New hybrid virus seen for first time

Hello Nature readers,
Today we hear about a new type of hybrid virus, learn how scientists hope to save lives with a breakthrough cancer drug and find out how long COVID-19 research will remain free to access.

Action to save forests is not enough

The first report card on progress towards a 2030 goal to stop global forest loss is in, and the results aren’t good. Global deforestation slowed by 6.3% in 2021 compared with the baseline average in 2018-20 baseline — short of the 10% cut that is needed. The progress is largely thanks to “exceptional results” in tropical Asian countries such as Indonesia, says Erin Matson, one of the report’s authors. But in other tree-felling hotspots, including Brazil, Bolivia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, deforestation increased.

New hybrid virus evades immune system

The flu virus and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) can fuse together to create a virus that can evade the human immune system. Researchers who were keen to understand co-infections — in which both viruses infect someone at the same time — deliberately infected human lung cells with both viruses. They found that the RSV and the flu virus fused together to form a palm-tree-shaped hybrid, which could infect new cells even in the presence of flu antibodies. “This kind of hybrid virus has never been described before,” says virologist Pablo R. Murcia, who worked on the research. “We are talking about viruses from two completely different families combining together with the genomes and the external proteins of both viruses. It is a new type of virus pathogen.”

How long will COVID research remain free?

At the beginning of the pandemic, scientific journals rushed to make COVID-19 research free to read — but now reports are circulating that this content will soon disappear behind paywalls. The alarm was sounded in August, following an analysis of the effects of the COVID-19 open-sharing commitment. “Several [publishers] have already started re-introducing paywalls,” said the report, which was posted online in June before peer review. However, some researchers suggested that there was a lack of firm evidence for this statement, and Nature has so far found only one publisher — BMJ — that has paywalled some previously free research papers.

Cancer drugs close in on deadly mutations

Scientists are hoping to save lives with new drugs that target the KRAS protein, which is mutated in many cancers and was previously thought to be ‘undruggable’. Last year, the US Food and Drug Administration approved the first KRAS-targeted cancer therapy — sotorasib (Lumakras) — and a second drug is expected to be approved this year. Although sotorasib’s approval was a landmark, only 28% of the participants treated with the drug responded to it. Even so, the pace of KRAS research and the pursuit of KRAS-targeting drugs has never been so energized, says cancer biologist Channing Der. “I have never seen this level of excitement and buzz in the entire history of the field,” he says.

Tiny microscope sees inside animal brains

A thumb-sized two-photon fluorescence ‘miniscope’ called Mini2P can track the activity of hundreds or thousands of neurons deep in a mouse brain while the animal runs, climbs and jumps. Developed by Weijian Zong, an optical engineer, the head-mounted Mini2P achieves “nearly as good” resolution as a bulky bench-top two-photon system. It is also open-source, with parts lists and instructional videos available on GitHub. The Mini2P “opens the door to lines of scientific inquiry that were difficult, if not impossible, to initiate”, says neuroscientist Denise Cai. And it’s a development that has been years in the making.