Science - USA (2022-04-29)

PHOTO: SUZANNE LONG/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO

SCIENCE science.org 29 APRIL 2022 • VOL 376 ISSUE 6592 471

“off-the-shelf” CAR-T cell

therapy option. —DAE

Sci. Immunol. 7 , eabl3642 (2022).

HYDROGELS

Converting forces

into ionic signals

Piezoelectric materials can

convert mechanical forces into

electrical signals and are used

as the active material in many

pressure sensors. However,

biological systems tend to be

based on the movement of ions

rather than electrons. Dobashi

et al. looked at the piezoionic

effect of several kinds of hydro-

gels. Hydrogels are designed

so that the anions and cations

NEUROSCIENCE

The spinal circuit for

pleasant touch

Pleasant touch (e.g., cuddling,

caressing, and patting) encodes

positive hedonic information that

facilitates emotional bonding,

affiliative behavior, and the well-

being of social animals. Despite

its profound importance, how

pleasant touch information is

encoded and transmitted from

sensory neurons to the spinal

cord remains unknown. Liu et al.

identified interneurons in lami-

nae II of the spinal cord dorsal

horn that express prokineticin

receptor 2, as well as sensory

neurons that express the ligand

prokineticin 2 that are involved

in the encoding and transmit-

ting of pleasant touch. Genetic

ablation of these neurons

selectively abolished the place

preference that mice developed

in a pleasant touch–condi-

tioned place preference test.

However, the sensation of pain

and itch remained unaffected

in the mutant animals. —PRS

Science, abn2479, this issue p. 483

TUMOR IMMUNOLOGY

A CAR for killing,

not toxicity

Chimeric antigen receptor

T (CAR-T) cell therapies are

approved by the US Food

and Drug Administration for

treating blood cancers but

are often limited by toxicities

and difficult and expensive

production. Developing

more-streamlined CAR-T cell

therapies is crucial. Vasic et

al. used mouse and human

double-negative (DN) T cells

as a CAR-T cell therapy, which

showed robust efficacy in

mouse models of blood and

lung cancers. They found that

the DN CAR-T cells were just as

effective as conventional CAR-T

cells but induced no toxicity.

The DN CAR-T cells could be

produced from mixed donors,

were not rejected from hosts,

and could be frozen for long

periods of time, suggesting

that they could be an attractive

RESEARCH

Edited by Michael Funk

IN SCIENCE JOURNALS

Spatial variation in lagoon habitats at the

Clerke Reef atoll has given rise to corals with

increased tolerance to heat.

MARINE BIOLOGY

Local adaptation

in coral reefs

T

he Clerke Reef atoll at the Rowley

Shoals in Western Australia provides

a model habitat with which to

study how spatially varying selec-

tion drives ecological divergence.

Studying the broadcast spawning coral

Acropora tenuis, Thomas et al. examined

individuals from lagoon and reef-flat loca-

tions through genome and transcriptome

sequencing combined with common

garden heat-stress experiments. Corals

in the lagoon were shown to be more heat

tolerant, and the gene expression base-

line also differed between the two sites.

Understanding existing genetic variation

across habitats could help to protect and

manage reefs in the upcoming decades.

—MM Sci. Adv. 10.1126/sciadv.abl9185 (2022).