Alzheimer & Parkinson

Single-cell transcriptomic studies have identified distinct microglial subpopulations with shared and divergent gene signatures across development, aging, and disease. Whether these microglial subsets represent ontogenically separate lineages of cells or are manifestations of plastic changes in microglial states downstream of some converging signals is unknown. Furthermore, despite the well-established role of enhancer landscapes underlying the identity of microglia, the extent to which histone...

As a pathological hallmark of Parkinson's disease (PD), a-synucleinopathy induces various cellular damages, including calcium overload, mitochondrial and autophagic dysfunction, ultimately resulting in dopaminergic neuron death. However, the hierarchy of these detrimental events remains unclear. It is well established that a-synuclein can induce calcium overload through diverse mechanisms. To assess whether calcium overload plays a crucial detrimental role, we established a calcium overload...

Somatic variants are increasingly recognized as contributors to diverse non-cancer, developmental, and aging-related disorders. However, most tools for detecting somatic single-nucleotide variants (sSNVs) were designed for DNA sequencing and primarily tailored to cancer datasets, leaving a critical gap in harnessing the rich potential of RNA-seq for sSNV identification, particularly in non-cancer tissues with low mutation rates. Here, we introduce RNA-MosaicHunter, a novel bioinformatic tool for...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that casts a significant shadow over global health and the identification of therapeutic targets for PD will empower more effective clinical treatment. The gene encoding the deubiquitinating enzyme USP25 has been identified as a susceptible locus for PD, but the role of USP25 in PD remains unknown. In this study, we found that USP25 exacerbated dopaminergic neuronal loss and motor deficits in murine models of PD by sabotaging...

TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43) dysfunction is a hallmark of several neurodegenerative diseases, including frontotemporal dementia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and Alzheimer's disease. Although cryptic exon inclusion is a well-characterized consequence of TDP-43 loss of function, emerging evidence reveals broader roles in RNA metabolism, notably in the regulation of alternative polyadenylation (APA) of disease-relevant transcripts. In the present study, we examined 3' untranslated region...

Based mainly on rodents studies, forty-hertz (40-Hz) physical stimulation has been regarded as a potential noninvasive treatment for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Considering the brain differences between rodents and humans, the effects of 40-Hz physical stimulation need to be further validated using nonhuman primates before its clinical application. Here, we took advantage of a rare opportunity to expose nine aged rhesus monkeys (26 to 31 y old) to 40-Hz auditory stimulation. Given the strong...

Blood biomarkers have emerged as accurate tools for detecting Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology, offering a minimally invasive alternative to traditional diagnostic methods such as imaging and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) analysis. Yet, the logistics surrounding venipuncture for blood collection, although considerably simpler than the acquisition of imaging and CSF, require precise processing and storage specific to AD biomarkers that are still guided by medical personnel. Consequently,...

Sequence alignment is essential for genomic research and clinical diagnostics, yet detecting complex rearrangements such as inversions, duplications, and gene conversions remains challenging due to allele complexity and limitations of current methods. We introduce VACmap, a non-linear mapping approach to enhance the detection and representation of all genetic variations. VACmap improves duplication detection from 20% to 90% in the Challenging Medically-Relevant Genes (CMRG) benchmark and...

Type 2 diabetes (T2D) impacts the quality of life and lifespan of nearly 10% of the global population. Human islet amyloid polypeptide (hIAPP) constitutes a major component of islet amyloid deposition in patients with T2D, with hIAPP fibrils believed to play a key role in the pathogenesis of T2D. In this study, we determined the cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) structure of hIAPP fibrils extracted from surgically resected pancreases of three donors with T2D. These fibrils exhibit a uniform...

We report the discovery of a chemical series that enhances ApoE secretion from human astrocytes through mechanisms independent of LXR agonism. Target deconvolution of hits from a phenotypic screen in astrocytoma cells employed chemoproteomics, photoaffinity probes, in vitro KINOMEscan analysis, and targeted siRNA knockdown experiments. Photoaffinity labeling coupled with quantitative chemical proteomics identified aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), a transcription factor not previously associated...

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by dopaminergic neuron loss, motor dysfunction, and Lewy body formation. Src homology 2B adaptor protein 2 (SH2B2), a member of the SH2B family with known roles in neuroregulation, has not been fully explored in PD. This study aimed to investigate the neuroprotective effects and mechanisms of SH2B2 in PD. MPTP-induced mouse model and MPP^(+)-treated SH-SY5Y cell model were established to simulate PD in vivo and in vitro. Mice were randomly divided into...

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RNA G-quadruplexes (rG4s) are stable secondary structures formed by guanine-rich RNA sequences that have emerged as critical regulators of RNA metabolism. The rG4s are widespread in both coding and noncoding RNAs and have been implicated in regulating multiple post-transcriptional processes, including RNA stability, splicing, polyadenylation, nuclear export, localization, and translation. Recent findings reveal that rG4s play pathological roles in neurodegenerative diseases (NDs), including...

On October 22nd, 2025, Brain Aging Symposium took place at Harvard Medical School bringing together leading researchers from academia and partner organizations to discuss recent advances in measuring and monitoring human brain aging trajectories, with a particular focus on Alzheimer's disease (AD). A central theme emerged: achieving "the right treatment for the right person and the right time" through precision medicine approaches. Key advances included the unprecedented validation of...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by amyloid-beta plaques and neurofibrillary tau tangles in the brain, neuroinflammation, and cognitive impairment. The 3xTg-AD mouse is a commonly used model in AD studies. 3xTg-AD males display inconsistent pathology; therefore, most studies utilize females. An understanding of why sexual dimorphism exists in this model is lacking. In humans, low circulating choline levels are associated with elevated AD pathology, while...

Mitochondrial biogenesis requires the import of ∼1,000-1,500 nuclear-encoded proteins across the Translocase of Outer Membrane (TOM) and the Translocase of Inner Membrane (TIM) 22 or 23 complexes. Protein import defects cannot only impair mitochondrial respiration but also cause mitochondrial Precursor Overaccumulation Stress (mPOS) in the cytosol. Recent studies have shown that specific mutations in the nuclear-encoded Adenine Nucleotide Translocase 1 (ANT1) cause musculoskeletal and...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a multifaceted neurodegenerative disorder, defined pathologically by the accumulation of Aβ plaques and Tau neurofibrillary tangles, accompanied by widespread metabolic dysregulation. Recently, "metabolic reprogramming (MetR)", referring to the dynamic adaptation of cellular metabolic networks in response to environmental or functional demands, has emerged as a novel conceptual perspective for understanding AD. In the context of AD, the dysregulation of MetR is...

Cystathionine γ-lyase (CSE), the enzyme responsible for neuronal cysteine and hydrogen sulfide production, is dysregulated in aging and neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease and Huntington's disease, both marked by cognitive decline in addition to motor deficits. To determine whether CSE loss directly causes cognitive decline, we genetically ablated CSE in mice. This loss was sufficient to induce oxidative damage, compromise blood-brain barrier integrity, impair neurogenesis...

A marked evolution in Alzheimer's disease (AD) therapy research is ongoing. In this perspective, we highlight emerging outcomes of tau-targeting approaches with disease-modifying potential evidenced by PET-based slowing of tau accumulation and early signs of cognitive benefit. We outline how decades of iterative amyloid β (Aβ)-trial refinement leading to the recent successes of approved anti-Aβ therapies have set the stage for accelerated optimization of next-generation trials. We summarize key...

Emerging neuroimaging evidence has propelled the formulation of the hypothesis that freezing of gait (FOG) in Parkinson's disease (PD) arises from dysfunction within the locomotor network. However, to date, there has been a lack of functional connectivity analyses targeting the hyperdirect pathway (HDP) to explore this hypothesis. In this study, we investigate impaired communication within the HDP neural circuitry in FOG patients. Fifty-nine PD patients (33 PD-nFOG and 26 PD-FOG) and thirty...