eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Spatial determination and prognostic impact of the fibroblast transcriptome in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

   This article has 16 authors:

   1. Wayne Croft
   2. Hayden Pearce
   3. Sandra Margielewska-Davies
   4. Lindsay Lim
   5. Samantha M Nicol
   6. Fouzia Zayou
   7. Daniel Blakeway
   8. Francesca Marcon
   9. Sarah Powell-Brett
   10. Brinder Mahon
   11. Reena Merard
   12. Jianmin Zuo
   13. Gary Middleton
   14. Keith Roberts
   15. Rachel M Brown
   16. Paul Moss

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment:

     This manuscript uses an innovative combination of spatial profiling with single-cell transcriptomics to define expression profiles of stromal components in proximal tumor regions compared to those in distal regions in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Based on this, the authors claim that the presence of a proximal fibroblast population predicts worse outcomes for PDAC patients than the presence of a distal fibroblast population. While the work provides valuable insight into how different types of tumor stromal fibroblasts may affect PDAC outcomes, the work is currently incomplete and will benefit from more extended use of fibroblast and myeloid cell markers and efforts to better define the transcriptomic data generated.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Inferring sources of suboptimality in perceptual decision making using a causal inference task

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Sabyasachi Shivkumar
   2. Madeline S. Cappelloni
   3. Ross K. Maddox
   4. Ralf M. Haefner

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study of human perceptual decision-making provides important insights into the sources of suboptimality in human inference. The authors provide solid evidence by combining psychophysics in an audiovisual causal inference task with detailed modeling of the observed behavior. Additional control analyses should be carried out to validate the identifiability of distinct suboptimalities using the authors' modeling framework, and the generalizability of their findings in other conditions should be tested or discussed more explicitly.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. ECS1 and ECS2 suppress polyspermy and the formation of haploid plants by promoting double fertilization

   This article has 7 authors:

   1. Yanbo Mao
   2. Thomas Nakel
   3. Isil Erbasol Serbes
   4. Saurabh Joshi
   5. Dawit G Tekleyohans
   6. Thomas Baum
   7. Rita Groß-Hardt

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment:

     This important study convincingly shows that the endopeptidases ECS1 and ECS2 repress the formation of polyspermy-derived triparental offspring and haploid induction by promoting double fertilization. While the underlying mechanisms remain to be further elucidated, the data presented in this study represent a valuable foundation for understanding the regulation of offspring genome size. This study will be of particular interest to the large community of scientists who are interested in plant reproduction and breeding.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Development and biophysical characterization of a humanized FSH–blocking monoclonal antibody therapeutic formulated at an ultra-high concentration

   This article has 16 authors:

   1. Satish Rojekar
   2. Anusha R Pallapati
   3. Judit Gimenez-Roig
   4. Funda Korkmaz
   5. Farhath Sultana
   6. Damini Sant
   7. Clement M Haeck
   8. Anne Macdonald
   9. Se-Min Kim
   10. Clifford J Rosen
   11. Orly Barak
   12. Marcia Meseck
   13. John Caminis
   14. Daria Lizneva
   15. Tony Yuen
   16. Mone Zaidi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This development of a highly concentrated and potentially clinically valuable antibody formulation for MS-Hu6, a first-in-class FSH-blocking humanized antibody is of potential translational importance in the management of osteoporosis, obesity, and Alzheimer's disease. The meticulous methodology is thorough and compelling in its range of techniques examining the stability and physiochemical properties of the formulated MS-Hu6.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Sterol derivative binding to the orthosteric site causes conformational changes in an invertebrate Cys-loop receptor

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Steven De Gieter
   2. Casey I Gallagher
   3. Eveline Wijckmans
   4. Diletta Pasini
   5. Chris Ulens
   6. Rouslan G Efremov

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents valuable structures of a pentameric ligand-gated ion channel from a thermophilic worm that is a homologue of the well-known mammalian nicotinic receptors. Although the function of the worm receptor is unknown, the authors convincingly identify interesting features for this class of receptors including a steroid detergent that is bound in the canonical neurotransmitter site and that induces conformational changes of the extracellular domains. These observations will be of broad interest to the ligand-gated ion channel community, although it is difficult at this moment to relate these observations to channel function as the channel's activating ligand remains unknown.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Balancing true and false detection of intermittent sensory targets by adjusting the inputs to the evidence accumulation process

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Anna C Geuzebroek
   2. Hannah Craddock
   3. Redmond G O'Connell
   4. Simon P Kelly

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This research provides convincing evidence that standard behavioral modeling and EEG-derived signatures of the decision process may not agree on mechanisms underlying changes in decision strategy. The authors make a strong case for the importance of informing behavioral modeling with putative neural signatures of the corresponding decision processes. The assumptions of this neurally-informed modeling approach should be further explored and clarified to highlight not only its benefits but also potential caveats.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Task-dependent optimal representations for cerebellar learning

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Marjorie Xie
   2. Samuel P Muscinelli
   3. Kameron Decker Harris
   4. Ashok Litwin-Kumar

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Models of cerebellar function and the coding of inputs in the cerebellum often assume that random stimuli are a reasonable stand-in for real stimuli. However, the important contribution of this paper is that conclusions about optimality and sparseness in these models do not generalize to potentially more realistic sets of stimuli, for example, those drawn from a low-dimensional manifold. While the mathematical modelling and analysis in the paper are convincing, one important limitation of the paper is that the neural dynamics and circuit architecture are not very specific to the cerebellum, and lack important biological detail.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Cholinergic modulation shifts the response of CA1 pyramidal cells to depolarizing ramps via TRPM4 channels with potential implications for place field firing

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Crescent L Combe
   2. Carol M Upchurch
   3. Carmen C Canavier
   4. Sonia Gasparini

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript by Combe et al. presents the role of cholinergic modulation in the spike rate adaptation in pyramidal place cells. Using combined electrophysiology, pharmacological, and multi-compartment computational modeling, the authors identify the downstream pathway (e.g. activation of TRPM4 channel) that shapes the firing pattern under the triangular-shaped ramps. The study demonstrates solid evidence, and the findings are important for bridging pyramidal neurons' molecular/channel properties to behavior-level implications (place field firing).

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Spontaneous body wall contractions stabilize the fluid microenvironment that shapes host–microbe associations

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Janna C Nawroth
   2. Christoph Giez
   3. Alexander Klimovich
   4. Eva Kanso
   5. Thomas CG Bosch

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important work studies the spontaneous contractions (SC) of the Hydra body wall and presents a mathematical model of nutrient transport to hypothesize the role of SC on maintaining the microbiota. The solid evidence presented yields insights on the functional implications of the SC and the increased nutrient update obtained from mixing the local fluid environment through body wall contractions. The main result represents an important observation about the role of hydrodynamics on organism behavior and its relation to diffusive chemical transport processes.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. SARS-CoV-2 uses CD4 to infect T helper lymphocytes

    This article has 76 authors:

    1. Natalia S Brunetti
    2. Gustavo G Davanzo
    3. Diogo de Moraes
    4. Allan JR Ferrari
    5. Gabriela F Souza
    6. Stéfanie Primon Muraro
    7. Thiago L Knittel
    8. Vinicius O Boldrini
    9. Lauar B Monteiro
    10. João Victor Virgílio-da-Silva
    11. Gerson S Profeta
    12. Natália S Wassano
    13. Luana Nunes Santos
    14. Victor C Carregari
    15. Artur HS Dias
    16. Flavio P Veras
    17. Lucas A Tavares
    18. Julia Forato
    19. Icaro MS Castro
    20. Lícia C Silva-Costa
    21. André C Palma
    22. Eli Mansour
    23. Raisa G Ulaf
    24. Ana F Bernardes
    25. Thyago A Nunes
    26. Luciana C Ribeiro
    27. Marcus V Agrela
    28. Maria Luiza Moretti
    29. Lucas I Buscaratti
    30. Fernanda Crunfli
    31. Raissa G Ludwig
    32. Jaqueline A Gerhardt
    33. Natália Munhoz-Alves
    34. Ana Maria Marques
    35. Renata Sesti-Costa
    36. Mariene R Amorim
    37. Daniel A Toledo-Teixeira
    38. Pierina Lorencini Parise
    39. Matheus Cavalheiro Martini
    40. Karina Bispos-dos-Santos
    41. Camila L Simeoni
    42. Fabiana Granja
    43. Virgínia C Silvestrini
    44. Eduardo B de Oliveira
    45. Vitor M Faca
    46. Murilo Carvalho
    47. Bianca G Castelucci
    48. Alexandre B Pereira
    49. Laís D Coimbra
    50. Marieli MG Dias
    51. Patricia B Rodrigues
    52. Arilson Bernardo SP Gomes
    53. Fabricio B Pereira
    54. Leonilda MB Santos
    55. Louis-Marie Bloyet
    56. Spencer Stumpf
    57. Marjorie C Pontelli
    58. Sean Whelan
    59. Andrei C Sposito
    60. Robson F Carvalho
    61. André S Vieira
    62. Marco AR Vinolo
    63. André Damasio
    64. Licio Velloso
    65. Ana Carolina M Figueira
    66. Luis LP da Silva
    67. Thiago Mattar Cunha
    68. Helder I Nakaya
    69. Henrique Marques-Souza
    70. Rafael E Marques
    71. Daniel Martins-de-Souza
    72. Munir S Skaf
    73. Jose Luiz Proenca-Modena
    74. Pedro MM Moraes-Vieira
    75. Marcelo A Mori
    76. Alessandro S Farias

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      The manuscript by Brunetti et al. represents an important contribution where SARS-CoV-2 infection of T-helper cells is implicated and found to be mediated by CD4. The work progressed through a computationally driven hypothesis, by analyzing the interaction partners of SARS-CoV-2 spike glycoprotein (as initially modelled through similar SARS-CoV-1), followed by experimental validations, and further computational and experimental insights on the mechanism of binding. The study identifies the interaction between spike RBD domain and N Terminal domain of CD4 molecule as the specific viral attachment strategy. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is solid, the results look significant and the data is clear and enough for understanding the manuscript. It also provides a potential usefulness of their approach in future work in understanding how viruses mediate infection of T cells. The work will be of interest to medical biologists working on SARS-CoV-2.

    Reviewed by eLife, ScreenIT