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The immunology of stroke and dementia

11 months 1 week ago
Ischemic stroke and vascular cognitive impairment, caused by a sudden arterial occlusion or more subtle but protracted vascular insufficiency, respectively, are leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide with limited therapeutic options. Innate and adaptive immunity have long been implicated in neurovascular injury, but recent advances in methodology and new experimental approaches have shed new light on their contributions. A previously unappreciated dynamic interplay of...
Costantino Iadecola

ApoE3 R136S binds to Tau and blocks its propagation, suppressing neurodegeneration in mice with Alzheimer's disease

11 months 1 week ago
PSEN1 E280A carrier for the APOE3 Christchurch variant (R136S) is protected against Alzheimer's disease (AD) symptoms with a distinct anatomical pattern of Tau pathology. However, the molecular mechanism accounting for this protective effect remains incompletely understood. Here, we show that the ApoE3 R136S mutant strongly binds to Tau and reduces its uptake into neurons and microglia compared with ApoE3 wild type (WT), diminishing Tau fragmentation by asparagine endopeptidase (AEP),...
Guiqin Chen

CRISPRi-based screens in iAssembloids to elucidate neuron-glia interactions

11 months 1 week ago
The complexity of the human brain makes it challenging to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying brain function. Genome-wide association studies have uncovered variants associated with neurological phenotypes. Single-cell transcriptomics have provided descriptions of changes brain cells undergo during disease. However, these approaches do not establish molecular mechanism. To facilitate the scalable interrogation of causal molecular mechanisms in brain cell types, we developed a 3D...
Emmy Li

Brain mechanical properties predict longitudinal cognitive change in aging and Alzheimer's disease

11 months 1 week ago
Age-related cognitive decline is a complex phenomenon that is influenced by various neurobiological processes at the molecular, cellular, and tissue levels. The extent of this decline varies between individuals and the underlying determinants of these differences are not fully understood. Two of the most prominent signs of cognitive decline in aging are the deterioration of episodic memory, which is a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease (AD), and the nearly always accompanying atrophy of the medial...
KowsalyaDevi Pavuluri

Deep learning reveals diverging effects of altitude on aging

11 months 1 week ago
Aging is influenced by a complex interplay of multifarious factors, including an individual's genetics, environment, and lifestyle. Notably, high altitude may impact aging and age-related diseases through exposures such as hypoxia and ultraviolet (UV) radiation. To investigate this, we mined risk exposure data (summary exposure value), disease burden data (disability-adjusted life years (DALYs)), and death rates and life expectancy from the Global Health Data Exchange (GHDx) and National Data...
Amanuel Abraha Teklu

Lung endothelial cell senescence impairs barrier function and promotes neutrophil adhesion and migration

11 months 1 week ago
Cellular senescence contributes to inflammation and organ dysfunction during aging. While this process is generally characterized by irreversible cell cycle arrest, its morphological features and functional impacts vary in different cells from various organs. In this study, we examined the expression of multiple senescent markers in the lungs of young and aged humans and mice, as well as in mouse lung endothelial cells cultured with a senescence inducer, suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA),...
Maliheh Najari Beidokhti

Inhaled xenon modulates microglia and ameliorates disease in mouse models of amyloidosis and tauopathy

11 months 1 week ago
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder. Antiamyloid antibody treatments modestly slow disease progression in mild dementia due to AD. Emerging evidence shows that homeostatic dysregulation of the brain immune system, especially that orchestrated by microglia, plays an important role in disease onset and progression. Thus, a major question is how to modulate the phenotype and function of microglia to treat AD. Xenon (Xe) gas is a noble gas used in human patients...
Wesley Brandao

A nanoparticle-based wireless deep brain stimulation system that reverses Parkinson's disease

11 months 1 week ago
Deep brain stimulation technology enables the neural modulation with precise spatial control but requires permanent implantation of conduits. Here, we describe a photothermal wireless deep brain stimulation nanosystem capable of eliminating α-synuclein aggregates and restoring degenerated dopamine neurons in the substantia nigra to treat Parkinson's disease. This nanosystem (ATB NPs) consists of gold nanoshell, an antibody against the heat-sensitive transient receptor potential vanilloid family...
Junguang Wu

Transient interactions between the fuzzy coat and the cross-β core of brain-derived Aβ42 filaments

11 months 1 week ago
Several human disorders, including Alzheimer's disease (AD), are characterized by the aberrant formation of amyloid fibrils. In many cases, the amyloid core is flanked by disordered regions, known as fuzzy coat. The structural properties of fuzzy coats, and their interactions with their environments, however, have not been fully described to date. Here, we generate conformational ensembles of two brain-derived amyloid filaments of Aβ42, corresponding respectively to the familial and sporadic...
Maria Milanesi

Gene therapy ameliorates bowel dysmotility and enteric neuron degeneration and extends survival in lysosomal storage disorder mouse models

11 months 1 week ago
Children with neurodegenerative disease often have debilitating gastrointestinal symptoms. We hypothesized that this may be due at least in part to underappreciated degeneration of neurons in the enteric nervous system (ENS), the master regulator of bowel function. To test this hypothesis, we evaluated mouse models of neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis type 1 and 2 (CLN1 and CLN2 disease, respectively), neurodegenerative lysosomal storage disorders caused by deficiencies in palmitoyl protein...
Ewa A Ziółkowska

Dimensional engineering of interlayer for efficient large-area perovskite solar cells with high stability under ISOS-L-3 aging test

11 months 1 week ago
The utilization of low-dimensional perovskites (LDPs) as interlayers on three-dimensional (3D) perovskites has been regarded as an efficient strategy to enhance the performance of perovskite solar cells. Yet, the formation mechanism of LDPs and their impacts on the device performance remain elusive. Herein, we use dimensional engineering to facilitate the controllable growth of 1D and 2D structures on 3D perovskites. The differences of isomeric ligands in electrostatic potential distribution and...
Yikai Yun

SMARCA4 regulates the NK-mediated killing of senescent cells

11 months 1 week ago
Induction of senescence by chemotherapeutic agents arrests cancer cells and activates immune surveillance responses to contribute to therapy outcomes. In this investigation, we searched for ways to enhance the NK-mediated elimination of senescent cells. We used a staggered screen approach, first identifying siRNAs potentiating the secretion of immunomodulatory cytokines to later test for their ability to enhance NK-mediated killing of senescent cells. We identified that genetic or...
Virinder Reen

A STING-CASM-GABARAP pathway activates LRRK2 at lysosomes

11 months 1 week ago
Mutations that increase LRRK2 kinase activity have been linked to Parkinson's disease and Crohn's disease. LRRK2 is also activated by lysosome damage. However, the endogenous cellular mechanisms that control LRRK2 kinase activity are not well understood. In this study, we identify signaling through stimulator of interferon genes (STING) as an activator of LRRK2 via the conjugation of ATG8 to single membranes (CASM) pathway. We furthermore establish that multiple chemical stimuli that perturb...
Amanda Bentley-DeSousa