

Science, this issue p. 101

ELECTROCALORICS

Competitive cooling

with capacitors

Current large-scale cooling

devices use vapor compression

refrigeration. The efficiency

of air conditioners has been

optimized, but they can be

noisy and rely on problematic

greenhouse gases. Two groups

now present designs for elec-

trocaloric cooling using lead

scandium tantalate capacitors

that change temperature under

an electric field. Y. Wang et al.

CORONAVIRUS

Preexisting immune

response to SARS-CoV-2

Robust T cell responses to
the severe acute respira-
tory syndrome coronavirus 2
(SARS-CoV-2) virus occur in

RESEARCH

Enhanced ductility in a

multicomponent alloy

F. Wa n g et al., p. 95

most individuals with corona-

virus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Several studies have reported

that some people who have not

been exposed to SARS-CoV-2

have preexisting reactivity to

SARS-CoV-2 sequences. The

immunological mechanisms

underlying this preexisting reac-

tivity are not clear, but previous

exposure to widely circulating

common cold coronaviruses

might be involved. Mateus et

al. found that the preexisting

reactivity against SARS-CoV-2

comes from memory T cells

INFLAMMATION

Cardioprotective myeloid cells

A

cute ischemic injury to the heart precipitates a strong inflammatory response, including

influx of myeloid cells expressing type I interferon–stimulated genes (ISGs). Calcagno

et al. used single-cell RNA sequencing to probe the origin, evolution, and heterogeneity

of this response in the first 4 days after myocardial infarction using human and mouse

myeloid cells. Induction of ISGs in myeloid cells was initially observed in bone marrow

and blood. Postinfarct cardiac tissue in mice contained myeloid subsets with and without

ISG expression and a steady-state macrophage population with anti-inflammatory activity

dependent on Nrf2, a cytoprotective transcriptional regulator. On the basis of their findings,

the authors developed an ISG score as a potential biomarker to assess how the vigor of type I

interferon signaling influences clinical outcomes after a heart attack. —IRW

Sci. Immunol. 5 , eaaz1974 (2020).

A coronary

angiogram

reveals a region

of the heart that

is not receiving

oxygenated blood.

Edited by Michael Funk

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