Fanying Li

Editor’s summary Glioblastomas are usually treated with temozolomide (TMZ), but up-regulation of O6-methylguanine DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) leads to resistance. MGMT promoter–methylated glioblastomas show reduced MGMT expression and increased sensitivity to TMZ, although resistance can occur through unclear mechanisms.

Editor’s summary Acute kidney injury (AKI) is a complication of critically ill patients with COVID-19. Dexamethasone is a synthetic glucocorticoid used to treat severe COVID-19. Zhou et al. combined data from patients who died in association with COVID-19, human tissue, and mouse models of AKI and found that renal tubular epithelial cell (TEC) damage from myoglobinuria resulted in glucocorticoid receptor activation and worse injury.

Editor’s summary Upstream open reading frames (uORFs) are RNA sequences encoding short peptides that mainly function as translational represssors. Here, Li et al. show that the uORF of the oncogene MYC is translated into a peptide (MPEP) that is secreted from glioblastoma stem cells (GSCs). MPEP expression promoted proliferation of GSCs in vitro and accelerated tumorigenesis in a mouse model.