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Alzheimer’s risk gene APOE4 may have a reversible weakness

2 weeks ago
The Alzheimer’s risk gene APOE4 may actively damage brain blood vessels and sabotage the cellular systems that remove harmful proteins. Researchers were able to reverse some of these effects in experiments, revealing promising new targets for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Mulberry may reshape gut bacteria and influence metabolism

2 weeks 1 day ago
Mulberry compounds may reshape the gut microbiome in ways that support intestinal health and metabolism, with some combinations showing especially strong effects in animal studies. However, the results vary depending on the plant part and processing method, and the benefits have yet to be confirmed in humans.

The default mode network exhibits circuit-specific selective vulnerability despite widespread amyloid burden in an animal model of Alzheimer's disease

2 weeks 1 day ago
In Alzheimer's Disease (AD) the default mode network (DMN) exhibits selective vulnerability to functional decline and amyloid beta (Aβ) plaques in early AD. DMN vulnerability may simply be the result of Aβ accumulation. Alternately, Aβ may unmask an intrinsic susceptibility of DMN circuits. Should DMN vulnerability persist amidst global Aβ deposition, this would support the latter hypothesis. We tested this using long-term, multi-region recordings of single units in mice characterized by...
Samuel J Brunwasser

Single-cell profiling and genetic regulation of alternative polyadenylation in the human brain

2 weeks 1 day ago
Alternative polyadenylation (APA) has a central role in regulation of the fate of mRNA and exhibits high variability in the brain and in neurons. However, brain APA regulation has not been mapped at cell type resolution, and the genetic control of APA in brain cell types and its contribution to genetic disease have remained unclear. Here we report a single-cell atlas of APA of the aged human brain across 2 million cells from 379 human postmortem brains across individuals with and without...
Jiuhong Nan

Prion-like transmission of human tau strains in the mouse brain

2 weeks 1 day ago
Most neurodegenerative diseases are thought to spread through the brain by prion-like mechanisms, in which filamentous protein assemblies self-propagate by templated seeding¹. Distinct conformations of amyloid filaments may provide the physical basis for the strains that lead to different diseases². However, a central pillar of the prion hypothesis, that strains retain their structural identity upon transmission, has not been demonstrated. Here we show that the injection of tau filaments from...
Sofia Lövestam

Mutation-agnostic base editing of the progerin farnesylation site rescues Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome phenotypes in neuromuscular organoids

2 weeks 1 day ago
Hutchinson Gilford progeria syndrome (HGPS) is a fatal premature aging disorder caused by pathogenic farnesylated lamin A variants that disrupt nuclear architecture and DNA repair. Current therapies, including farnesyltransferase inhibitors, provide only modest survival benefits and lack molecular specificity, while mutation-specific genome-editing strategies cannot address atypical laminopathies. Here, we develop Farnesylation Amino acid Targeted Editing (FATE), a mutation-agnostic base-editing...
Dong-Woo Kim

ERα Micromap (µMap) proximity labeling reveals fulvestrant mechanisms

2 weeks 1 day ago
Estrogen Receptor alpha (ERα) is the primary driver in ER+ breast cancer and can be targeted using small molecules such as fulvestrant, a selective estrogen receptor degrader (SERD). Despite being approved over two decades ago and used regularly in post-menopausal women, its precise anti-tumor mechanism remains unclear, with several reports showing efficacy without the requirement for ERα degradation. To investigate the molecular basis of fulvestrant's action, we employed split intein-based µMap...
Chun Li

Written in development and lost in ageing: the grammar of cellular identity

2 weeks 1 day ago
Ageing has been described through many theoretical frameworks, yet its mechanistic basis remains unresolved. Here we propose that ageing reflects progressive decanalization of mammalian cell identity, driven by erosion of a regulatory grammar written during development. Extending Waddington's epigenetic landscape, development canalizes cell fates through globally coordinated chromatin programs that establish identity constraints across multiple timescales. Subsequently, these constraints can...
A Doğa Yücel