eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Chemogenetic stimulation of phrenic motor output and diaphragm activity

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Ethan S Benevides
   2. Prajwal P Thakre
   3. Sabhya Rana
   4. Michael D Sunshine
   5. Victoria N Jensen
   6. Karim Oweiss
   7. David D Fuller

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The authors report that chemogenetic methods targeting the ventral cervical spinal cord can be used to increase phrenic inspiratory motor output and subsequent diaphragm EMG activity and ventilation in rodents. These findings are important because they are a necessary first step towards using chemogenetic methods to drive inspiratory activity in disorders in which motor neurons are compromised, such as spinal injury and degenerative disease. The data are convincing, with rigorous assessments of phrenic inspiratory activity and its ability to drive the diaphragm and subsequent ventilation, as well as assessments of DREADD expression.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. CPT1A mediates radiation sensitivity in colorectal cancer

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Zhenhui Chen
   2. Lu Yu
   3. Zhihao Zheng
   4. Xusheng Wang
   5. Qiqing Guo
   6. Yuchuan Chen
   7. Yaowei Zhang
   8. Yuqin Zhang
   9. Jianbiao Xiao
   10. Keli Chen
   11. Hongying Fan
   12. Yi Ding

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study reports a valuable finding for the treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC), as the authors demonstrated that the enzyme CPT1A plays an significant role in the response to radiotherapy in CRC patients. However, the reviewers found that the results presented are still incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Forecasting the spatial spread of an Ebola epidemic in real time: Comparing predictions of mathematical models and experts

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. James D Munday
   2. Alicia Rosello
   3. W John Edmunds
   4. Sebastian Funk

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript provides valuable evidence comparing the performance of mathematical models and opinions from experts engaged in outbreak response in forecasting the spatial spread of an Ebola epidemic. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing. It will be of interest to disease modellers, infectious disease epidemiologists, policy-makers, and those who need to inform policy-makers during an outbreak.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Early-life stress induces persistent astrocyte dysfunction associated with fear generalisation

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Mathias Guayasamin
   2. Lewis R Depaauw-Holt
   3. Ifeoluwa I Adedipe
   4. Ossama Ghenissa
   5. Juliette Vaugeois
   6. Manon Duquenne
   7. Benjamin Rogers
   8. Jade Latraverse-Arquilla
   9. Sarah Peyrard
   10. Anthony Bosson
   11. Ciaran Murphy-Royal

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important paper explores the impact of early life stress (ELS) on adult brain and behavior. The significance of the convincing findings are that they implicate regulation of non-neuronal cells in the development of brain and behavioral dysfunction associated with ELS. With an elegant combination of behavioral models, morphological and functional assessments using immunostaining, electrophysiology, and viral-mediated loss-of-function approaches, the authors report that astrocyte dysfunction plays a role in ELS responses. The work is of interest to a broad behavioral and cellular neuroscience audience.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Ventral tegmental area interneurons revisited: GABA and glutamate projection neurons make local synapses

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Lucie Oriol
   2. Melody Chao
   3. Grace J Kollman
   4. Dina S Dowlat
   5. Sarthak M Singhal
   6. Thomas Steinkellner
   7. Thomas S Hnasko

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This manuscript provides convincing evidence derived from diverse state-of-the-art approaches to suggest that non-dopaminergic projection neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) make local synapses. These important findings challenge the prevailing wisdom that VTA interneurons exclusively form local synaptic contacts and instead reveal that VTA neurons expressing interneuron markers also form long-range projections to forebrain targets such as the cortex, ventral pallidum, and nucleus accumbens. Given the importance of VTA interneurons to many models of VTA-linked behavioral functions, these findings have significant implications for our understanding of the neural circuits underlying reward, motivation, and addiction.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. 3D genomic features across >50 diverse cell types reveal insights into the genomic architecture of childhood obesity

   This article has 28 authors:

   1. Khanh B Trang
   2. Matthew C Pahl
   3. James A Pippin
   4. Chun Su
   5. Sheridan H Littleton
   6. Prabhat Sharma
   7. Nikhil N Kulkarni
   8. Louis R Ghanem
   9. Natalie A Terry
   10. Joan M O'Brien
   11. Yadav Wagley
   12. Kurt D Hankenson
   13. Ashley Jermusyk
   14. Jason Hoskins
   15. Laufey T Amundadottir
   16. Mai Xu
   17. Kevin Brown
   18. Stewart Anderson
   19. Wenli Yang
   20. Paul Titchenell
   21. Patrick Seale
   22. Klaus H Kaestner
   23. Laura Cook
   24. Megan Levings
   25. Babette S Zemel
   26. Alessandra Chesi
   27. Andrew D Wells
   28. Struan FA Grant

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study presents genome-wide high-resolution chromatin-based 3D genomic interaction maps for over 50 diverse human cell types and integrates these data with pediatric obesity GWAS. The work provides convincing evidence that multiple pancreatic islet cell types are key effector cell types. The authors also perform variant-to-gene mapping to nominate genes underlying several GWAS hits. Overall, the results will be of interest to both the fields of 3D genome architecture and pediatric obesity.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. MicroRNA-26b protects against MASH development in mice and can be efficiently targeted with lipid nanoparticles

   This article has 24 authors:

   1. Linsey Peters
   2. Leonida Rakateli
   3. Rosanna Huchzermeier
   4. Andrea Bonnin-Marquez
   5. Sanne L Maas
   6. Cheng Lin
   7. Alexander Jans
   8. Yana Geng
   9. Alan Gorter
   10. Marion Gijbels
   11. Sander Rensen
   12. Peter Olinga
   13. Tim Hendrikx
   14. Marcin Krawczyk
   15. Malvina Brisbois
   16. Joachim Jankowski
   17. Kiril Bidzhekov
   18. Christian Weber
   19. Erik AL Biessen
   20. Ronit Shiri-Sverdlov
   21. Tom Houben
   22. Yvonne Döring
   23. Matthias Bartneck
   24. Emiel van der Vorst

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study presents valuable insights into the involvement of miR-26b in the progression of metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH). The delivery of microRNA-containing nanoparticles to reduce MASH severity has practical implications as a therapeutic strategy. The authors use two sets of transgenic mouse models, conducted kinase activity profiling of mouse liver samples, and supplemented their findings with additional experiments on human liver and plasma, providing solid support for their findings.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. IDH1 regulates human erythropoiesis by eliciting chromatin state reprogramming

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Mengjia Li
   2. Hengchao Zhang
   3. Xiuyun Wu
   4. Mengqi Yu
   5. Qianqian Yang
   6. Lei Sun
   7. Wei Li
   8. Zhongxing Jiang
   9. Fumin Xue
   10. Ting Wang
   11. Xiuli An
   12. Lixiang Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This study by Li et al. presents important findings on the metabolism-independent role of nuclear IDH1 in chromatin regulation during erythropoiesis. The authors provide convincing evidence that IDH1 deficiency disrupts H3K79 methylation and nuclear architecture, contributing to dyserythropoiesis. Their findings offer invaluable mechanistic insights with potential therapeutic implications for erythroid disorders and hematologic malignancies.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. DAGIP: alleviating cell-free DNA sequencing biases with optimal transport

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Antoine Passemiers
   2. Stefania Tuveri
   3. Tatjana Jatsenko
   4. Adriaan Vanderstichele
   5. Pieter Busschaert
   6. An Coosemans
   7. Dirk Timmerman
   8. Sabine Tejpar
   9. Peter Vandenberghe
   10. Diether Lambrechts
   11. Daniele Raimondi
   12. Joris Robert Vermeesch
   13. Yves Moreau

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents a useful computational data preprocessing methodology for de-biasing/denoising high-throughput genomic signals using optimal transport techniques. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is, however, in parts incomplete, with a partially insufficient experimental setup for validation. The method needs to be be compared with other algorithms, using datasets that demonstrate broad applicability of the algorithm presented. The work could be of interest to scientists in the field of computational genomics.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. A multiscale model of striatum microcircuit dynamics

    This article has 4 authors:

    1. Federico Tesler
    2. Alexander Kozlov
    3. Sten Grillner
    4. Alain Destexhe

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This study is potentially valuable, however currently its findings are incomplete, in that the paper's promise to deliver multiscale models that further our understanding of striatal function remains largely unfulfilled. A major weakness is that the findings are not integrated well within the rich landscape of existing striatal network modeling literature. Another major weakness is that the model is explored only in overly simplified scenarios and with limited comparison to data.

    Reviewed by eLife