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A common vitamin could help fight one of the deadliest brain cancers

2 weeks ago
A clinical trial is exploring whether high doses of vitamin B3 could give patients with glioblastoma a better chance against the aggressive brain cancer. Scientists found that niacin may help revive immune cells that tumors shut down, allowing them to attack cancer more effectively. Early results have been promising, with patients showing significantly better progression-free survival than expected.

Butterfly that barely ages could help unlock longevity secrets

2 weeks ago
Scientists discovered that Heliconius butterflies have evolved an extraordinary lifespan, living several times longer than closely related species. Even more surprising, some show little sign of physical decline as they age. Their unusual pollen-feeding lifestyle may play a role, but the research suggests deeper evolutionary changes are also helping them stay healthy for longer.

NERINE reveals rare variant associations in gene networks across phenotypes and implicates an SNCA-PRL-LRRK2 subnetwork in Parkinson's disease

2 weeks ago
Studying the genetic basis of human phenotypes involves two primary strategies. Model-system experiments generate interpretable gene networks but do not establish relevance to human disease. In contrast, statistical genetics identifies variant- and gene-level associations but cannot test mechanistic models. Here, we bridge these approaches by introducing NERINE, a hierarchical model-based rare variant association test that incorporates gene network topology while remaining robust to network...
Sumaiya Nazeen

Oral GLP-1 receptor agonist promotes astrocyte-neuron lactate and lipid transfer with neuroprotective effects

2 weeks ago
Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) activation is widely assumed to regulate the metabolic disorder in Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, direct evidence for this hypothesis is lacking, and currently, there is no oral GLP-1R agonist with effective blood-brain barrier-penetrating ability. Here, we show that a candidate peptide, OHP2, an oral GLP-1R agonist with blood-brain barrier permeability, exhibits promising therapeutic potential for AD. OHP2 primarily activates GLP-1R on astrocytes,...
Yixuan Du

PARylation in Parkinson's disease: a bridge between Lewy body formation and neuronal cell death

2 weeks ago
Poly-ADP-ribosylation (PARylation), catalyzed by the enzyme PARP1, involves the addition of poly-ADP-ribose polymers (PAR) and has been associated with α-synuclein aggregation in Parkinson's disease (PD) models. This study aimed to unravel the role of PARylation in α-synuclein aggregation and neuronal cell death in the complex environment of post-mortem human PD brains. Using high-resolution imaging and 3D reconstruction analysis, we observed that PAR accumulate in the cytoplasm in regions...
Claudia Novello

SECmeres outperform extracellular vesicles as potential blood RNA biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease

2 weeks ago
Cells release heterogeneous extracellular vesicles and particles (EVPs) into circulation, carrying RNA and proteins that reflect their origin. Recently, brain-derived EVs have gained significant attention as non-invasive biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we identified sub-50nm extracellular nanoparticles in human brain and blood that lack the hallmarks of small EVs, exosomes, exomeres, and supermeres but are enriched for brain-specific markers, hereafter termed small EPs or...
Edgar Gonzalez-Kozlova

Trained immunity in the treatment for haematological malignancy

2 weeks ago
Trained immunity, an emerging treatment strategy, confers long-term anti-tumour memory by modulating epigenetic and metabolic reprogramming of innate immune cells, offering a novel pathway for immunotherapy of haematological malignancies. This article systematically outlines the mechanisms by which inducers such as β-glucan, Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) and cytokines train key effector cells including macrophages and natural killer (NK) cells. It further analyses how ageing-encompassing both...
Zhaoyun Liu

Persistence of memory: lifespan dynamics of the human antiviral antibody reactome

2 weeks ago
The human antiviral antibody reactome provides a cumulative molecular record of immune exposures. Using high-resolution VirScan profiling, we compared epitope-level antibody responses across early childhood and adulthood. Infants are born with maternal IgG antibodies, but these antibodies decay rapidly and are replaced by endogenous responses to ~22 new viral exposures within three years. Pediatric antibody reactivities remain highly dynamic until about age 7 and are broad in epitope specificity...
Moriah M Mitchell

Macronutrient mixtures and interactions in health and disease

2 weeks ago
Nutrition shapes development, health and risk of disease over the life course and across generations. The predominant approaches to understanding these relationships have either been to consider the effects of single nutrients, one at a time, or to consider associations with food types and dietary patterns. Although, to date, the single-nutrient approach has defined much of the scientific enquiry and public debate on the macronutrients - carbohydrate, fat and protein - there is an emerging...
Stephen J Simpson

Derivation of elephant induced pluripotent stem cells

2 weeks ago
Biodiversity loss in the present era requires new tools for studying nonmodel organisms. Elephants are both an endangered species and excellent models for studying complex phenotypes including size, social behavior and longevity. Here we report the first derivation of elephant (Elephas maximus) induced pluripotent stem (emiPS) cells. We achieved emiPS cells using two approaches: (1) a two-step process of chemical media induction and colony selection followed by over-expression of elephant...
Evan Appleton