Opioids stop breathing during overdose by silencing two small brain sites, with just 140 neurons in the breathing rhythm generator exerting the key effect.

The pre-Bötzinger complex, known as the kernel for the breathing generation, consists of separate subpopulations of neurons that project to specific nuclei to coordinate respiratory rhythmicity with different physiological behaviors, such as nasofacial activity.

A group of neurons in the medulla expressing the tachykinin precursor 1 promote rhythmic breathing, but also elicit substantial motor behaviors, suggesting a dual role for these neurons in the medulla.

By distributing receptor-binding and receptor-destroying proteins asymmetrically on their surface, filamentous influenza A virus particles create a Brownian ratchet that facilitates their passage through mucus.

An experimental animal model provides further insights into the host and viral mechanisms underlying airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2.

Broader case variation in respiratory viral load, and in shedding virus via droplets and aerosols, for SARS-CoV-2 than influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 facilitates greater transmission heterogeneity in the COVID-19 pandemic than the 2009 flu pandemic.

Recordings from brainstem nuclei involved in chemosensory regulation of breathing in awake freely behaving mice show different complementary types of neuronal responses to hypercapnia in the retrotrapezoid nucleus and the rostral medullary raphe.

The postinspiratory complex acts as an interface between the swallow pattern generator and the preBötzinger complex to coordinate swallow and breathing.

Inflamasomme inhibition prevents immune activation, HIV-1 pathogenesis and the splenic content of HIV-1 total DNA in humanized mice when administrated early after HIV-1 infection.

Vglut2-based glutamatergic signaling in central noradrenergic neurons is dispensable for baseline breathing and hypercapnic, hypoxic chemosensory reflexes, which challenges the current understanding of central noradrenergic neurons in breathing control.