Translational research articles from across Nature Portfolio

A new study reveals that as patients approach the end stages of their disease, cancer may exploit the body’s largest highways — infiltrating major blood vessels and unleashing clusters of tumor cells into the circulation.

In older adults without cognitive impairment with higher levels of brain amyloid-β, physical inactivity was associated with accelerated accumulation of tau pathology and faster cognitive and functional decline. These findings suggest that even modest increases in daily physical activity might be linked to slower progression of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease.

Dormant tumour cells that survive initial therapy can awaken years later to seed metastases. New data from a phase II trial indicate that intercepting this dormancy by targeting autophagy and mTOR signalling might prevent breast cancer relapse before it begins, opening a path towards proactive prevention disease recurrence.

Insertion trauma triggers NETosis and acute inflammation, impairing CGM performance. Neutrophils from T2D patients fail to form NETs on sensors, suggesting metabolic dysfunction. Targeting NETs may enhance sensor integration and extend device lifespan.

Accurate assessment of endometrial receptivity remains a challenge in infertility care. Here, authors present a patient-derived vascularised endometrium-on-a-chip and a scoring system for receptivity evaluation.

Sepsis’s profound heterogeneity complicates prognosis and stratification. Here, the authors show that SepsisFormer and SMART, explainable AI models integrating coagulation–inflammation markers, enable outcome prediction, real-time risk assessment, and subgroup identification to guide sepsis therapy.

A new study reveals that as patients approach the end stages of their disease, cancer may exploit the body’s largest highways — infiltrating major blood vessels and unleashing clusters of tumor cells into the circulation.