eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Towards biologically plausible phosphene simulation for the differentiable optimization of visual cortical prostheses

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Maureen van der Grinten
   2. Jaap de Ruyter van Steveninck
   3. Antonio Lozano
   4. Laura Pijnacker
   5. Bodo Rueckauer
   6. Pieter Roelfsema
   7. Marcel van Gerven
   8. Richard van Wezel
   9. Umut Güçlü
   10. Yağmur Güçlütürk

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This simulation work with open source code will be of interest to those developing visual prostheses and demonstrates useful improvements over past visual prosthesis simulations. While the authors provide compelling evidence to support the generation of individual phosphenes and integration into deep-learning algorithms, the assumptions beyond individual phosphenes and the overall validation process are inadequate to support the claim of fitting the needs of cortical neuroprosthetic vision development.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Healthcare in England was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic across the pancreatic cancer pathway: A cohort study using OpenSAFELY-TPP

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Agnieszka Lemanska
   2. Colm Andrews
   3. Louis Fisher
   4. Seb Bacon
   5. Adam E Frampton
   6. Amir Mehrkar
   7. Peter Inglesby
   8. Simon Davy
   9. Keith Roberts
   10. Praveetha Patalay
   11. Ben Goldacre
   12. Brian MacKenna
   13. The OpenSAFELY Collaborative
   14. Alex J Walker

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study provides useful information on the impact of the pandemic on the quantity of healthcare delivered to patients with pancreatic cancer in England. The authors showed that there was no difference in the number of diagnoses of pancreatic cancer during the pandemic compared to the preceding 5-year period, but a reduction in surgical resections by nearly 25%. They reported no difference in deaths between the two periods. They show no differences in rates of diagnosis, but the clinical relevance is incomplete as they have not compared survival from cancer between those time periods.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Epigenetic signature of human immune aging in the GESTALT study

   This article has 26 authors:

   1. Roshni Roy
   2. Pei-Lun Kuo
   3. Julián Candia
   4. Dimitra Sarantopoulou
   5. Ceereena Ubaida-Mohien
   6. Dena Hernandez
   7. Mary Kaileh
   8. Sampath Arepalli
   9. Amit Singh
   10. Arsun Bektas
   11. Jaekwan Kim
   12. Ann Z Moore
   13. Toshiko Tanaka
   14. Julia McKelvey
   15. Linda Zukley
   16. Cuong Nguyen
   17. Tonya Wallace
   18. Christopher Dunn
   19. William Wood
   20. Yulan Piao
   21. Christopher Coletta
   22. Supriyo De
   23. Jyoti Sen
   24. Nan-ping Weng
   25. Ranjan Sen
   26. Luigi Ferrucci

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is an important study reanalysing previously published datasets to understand methylation changes during aging. The evidence supporting the conclusions is solid and sheds new light on features of aging in cells, highlighting the concept of cell-specific methylation changes and their relationship to other physiological changes such as inflammation that may impact methylation patterns. This work will be of broad interest to cell and molecular biologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Decoding the genetic and chemical basis of sexual attractiveness in parasitic wasps

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Weizhao Sun
   2. Michelle Ina Lange
   3. Jürgen Gadau
   4. Jan Buellesbach

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study reveals the genetic regulation of changes in cuticular hydrocarbon profiles in a Hymenopteran insect and links these changes with courtship behaviour and sexual attractiveness. It provides convincing empirical evidence, spanning genetic, chemical, and behavioural data. It adds valuable new perspectives on the mechanisms that underlie chemical recognition and communication systems in nature.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Melanocortin 1 receptor regulates cholesterol and bile acid metabolism in the liver

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Keshav Thapa
   2. James J Kadiri
   3. Karla Saukkonen
   4. Iida Pennanen
   5. Bishwa Ghimire
   6. Minying Cai
   7. Eriika Savontaus
   8. Petteri Rinne

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The significance of this manuscript is that is provides useful information for the field of hepatology and endocrinology on the regulatory mechanisms of cholesterol homeostasis by melanocortin. The authors provide solid evidence utilizing both in vivo and in vitro molecular, cellular, and biochemical approaches to support their claims.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Decoupled neoantigen cross-presentation by dendritic cells limits anti-tumor immunity against tumors with heterogeneous neoantigen expression

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Kim Bich Nguyen
   2. Malte Roerden
   3. Christopher J Copeland
   4. Coralie M Backlund
   5. Nory G Klop-Packel
   6. Tanaka Remba
   7. Byungji Kim
   8. Nishant K Singh
   9. Michael E Birnbaum
   10. Darrell J Irvine
   11. Stefani Spranger

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important work advances our understanding of the import of clonal heterogeneity in cancers in immune response to individual antigens. The evidence supporting the conclusions is convincing, and uses interesting tools, although the mechanistic basis of the observations is unclear. The work will be of broad interest to immunologists including cancer immunologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. A back-door insight into the modulation of Src kinase activity by the polyamine spermidine

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Sofia Rossini
   2. Marco Gargaro
   3. Giulia Scalisi
   4. Elisa Bianconi
   5. Sara Ambrosino
   6. Eleonora Panfili
   7. Claudia Volpi
   8. Ciriana Orabona
   9. Antonio Macchiarulo
   10. Francesca Fallarino
   11. Giada Mondanelli

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is an important study describing the mechanism of Spermidine modulation of Src kinase, identifying the interacting amino acids and the effect on indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase 1 (IDO1) activation based on solid evidence. Considering the important role of IDO1 in the immune response this study could provide important information for the design of allosteric modulators capable of turning SRC on/off.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Mutant SF3B1 promotes malignancy in PDAC

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Patrik Simmler
   2. Eleonora I Ioannidi
   3. Tamara Mengis
   4. Kim Fabiano Marquart
   5. Simran Asawa
   6. Kjong Van-Lehmann
   7. Andre Kahles
   8. Tinu Thomas
   9. Cornelia Schwerdel
   10. Nicola Aceto
   11. Gunnar Rätsch
   12. Markus Stoffel
   13. Gerald Schwank

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This work examines a role for altered splicing in pancreatic tumorigenesis by interrogating effects of a specific mutation in the Sf3b splicing factor in pancreatic organoid and cell line growth primarily, with some in vivo work also performed. There is significant potential in the study but there is a concern about the lack of in vivo validation of claims that are most relevant to metastatic progression and the focus on one specific mechanism at the expense of other possible effects on splicing of factors important for disease progression.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Long-range DNA end resection supports homologous recombination by checkpoint activation rather than extensive homology generation

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Michael T Kimble
   2. Matthew J Johnson
   3. Mattie R Nester
   4. Lorraine S Symington

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment:

     This fundamental study provides compelling evidence that long-range resection is important for recombination between distal, but not proximal, homologous sequences. It is thus proposed that a major role of long resection of a double-strand break mediated by Sgs1 and Exo1 is to activate the DNA damage checkpoint to allow the chromosomal mobility needed for the DNA ends to find a distant homologous sequence with which repair via homologous recombination, adding a new biological meaning to the role of long DNA resection in homologous recombination.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Non-shared coding of observed and executed actions prevails in macaque ventral premotor mirror neurons

    This article has 5 authors:

    1. Jörn K Pomper
    2. Mohammad Shams
    3. Shengjun Wen
    4. Friedemann Bunjes
    5. Peter Thier

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      The mechanisms underlying mirror neurons are a topic of wide interest for all who study the workings of the brain. The authors use an elegant decoding approach to test whether mirror neurons encode action categories in the same framework regardless of whether actions are executed in the dark or observed in the light. This new approach identifies only a small subset of mirror neurons with fully matched coding among a larger set showing partial matches. The thought-provoking study opens up new principled avenues to probe the mechanics of matching action and perception.

    Reviewed by eLife