| Vol. 14.45 – 2 December, 2020 |
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| Investigators programmed human pluripotent stem cells into neurons, fibroblasts, oligodendrocytes, and vascular endothelial-like cells that have molecular and functional similarities to primary cells. [Nature Biotechnology] |
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| PUBLICATIONSRanked by the impact factor of the journal |
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| The authors showed that 50% of glycine 34 to arginine/valine (G34R/V) tumors bore activating PDGFRA mutations that displayed strong selection pressure at recurrence. G34R/V tumors arose in GSX2/ DLX-expressing interneuron progenitors, where G34R/V mutations impaired neuronal differentiation. [Cell] |
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| Scientists investigated the population structure of live microglia purified from human cerebral cortex samples obtained at autopsy and during neurosurgical procedures. [Nature Communications] |
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| Researchers found that chemogenetic activation of adult dorsal root ganglion neurons improves axon growth on an in vitro model of the inhibitory environment after injury. [Nature Communications] |
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| Scientists analyzed the effect of pharmacological inhibition of the nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-like receptor family, pyrin domain containing 3 (NLRP3) inflammasome using dapansutrile (OLT1177), an oral NLRP3-specific inhibitor that is safe in humans. [Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America] |
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| Investigators discovered enhancer mutations reduced CAV1/CAV2 expression and disrupted membrane lipid rafts in patient-derived cells, and CRISPR-Cas9 perturbation proximate to a patient mutation was sufficient to reduce CAV1/CAV2 expression in neurons. [Cell Reports] |
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| Using multiplexed gene regulation with orthogonal CRISPR systems, researchers demonstrated improved neuronal differentiation with concurrent activation and repression of target genes, underscoring the power of CRISPR-based gene regulation for programming complex cellular phenotypes. [Cell Reports] |
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| Scientists investigated the role of LINC00998 in glioma progression. Through screening using the TCGA database, they found that LINC00998 was downregulated in glioblastoma tissues and that low expression of LINC00998 was associated with poor prognosis. [Cell Death & Disease] |
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| The authors carried out systemic bioinformatic analyses of public-available Medulloblastoma (MB) datasets as well as functional genomic screening datasets of primary MYCamp-G3-MB lines to search for other potential therapeutic targets within epigenetic modulators. [Cell Death & Disease] |
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| Researchers discussed transcriptome-based research on human brain aging performed by using microarray and RNA sequencing analyses. [Experimental and Molecular Medicine] |
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| A dual-luciferase reporter assay confirmed miR-873 variants have a 20-30% inhibition/dysregulation effect on candidate autism risk genes ARID1B, SHANK3, and NRXN2 and also confirmed the affected expression with qPCR. [Translational Psychiatry] |
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| Investigators evaluated the neuroprotective effects of mirtazapine against dopaminergic neurodegeneration in models of Parkinson’s disease. [Scientific Reports] |
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| Scientists summarize the current trend of employing brain organoids in glioma modeling and discuss immediate challenges. Solving them might lay a foundation for using brain organoids as a pre-clinical 3D substrate to dissect the glioma invasion mechanisms in detail. [Cell Death & Differentiation] |
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| The authors provide an overview of the therapeutic option for brain metastases from breast cancer that is currently available and outlines potential new approaches for tackling these deadly secondary tumors. [British Journal of Cancer] |
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| Investigators provide striking evidence that the degeneration of astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, in addition to inhibitory and modulatory interneurons, disrupt the functionally coherent environment of motoneurons. They also discuss the extent to which the degeneration of glial cells and interneurons also contributes to the decline of the motor system. [Cells] |
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| Gain Therapeutics, Inc. announced a research collaboration with the University of Maryland School of Medicine, to investigate Gain’s structurally targeted allosteric regulators in cellular models of neuronopathic Gaucher disease and Parkinson’s disease. [Gain Therapeutics, Inc. (Globe Newswire, Inc.)] |
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| Athira Pharma, Inc. announced that patient dosing has begun in ACT-AD, a Phase II randomized, placebo-controlled study of ATH-1017 in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease. ATH-1017 is a small molecule therapeutic designed to enhance the activity of Hepatocyte Growth Factor (HGF) and its receptor, MET, which are expressed in the central nervous system, in order to promote brain health and function. [Athira Pharma, Inc.] |
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| Istari Oncology, Inc. announced the first patient was dosed in the LUMINOS-101 Phase II clinical trial, assessing the safety and efficacy of PVSRIPO in combination with the immune checkpoint inhibitor pembrolizumab (Keytruda®) in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme. [Istari Oncology, Inc.] |
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| April 9 – April 14, 2021 Virtual |
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| University of Alabama at Birmingham – Birmingham, Alabama, United States |
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| Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States |
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| The University of British Columbia – Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
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| University of Pennsylvania – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
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| Karolinska Institutet – Stockholm, Sweden |
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