Newsletters

[Experimental & Molecular Medicine] Scientists focus on astroglia; they briefly introduce these cells from an evolutionary and functional perspective, they present the general pathophysiology of astroglia, and finally they discuss how to target astroglial cells in cognitive brain disorders.

[NPJ Precision Oncology] The authors explore the spectrum of in vitro models that have been established to study human GBM relapse, including 2D cultures, 3D spheroids/organoids, microfluidic, and organ-on-a-chip systems.

[Cell Metabolism] Investigators demonstrated that oxidative stress turns on astrocytic type I collagen production via a redox-glycosylation coupling mechanism.

[Science Translational Medicine] Scientists showed that the dysfunction of chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR T) cells in glioblastoma is attributed, at least, in part, to glucose deficiency in the tumor microenvironment driven by the substantial consumption of glucose by cancer cells.

[Nature Communications] Researchers introduced Synthetic Trogocytosis, a synthetic molecular approach that enables astrocyte-mediated reduction of synaptic connectivity within targeted neural circuits.

[Nature Communications] The authors showed significant compositional differences in astroglia and microglia subtypes, while oligodendroglia and neurons are comparable.

[Acta Neuropathologica] Scientists developed an methyl-CpG-binding protein 2 (MECP2)-pS423-specific antibody, and a quantitative selective reaction monitoring assay based on LC–MS/MS analysis, and they used immunohistochemistry and proteomics to study MECP2-pS423.

[Molecular Psychiatry] Researchers investigated the functional consequences of XPO7 loss of function in hiPSC-derived neurons, focusing on its role as a schizophrenia risk gene identified through recent large-scale exome sequencing analyses.

[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America] Using human fetal brain slices, embryonic mouse model, cerebral organoids, and assembloids, investigators demonstrated that FABP7 is essential for maintaining radial glial scaffold architecture and coordinating neuronal positioning.

[Molecular Neurobiology] The authors sought to identify the transcriptional regulators enacted by miR-124 and ISX9 to instruct the neurogenic conversion of astrocytes, aiming to reveal novel core neurogenic factors with instrumental role in the reprogramming process.

[UC San Diego] Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, the Salk Institute and Sanford Burnham Prebys have received a four-year, $13 million award from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) to investigate how to reverse age-related neurodegeneration by eliminating what the researchers call "RNA pollution" in aging neurons.

[Nature Biomedical Engineering] Investigators developed a tissue-clearing 3D quantitative approach integrated with simultaneous mRNA and protein detection. Such protocol aims to characterize the bone microenvironment and reveal quantitative differences in the osteo-sinusoidal niche of aged and young human MSCs.