eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Examining the association of clinician characteristics with perceived changes in cervical cancer screening and colposcopy practice during the COVID-19 pandemic: a mixed methods assessment

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Lindsay Fuzzell
   2. Naomi C Brownstein
   3. Holly B Fontenot
   4. Paige W Lake
   5. Alexandra Michel
   6. Ashley Whitmer
   7. Sarah L Rossi
   8. McKenzie McIntyre
   9. Susan T Vadaparampil
   10. Rebecca B Perkins

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important work provides evidence regarding the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cervical cancer screening and precancer treatments in the USA. As there are few screening registries, the study provides solid evidence using a survey of health providers' impressions to assess whether cervical cancer screening services declined during the pandemic. The work will be of interest to public health professionals working in cancer prevention.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. A pH-sensitive switch activates virulence in Salmonella

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Dasvit Shetty
   2. Linda J Kenney

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Salmonella invades and survives in host cells via SPI-1 and SPI-2 type III secretion system mechanisms, with the SPI-2 system allowing for intracellular survival in Salmonella-containing vacuoles, which have a low-pH environment. Transcription of SPI-2 genes at low pH is activated by the DNA-binding SsrB protein, which sits at the top of the SPI-2 regulatory hierarchy. This study provides important insights as to how SsrB is allosterically affected by pH resulting in acid-dependent DNA binding. However, there are concerns about some experiments, and the evidence presented is not fully conclusive.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. The Na+ leak channel NALCN controls spontaneous activity and mediates synaptic modulation by α2-adrenergic receptors in auditory neurons

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Tenzin Ngodup
   2. Tomohiko Irie
   3. Seán P Elkins
   4. Laurence O Trussell

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper reports the fundamental discovery of adrenergic modulation of spontaneous firing through the inhibition of the Na+ leak channel NALCN in cartwheel cells in the dorsal cochlear nucleus. This study provides unequivocal evidence that the activation of alpha-2 adrenergic or GABA-B receptors inhibit NALCN currents to reduce neuronal excitability. The evidence supporting the conclusions is exceptional, the electrophysiological data is high quality and the experimental design is rigorous.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Deciphering the genetic interactions between Pou4f3, Gfi1, and Rbm24 in maintaining mouse cochlear hair cell survival

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Guangqin Wang
   2. Yunpeng Gu
   3. Zhiyong Liu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     In this valuable study, the authors explore regulatory cascades governing mammalian cochlear hair cell development and survival. They confirm previous studies that the transcription factors Pou4f3 and Gfi1 are necessary for hair cell survival, and use compelling evidence to demonstrate that the RNA binding protein gene RBM24 is regulated by Pou4f3, but not Gfi1. These findings will be of interest to those working on hearing loss, and hold significance for viral gene delivery methods aiming to manipulate gene expression.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Single-cell RNAseq analysis of spinal locomotor circuitry in larval zebrafish

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Jimmy J Kelly
   2. Hua Wen
   3. Paul Brehm

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     In zebrafish, primary motor neurons (PMNs) control escape movements, and a more heterogeneous population of secondary motor neurons (SMNs) regulate the speed of rhythmic swimming. Using single cell RNA sequencing (scRNAseq), the authors have obtained compelling evidence that PMNs, and two types of interneurons innervating them, express a set of three genes encoding voltage-gated ion channels enabling rapid firing. The PMNs also express high transcript levels of proteins involved in exocytosis, which would be expected to support rapid neurotransmitter release. These results will be important for those working on spinal cord function and zebrafish genomics/transcriptomics.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. A synergistic workspace for human consciousness revealed by Integrated Information Decomposition

   This article has 14 authors:

   1. Andrea I Luppi
   2. Pedro AM Mediano
   3. Fernando E Rosas
   4. Judith Allanson
   5. John Pickard
   6. Robin L Carhart-Harris
   7. Guy B Williams
   8. Michael M Craig
   9. Paola Finoia
   10. Adrian M Owen
   11. Lorina Naci
   12. David K Menon
   13. Daniel Bor
   14. Emmanuel A Stamatakis

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This article presents important results describing how the gathering, integration, and broadcasting of information in the brain changes when consciousness is lost either through anesthesia or injury. They provide convincing evidence to support their conclusions, although the paper relies on a single analysis tool (partial information decomposition) and could benefit from a clearer explication of its conceptual basis, methodology, and results. The work will be of interest to both neuroscientists and clinicians interested in basic and clinical aspects of consciousness.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Finding structure during incremental speech comprehension

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Bingjiang Lyu
   2. William D Marslen-Wilson
   3. Yuxing Fang
   4. Lorraine K Tyler

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable study provides insights into how the brain parses the syntactic structure of a spoken sentence. Convincing evidence is provided that distributive cortical networks are engaged for incremental parsing of a sentence, and neural activity recorded by MEG correlates with sentence structure measures extracted by a deep neural network language model, i.e., BERT. A contribution of the work is to use a deep neural network model to quantify how the mental representation of syntactic structure updates as a sentence unfolds in time.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. What happens to the inhibitory control functions of the right inferior frontal cortex when this area is dominant for language?

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Esteban Villar-Rodríguez
   2. Cristina Cano-Melle
   3. Lidón Marin-Marin
   4. Maria Antònia Parcet
   5. César Avila

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study has important implications for theoretical proposals concerning how language lateralization affects the lateralization of other cognitive functions. The methods are solid, with an appropriate selection of cognitive control tasks that share homotopic regions of the brain with language, comparing participants with typical and atypical organization of language. The participants included in the study were mainly bilinguals, a population previously reported to have a more bilateral organization of cognitive control regions than monolinguals, limiting the generalizability of the results to the general population. Despite this limitation, the results will be of interest to researchers working of brain plasticity and development, in addition to those interested in language and cognitive control.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. An in vitro model for vitamin A transport across the human blood–brain barrier

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Chandler B Est
   2. Regina M Murphy

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This fundamental work substantially advances our understanding of retinol transport through the blood-brain barrier. The evidence supporting the conclusions is compelling, with rigorous biochemical assays. In general, the work is of broad interest to cell biologists, biochemists and neuroscientists.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Multimodal analysis of methylomics and fragmentomics in plasma cell-free DNA for multi-cancer early detection and localization

    This article has 65 authors:

    1. Van Thien Chi Nguyen
    2. Trong Hieu Nguyen
    3. Nhu Nhat Tan Doan
    4. Thi Mong Quynh Pham
    5. Giang Thi Huong Nguyen
    6. Thanh Dat Nguyen
    7. Thuy Thi Thu Tran
    8. Duy Long Vo
    9. Thanh Hai Phan
    10. Thanh Xuan Jasmine
    11. Van Chu Nguyen
    12. Huu Thinh Nguyen
    13. Trieu Vu Nguyen
    14. Thi Hue Hanh Nguyen
    15. Le Anh Khoa Huynh
    16. Trung Hieu Tran
    17. Quang Thong Dang
    18. Thuy Nguyen Doan
    19. Anh Minh Tran
    20. Viet Hai Nguyen
    21. Vu Tuan Anh Nguyen
    22. Le Minh Quoc Ho
    23. Quang Dat Tran
    24. Thi Thu Thuy Pham
    25. Tan Dat Ho
    26. Bao Toan Nguyen
    27. Thanh Nhan Vo Nguyen
    28. Thanh Dang Nguyen
    29. Dung Thai Bieu Phu
    30. Boi Hoan Huu Phan
    31. Thi Loan Vo
    32. Thi Huong Thoang Nai
    33. Thuy Trang Tran
    34. My Hoang Truong
    35. Ngan Chau Tran
    36. Trung Kien Le
    37. Thanh Huong Thi Tran
    38. Minh Long Duong
    39. Hoai Phuong Thi Bach
    40. Van Vu Kim
    41. The Anh Pham
    42. Duc Huy Tran
    43. Trinh Ngoc An Le
    44. Truong Vinh Ngoc Pham
    45. Minh Triet Le
    46. Dac Ho Vo
    47. Thi Minh Thu Tran
    48. Minh Nguyen Nguyen
    49. Thi Tuong Vi Van
    50. Anh Nhu Nguyen
    51. Thi Trang Tran
    52. Vu Uyen Tran
    53. Minh Phong Le
    54. Thi Thanh Do
    55. Thi Van Phan
    56. Hong-Dang Luu Nguyen
    57. Duy Sinh Nguyen
    58. Van Thinh Cao
    59. Thanh-Thuy Thi Do
    60. Dinh Kiet Truong
    61. Hung Sang Tang
    62. Hoa Giang
    63. Hoai-Nghia Nguyen
    64. Minh-Duy Phan
    65. Le Son Tran

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This study provides insights into the early detection of malignancies with noninvasive methods by developing a framework, which assesses methylation, CNA, and other genomic features. They established a solid model in discriminating malignancies from healthy controls, as well as the ability to distinguish tumor of origin. This important study will demonstrate its practical impacts in the clinic and other researchers of the field.

    Reviewed by eLife