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Checkpoint inhibitor therapies can be thought of as the molecular "brake release" for the immune system. These drugs eliminate the protein barriers that impede the immune system from recognizing and targeting cancer cells in the body. While there are multiple checkpoint inhibitors approved to treat different types of cancer, many patients don't respond or develop resistance to available regiments. A team has now found that ruxolitinib, an approved immunosuppressive drug, supercharged T-cell responses when used alongside checkpoint inhibitors—boosting their effectiveness in fighting cancer. These findings are supported by a Phase I clinical trial of patients with Hodgkin lymphoma, as well...

A year ago, a mystery virus began to kill people in China. Causing an illness dubbed severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), the virus quickly spread beyond Asia and for a few months stirred fears of a worldwide epidemic. With stunning speed, scientists identified the virus and decoded its genetic sequence (SN: 4/26/03, p. 262: http://www.sciencenews.org/20030426/fob8.asp). Now, a research team has claimed victory in the race to identify the cellular receptor—the protein to which the virus attaches when it infects cells—for the SARS virus. Since the protein turned out to be a well-known one that had previously been implicated in heart...