Alzheimer & Parkinson

Whether new neurons contribute to human cognition in old age remains debated. Recently in Cell Stem Cell, Tosoni et al.¹ show that immature-neuron transcriptional programs persist in the aged dentate gyrus and that their molecular state, not simply their abundance, tracks Alzheimer's pathology and cognitive resilience.

Impairments in axonal transport have been implicated in the pathogenesis of tauopathies, including frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease, yet the underlying mechanisms and reversibility of these deficits are largely unknown. In particular, the impacts of tau mutations, phosphorylation and aggregation on axonal transport in vivo remain controversial. By using two-photon imaging of axonal transport of BDNF granules in the mouse cortex, we reveal that deficits in axonal transport arise in...

Integrating spatial transcriptomics, which maps gene expression location within tissues, with single-cell multi-omics data, profiling gene expression and chromatin accessibility (or other epigenomic data) for the same cell, offers powerful insights into gene regulation. However, commercially available kits for simultaneous spatial multi-omics profiling are currently unavailable, hindering widespread data generation. Here, we present ISON (Integrated Spatial Omics Network), a unified...

GWAS typically focus on SNPs, often excluding complex genetic variants, such as short tandem repeats. Here, we report the results of GWAS analyses systematically assessing the role of short tandem repeats, both imputed and directly genotyped by whole genome sequencing, on risk for Alzheimer's disease in a large collection of ~330,000 individuals (3287 cases; 47,048 Alzheimer's disease-by-proxy cases, 283,111 controls) from the UK biobank. Using short tandem repeat genotype data, we identify 15...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is not an inevitable outcome of pathology but a dynamic process shaped by how brain cells respond to amyloid-β (Aβ) and tau. To disentangle these responses, we combined spatial transcriptomics and single-nucleus RNA sequencing of the superior frontal cortex from octogenarians living with or without dementia and from cognitively intact centenarians with comparable Aβ accumulation. We identified six distinct tissue domains representing a spatial pathological continuum of...

Selective autophagy maintains organelle and proteome homeostasis through receptor-mediated degradation of damaged membranes and aggregation-prone proteins. Although autophagy dysfunction and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) abnormalities are prominent features of Alzheimer's disease (AD), whether reticulophagy directly contributes to amyloid precursor protein (APP) turnover has remained unclear. We identify FAM134B/RETREG1 as a specific receptor that recognizes ER-localized APP and promotes its...

Mitochondria are essential for neuronal energy production, cellular homeostasis, and overall neuronal function. Due to their high metabolic demands and limited regenerative capacity, neurons are particularly vulnerable to mitochondrial dysfunction, which leads to ATP depletion, excessive reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and calcium imbalance-ultimately causing oxidative stress, metabolic disruption, and neuronal death. Mitophagy is a selective process that removes damaged mitochondria...

To better characterize the genetic architecture underlying Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADRD), we performed a meta-analysis of European-ancestry genome-wide association studies in 128,681 cases or proxy cases of ADRD and 849,833 (proxy) controls. We identified 91 genetic loci associated with ADRD risk, of which 16 are new and 56 are specifically detected in clinically diagnosed AD cases. We also provide a list of 18 loci (15 new) requiring further external validation. A...

Human infancy is characterized by protracted brain development coinciding with sensitive periods of extensive synaptic remodeling. Whether this is supported by human infant-specific transcriptional programs is unknown as comparative material in closely related primate species was unavailable. Here, we analyze rare newborn chimpanzee and age-matched human and rhesus macaque brain samples using single-cell transcriptomics and epigenomics. We identify a human infant-specific transcriptional program...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder lacking established clinical biomarkers. We performed an exploratory multi‑omics analysis of transcriptome and proteome data from small PD and control cohorts at Huaihe Hospital of Henan University. Using two local datasets, we identified 124 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and 28 proteins, then performed protein‑protein interaction (PPI) and gene set variation analysis (GSVA). After intersecting with 2,964 DEGs from Gene...

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) exhibits high rates of comorbidity with Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), especially in older adults who are subject to the effects of psychological trauma due to combat exposure, health-related and psychosocial outcomes, and aging. This narrative review explores the associations between PTSD and comorbidities of psychoactive substance abuse and traumatic brain injuries on the incidence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) in veterans...

The DREAM complex has emerged as a central repressor of DNA repair, raising questions as to whether such repression exerts long-term effects on human health. Here we establish that DREAM-associated activity significantly impacts lifetime somatic mutation burden, and that such effects are linked to altered lifespan and age-related disease pathology. First, joint profiling of DREAM-associated activity (quantified from the expression of genes transcriptionally repressed by DREAM) and somatic...

Current Alzheimer's disease therapies offer limited efficacy and are often accompanied by significant side effects, underscoring the urgent need for new treatment strategies. Enhancing autophagy represents a promising therapeutic approach, yet most known autophagy inducers act through the mTOR-dependent pathway, which broadly affects cellular metabolism and proliferation, and their clinical potential is further limited by poor blood-brain barrier (BBB) penetration. To address these twin...

The brain must efficiently clear protein waste to maintain homeostasis, yet physiological drainage pathways remain poorly defined. Standard tracer injection approaches may not reflect endogenous efflux. Here, we develop a non-invasive genetic system to trace neuron-derived protein clearance from the brain to cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and border tissues. We identify distinct drainage routes and border hotspots missed by tracer injection, confirmed by bioorthogonal labeling of endogenous neuronal...

The NLRP3 inflammasome contributes to a wide range of conditions from infections to Alzheimer's disease. NLRP3 forms an inactive decameric cage, that upon interaction with the trans-Golgi network (TGN) and microtubule organization center (MTOC), leads to inflammasome activation, yet whether non-decamer NLRP3 species form functional inflammasomes remains unclear. Here, we design a NLRP3 exon 3 deletion variant that forms low molecular weight NLRP3 assemblies. Spatially and dynamically highly...

No abstract

In Alzheimer's disease (AD), endogenous tau undergoes a pathogenic transition to form paired helical filaments (PHFs), but the cellular mechanisms driving this process have been elusive. Here, we identify the neuron-specific plasma membrane proteasome ('neuroproteasome') as a critical determinant of tau proteostasis. Selective inhibition of neuroproteasome function rapidly triggers the de novo formation of endogenous, sarkosyl-insoluble tau PHFs in primary neurons and mouse brain, which share...

Alzheimer's disease (AD), a neurodegenerative disorder, is the leading cause of dementia. Amyloid-beta (Aβ) and tau are major contributors to AD onset and progression. Here, we investigate the therapeutic potential of CD5L, a macrophage-specific secretory protein, in reducing Aβ accumulation and improving AD pathology. CD5L directly binds to Aβ, particularly the neurotoxic Aβ42, and blocks their aggregation. Moreover, CD5L enhances microglial phagocytosis against several forms of Aβ40 and Aβ42....

Tremor is a common symptom in movement disorders such as Parkinson disease and essential tremor. While both conditions benefit from deep brain stimulation (DBS), the neural substrates underlying different tremor types and their treatment remain poorly defined. Here, we use DBS network mapping in multiple patient cohorts to investigate whether rest vs. action tremor respond to stimulation of the same or distinct subnetworks within the primary motor cortex. Building on recent functional...

The amyloid precursor protein (APP) is associated with Alzheimer's disease. Appl is the single Drosophila APP ortholog and is expressed in all neurons throughout development. Appl was previously shown to cell-autonomously modulate axon outgrowth in the mushroom bodies (MBs), the fly olfactory memory center. However, we found that Appld, the only reported null allele, affects the normal function of vnd, the gene just proximal to Appl. To decipher developmental and memory defects specifically due...