eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Metabolic Trans-Omic Analysis Reveals Key Regulatory Disruption of Energy Metabolism in Alzheimer’s Disease

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Tomoharu Katayama
   2. Hikaru Sugimoto
   3. Keigo Morita
   4. Hirohisa Watanabe
   5. Shinya Kuroda

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a useful application of trans-omic network analyses to existing human brain datasets, generating systems-level insights into metabolic dysregulation in Alzheimer's disease. Overall, the authors' analytical choices are solid, with appropriate use of existing data and methods, and with many of their results confirming previous findings. However, some of the authors' key claims, related to previously unknown details of regulatory relationships, are only partially supported due to limitations in dataset cell-type resolution and network robustness, as well as a lack of functional validation. This work will be of interest to cellular or systems neurobiologists studying Alzheimer's disease and could serve as a helpful starting point for future work.

     [Editors' note: this paper was reviewed by Review Commons.]

   Reviewed by eLife, Review Commons

2. PXGS: a Poly-Transgene Expression System based on Mutually Exclusive Splicing of Dscam

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Renee Yin Yu
   2. Alyeri Bucio-Mendez
   3. Brian E Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study describes PXGS, a poly-transgene expression system that exploits the mutually exclusive splicing of Dscam variable exon 4 to enable conditional, simultaneous expression of up to 12 transgenes in Drosophila, addressing a longstanding limitation in which conditional co-expression has been restricted to a handful of genes. The approach is conceptually elegant and technically accessible, with potential applications spanning neuroscience, synthetic biology, and biomanufacturing across arthropod species. The evidence that Dscam exon 4 splicing is preserved in a UAS vector and that individual alternates can be replaced with functional transgenes is solid, and the in vivo axonal re-wiring application provides a convincing proof of principle. Quantitative characterization of expression levels, a direct demonstration of expression across all twelve positions, and additional imaging controls would further substantiate the system's utility and scope.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Relating layer fMRI signals to acoustics and intracranial neuronal activity in the human auditory cortex in a naturalistic design

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Hsin-Ju Lee
   2. Jyrki Ahveninen
   3. Hsiang-Yu Yu
   4. Chien-Chen Chou
   5. Cheng-Chia Lee
   6. Wen-Jui Kuo
   7. Hankyeol Lee
   8. Kamil Uludag
   9. Fa-Hsuan Lin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents a valuable finding on linking the frequency of neural activity to cortical depths of blood flow in a naturalistic setting of participants listening to music. The presentation of evidence in the version of the original submission is incomplete, as further clarifications in methods and results, as well as performing additional analyses, would strengthen the study. The work will be of interest to cognitive neuroscientists working on multimodal recordings, auditory perception and music.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Diverse paths for chemoreception in ciliated neurons contacting the cerebrospinal fluid in the spinal cord

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Emily Verran
   2. Louise Moizan
   3. Loeva Tocquer
   4. Feng B Quan
   5. Claire Wyart

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study provides a useful anatomical resource by mapping the expression of four putative chemoreceptors in spinal cerebrospinal fluid-contacting neurons (CSF-cNs) of larval zebrafish. These descriptive findings offer an interesting entry point to explore how the nervous system senses signals within the spinal fluid microenvironment. The evidence supporting the spatial expression patterns of these receptors is convincing, utilizing high-resolution hybridization chain reaction (HCR) to validate previous transcriptomic data. However, the evidence remains incomplete regarding the actual functional roles of these receptors, as the study lacks protein-level validation, evidence of ligand availability in the CSF, or functional assays to demonstrate active chemoreception.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. A Membrane-Disruptive Action of VBIT-4 Challenges Its Role as a Widely Used VDAC1 Oligomerization Inhibitor

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Varun Ravishankar
   2. Luís Borges-Araújo
   3. Megha Rajendran
   4. Elodie Lafargue
   5. Deborah Byrne
   6. Nicolas Buzhinsky
   7. Mya S Wolfe
   8. Wendy Fitzgerald
   9. Nina A Bautista
   10. Bethel G Beyene
   11. Motahareh G Larimi
   12. Jean-Pierre Duneau
   13. James Sturgis
   14. Sergey M Bezrukov
   15. Ignacio Casuso
   16. Tatiana Rostovtseva
   17. Lucie Bergdoll

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This work provides a reassessment of VBIT-4, a compound previously proposed to inhibit oligomerization of the crucial protein known as the mitochondrial voltage-dependent anion channel. Combining complementary experimental approaches with molecular dynamics simulations, the authors provide compelling evidence that VBIT-4 primarily disrupts lipid membranes and induces channel-independent cytotoxicity. The study has important implications for interpreting previous work using VBIT-4 as a probe of channel function and highlights the need to consider membrane-disruptive effects when evaluating drug mechanisms.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Congenital aphantasia reveals frontotemporal and cingulate structural alterations underlying conscious access to imagery

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Yusaku Takamura
   2. Romain Delsanti
   3. Laurent Cohen
   4. Paolo Bartolomeo
   5. Jianghao Liu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This valuable study provides novel evidence that congenital aphantasia is associated with structural differences in frontotemporal and cingulate systems, with relative sparing of early visual regions and major visual pathways. The multimodal structural imaging approach is carefully implemented and will be of interest to researchers studying mental imagery and aphantasia. However, the strength of evidence is incomplete because the data cannot adjudicate between alternative cognitive interpretations, and the multiple discovery streams make the findings better viewed as key exploratory evidence, rather than as establishing a definitive structural phenotype of aphantasia.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Cooperative antibiotic response in coupled biofilm and planktonic E. faecalis communities

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Gabriela Fernandes Martins
   2. Keanu Alexander Guardiola-Flores
   3. Luis Zaman
   4. Jordan M Horowitz
   5. Kelsey M Hallinen
   6. Kevin Wood

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This useful study combines experiments and mathematical modeling to show that antibiotic protection provided by resistant cells can extend across both surface-associated and freely growing bacterial populations. Notably, they show that treatment efficacy depends on population composition and density. The evidence supporting the main conclusions is incomplete, primarily because the biofilm context is not adequately characterized and demonstrated, raising the concern that it might represent only an aggregate of cells on the surface (rather than a biofilm) under the studied experimental conditions.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Astrocytic Nonsense-mediated mRNA decay regulates calcium signaling to support synapse function and restrain anxiety

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Pablo J Lituma
   2. Aykut Deveci
   3. Estibaliz Barrio-Alonso
   4. Kun Tan
   5. Miles F Wilkinson
   6. Pablo E Castillo
   7. Dilek Colak

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study provides the first in vivo evidence that nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD) in mature astrocytes regulates astrocyte function, synaptic plasticity, and anxiety-related behavior. Using a broad range of approaches, the authors show that conditional deletion of Upf2 alters astrocyte morphology and calcium signaling while impairing synaptic transmission and plasticity, providing solid support for the central conclusion that astrocytic NMD influences neural circuit function. Some key mechanistic claims remain incompletely supported, including whether phenotypes reflect astrocyte remodeling versus loss, the interpretation of synaptic engulfment data, the link between NMD targets and calcium signaling, and the extent to which calcium dysregulation explains the observed synaptic and behavioral effects.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. CHOP promotes the transition to chronic integrated stress response signaling with suppression of hepatocyte identity

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Theo F. Velarde
   2. Kaihua Liu
   3. Zewei Zhang
   4. Reed C. Adajar
   5. Chaoxian Zhao
   6. Huojun Cao
   7. D. Thomas Rutkowski

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This fundamental manuscript describes a key role for the integrated stress response-regulated transcription factor CHOP in regulating liver biology in response to endoplasmic reticulum stress through both the downregulation of transcription factors involved in regulating hepatic identity and altering the capacity for integrated stress response and unfolded protein response signaling to induce protective signaling. The data supporting this model is convincing, but including some additional discussion on the mechanism and importance of the work in the context of the published literature would be helpful to better define the complex importance of CHOP signaling. This work will be of interest to a wide range of biologists interested in liver biology, stress-responsive signaling, and ER stress.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Nanoscale organization of betaII-spectrin within segments of the membrane-associated periodic skeleton in mouse sciatic nerve axons

    This article has 9 authors:

    1. Nahir Guadalupe Gazal
    2. Gonzalo Escalante
    3. Lucía F Lopez
    4. Laurence Goutebroze
    5. Mariano Bisbal
    6. E Axel Gorostiza
    7. Alan M Szalai
    8. Fernando D Stefani
    9. Nicolás Unsain

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife Assessment

      This is a valuable paper looking at nanoscale organization of the membrane associated periodic cytoskeleton in mouse sciatic nerve axons. Despite previous studies, the precise organisation of the structure remains unclear, especially in vivo, and this manuscript significantly adds to this knowledge with solid data. An unexpected observation is the presence of discrete nanoscale clusters, regularly distributed around sections of axons. However, the paper misses a description of these clusters along the longitudinal axis of the axons.

    Reviewed by eLife