eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Evaluating Study Design Rigor in Preclinical Cardiovascular Research: A Replication Study

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Isaiah C Jimenez
   2. Gabrielle C Montenegro
   3. Keyana Zahiri
   4. Damini Patel
   5. Adrienne Mueller

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The objective of this important study is to assess the study design and rigor, enhance the quality of clinical research studies, and emphasize crucial design elements in basic science research. It specifically tackles the ongoing problem of experimental design deficiencies that obstruct the effective translation of research findings into clinical applications. This paper is particularly convincing as it highlights the lack of progress in addressing these issues over the past decade, despite a substantial body of existing research. It serves as a strong call to action for the broader scientific community to improve research practices.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Patient-derived xenografts and single-cell sequencing identifies three subtypes of tumor-reactive lymphocytes in uveal melanoma metastases

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Joakim W Karlsson
   2. Vasu R Sah
   3. Roger Olofsson Bagge
   4. Irina Kuznetsova
   5. Munir Iqba
   6. Samuel Alsen
   7. Sofia Stenqvist
   8. Alka Saxena
   9. Lars Ny
   10. Lisa M Nilsson
   11. Jonas A Nilsson

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents valuable findings on tumor-reactive T cells in liver metastases of uveal melanoma (UM). The authors conducted single-cell RNA sequencing to identify potential tumor-reactive T cells and used PDX models for functional analysis. The evidence supporting their claims is solid. The work will be of interest to scientists working in the field of uveal melanoma.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Senescence of endplate osteoclasts induces sensory innervation and spinal pain

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Dayu Pan
   2. Kheiria Gamal Benkato
   3. Xuequan Han
   4. Jinjian Zheng
   5. Vijay Kumar
   6. Mei Wan
   7. Junying Zheng
   8. Xu Cao

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental study advances our understanding of the role of senescent osteoclasts (SnOCs) in the pathogenesis of spine instability. The authors provide compelling evidence for the SnOCs to induce sensory nerve innervation. Accordingly, reduction of SnOCs by the senolytic drug Navitoclax markedly reduces spinal pain sensitivity. This work will be of broad interest to regenerative biologists working on spinal pain.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Post-ejaculatory inhibition of female sexual drive via heterogeneous neuronal ensembles in the medial preoptic area

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Kentaro K Ishii
   2. Koichi Hashikawa
   3. Jane Chea
   4. Shihan Yin
   5. Rebecca Erin Fox
   6. Suyang Kan
   7. Meha Shah
   8. Zhe Charles Zhou
   9. Jovana Navarrete
   10. Alexandria D Murry
   11. Eric R Szelenyi
   12. Sam A Golden
   13. Garret D Stuber

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important work combines molecular genetics and behavioral analyses to identify inhibitory neurons in the female medial preoptic area as a neural locus that is activated following male ejaculation and whose prolonged activity plays a key role in the regulation of female sexual motivation. These experiments are rigorous and well-performed. The data are compelling and demonstrate that a subpopulation of neurons in the medial preoptic area are selectively activated following the completion of mating in females. The medial preoptic area has long been implicated as critical to sexual behavior in both sexes; however the use of a self-paced mating assay for females provides fine control over manipulating and monitoring cellular activity in this region during more naturalistic behavior. In addition, this study may act to inspire others to further explore the additional brain regions found to show upregulation of neural activity (Fos) during mating completion in females using the datasets generated here.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Causal role of the angular gyrus in insight-driven memory reconfiguration

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Anna-Maria Grob
   2. Hendrik Heinbockel
   3. Branka Milivojevic
   4. Christian F Doeller
   5. Lars Schwabe

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important paper provides solid evidence that the angular gyrus plays a role in insight-based memory updating. The study is well conducted, timely, and presents clear-cut behavioral results. While the study provides robust evidence that transcranial magnetic stimulation to the angular gyrus impacts memory, evidence for the strong claim of a causal contribution of the angular gyrus in particular – apart from other connected regions, including the hippocampus – is not conclusive.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Genetic screen identified PRMT5 as a neuroprotection target against cerebral ischemia

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Haoyang Wu
   2. Peiyuan Lv
   3. Jinyu Wang
   4. Brian Bennett
   5. Jiajia Wang
   6. Pishun Li
   7. Yi Peng
   8. Guang Hu
   9. Jiaji Lin

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The authors performed a useful RNAi screen to identify epigenetic regulators involved in oxygen-glucose deprivation (OGD)-induced neuronal injury. PRMT5 was identified as a negative regulator of neuronal cell survival after OGD. Solid in vitro and in vivo data suggest that PRMT5 could be a novel therapeutic target for the treatment of ischemic stroke.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. DNL343 is an investigational CNS penetrant eukaryotic initiation factor 2B activator that prevents and reverses the effects of neurodegeneration caused by the integrated stress response

   This article has 34 authors:

   1. Ernie Yulyaningsih
   2. Jung H Suh
   3. Melania Fanok
   4. Roni Chau
   5. Hilda Solanoy
   6. Ryan Takahashi
   7. Anna I Bakardjiev
   8. Isabel Becerra
   9. N Butch Benitez
   10. Chi-Lu Chiu
   11. Sonnet S Davis
   12. William E Dowdle
   13. Timothy Earr
   14. Anthony A Estrada
   15. Audrey Gill
   16. Connie Ha
   17. Patrick CG Haddick
   18. Kirk R Henne
   19. Martin Larhammar
   20. Amy W-S Leung
   21. Romeo Maciuca
   22. Bahram Memarzadeh
   23. Hoang N Nguyen
   24. Alicia A Nugent
   25. Maksim Osipov
   26. Yingqing Ran
   27. Kevin Rebadulla
   28. Elysia Roche
   29. Thomas Sandmann
   30. Jing Wang
   31. Joseph W Lewcock
   32. Kimberly Scearce-Levie
   33. Lesley A Kane
   34. Pascal E Sanchez

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents solid evidence to support the effectiveness of the novel eIF2B activator DNL343 in mitigating the integrated stress response (ISR) and reducing neurodegeneration associated with ISR activation in two mouse models. These important findings offer promise for the potential use of DNL343 in treating vanishing white matter disease (VWMD), a rare condition resulting from eIF2B loss of function, and in addressing other neurodegenerative disorders characterized by ISR involvement. The study also identified potential VWMD biomarkers, which hold significance for assessing disease progression and evaluating treatment responses.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Four Individually Identified Paired Dopamine Neurons Signal Taste Punishment in Larval Drosophila

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Denise Weber
   2. Katrin Vogt
   3. Anton Miroschnikow
   4. Michael Pankratz
   5. Andreas S. Thum

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This comprehensive study presents important findings that delineate how specific dopaminergic neurons (DANs) instruct aversive learning in Drosophila larvae exposed to high salt through an integration of behavioral experiments, imaging, and connectomic analysis. The work reveals how a numerically minimal circuit achieves remarkable functional complexity, with redundancies and synergies within the DL1 cluster that challenge our understanding of how few neurons generate learning behaviors. By establishing a framework for sensory-driven learning pathways, the study makes a compelling and substantial contribution to understanding associative conditioning while demonstrating conservation of learning mechanisms across Drosophila developmental stages.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Neuron-specific RNA-sequencing reveals different responses in peripheral neurons after nerve injury

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Sara Bolívar
   2. Elisenda Sanz
   3. David Ovelleiro
   4. Douglas W Zochodne
   5. Esther Udina

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The valuable findings in this study show that subpopulations of peripheral sensory neurons display different capacities for regeneration after a similar injury. Nociceptor neurons have greater regeneration over mechanoreceptor, proprioceptors and motor neurons. This differential responsiveness of neuronal subtypes was traced to activation of different transcriptional programs, which were carefully analyzed and quantitated, resulting in solid evidence for the conclusions.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Prior probability cues bias sensory encoding with increasing task exposure

    This article has 5 authors:

    1. Kevin Walsh
    2. David P McGovern
    3. Jessica Dully
    4. Simon P Kelly
    5. Redmond G O'Connell

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This important paper sheds light on the role of expectations in perceptual decision-making. Sophisticated analyses of human EEG data provide convincing evidence that both motor preparation and sensory processing were affected by expectations, albeit with different time courses. These findings will be of interest to scientists interested in perception and decision-making.

    Reviewed by eLife