eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. β-Carotene accelerates the resolution of atherosclerosis in mice

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Ivan Pinos
   2. Johana Coronel
   3. Asma'a Albakri
   4. Amparo Blanco
   5. Patrick McQueen
   6. Donald Molina
   7. JaeYoung Sim
   8. Edward A Fisher
   9. Jaume Amengual

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents an important conceptual advance of how vitamin A and its derivatives contribute to atherosclerosis. There is solid evidence for the contributions of specialized populations of T cells in atherosclerosis resolution, including use of multiple in vivo models to validate the functional effects. A limitation is the insufficient analysis of lesions, but the manuscript has been improved from the original preprint version and the overarching conclusions have been refined.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Uremic toxin indoxyl sulfate induces trained immunity via the AhR-dependent arachidonic acid pathway in end-stage renal disease (ESRD)

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Hee Young Kim
   2. Yeon Jun Kang
   3. Dong Hyun Kim
   4. Jiyeon Jang
   5. Su Jeong Lee
   6. Gwanghun Kim
   7. Hee Byung Koh
   8. Ye Eun Ko
   9. Hyun Mu Shin
   10. Hajeong Lee
   11. Tae-Hyun Yoo
   12. Won-Woo Lee

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The authors expand the concept of a new layer to training immunity, which is currently being highlighted by several colleagues in the field. The work provides important hints to understand end-stage renal disease. Overall, the rational approach leads to experimental results that are solid.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Murine alveolar macrophages rapidly accumulate intranasally administered SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein leading to neutrophil recruitment and damage

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Chung Park
   2. Il-Young Hwang
   3. Serena Li-Sue Yan
   4. Sinmanus Vimonpatranon
   5. Danlan Wei
   6. Don Van Ryk
   7. Alexandre Girard
   8. Claudia Cicala
   9. James Arthos
   10. John H Kehrl

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper investigates the impact of intranasal instillation of SARS CoV2 spike protein in mouse models of lung inflammation. The authors conclude that the spike protein can interact with macrophages through carbohydrate recognition and can induce recruitment and NETosis of neutrophils, contributing to lung inflammation. They also use the cremaster muscle model to investigate effect of the spike proteins on neutrophil dynamics and death using intravital microscopy. Given that mucosal vaccines using SARS CoV2 spike variants could be envisioned as desirable, the observation that spike can induce lung/mucosal inflammation even without an adjuvant is important. Despite limitations of some loose terminology and some weak controls, the key observations are solid and demand further attention given the importance of the antigen.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. SMARCAD1 and TOPBP1 contribute to heterochromatin maintenance at the transition from the 2C-like to the pluripotent state

   This article has 17 authors:

   1. Ruben Sebastian-Perez
   2. Shoma Nakagawa
   3. Xiaochuan Tu
   4. Sergi Aranda
   5. Martina Pesaresi
   6. Pablo Aurelio Gomez-Garcia
   7. Marc Alcoverro-Bertran
   8. Jose Luis Gomez-Vazquez
   9. Davide Carnevali
   10. Eva Borràs
   11. Eduard Sabidó
   12. Laura Martin
   13. Malka Nissim-Rafinia
   14. Eran Meshorer
   15. Maria Victoria Neguembor
   16. Luciano Di Croce
   17. Maria Pia Cosma

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     This important study examines heterochromatin domain dynamics using a model system that allows reversible transition from an embryonic stem cell to a 2-cell-like state. The authors present a solid resource to the research community that will further the understanding of changes in the chromatin-bound proteome during the 2C-to-ESC transition. However, conclusions related to the functional roles of the interaction between the SWI/SNF complex component SMARCAD1 and the DNA Topoisomerase II Binding protein (TOPBP1) remain incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. High-throughput Automated Muropeptide Analysis (HAMA) Reveals Peptidoglycan Composition of Gut Microbial Cell Walls

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Ya-Chen Hsu
   2. Pin-Rui Su
   3. Lin-Jie Huang
   4. Kum-Yi Cheng
   5. Chun-hsien Chen
   6. Cheng-Chih Hsu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study reports a new approach to determine the architecture of peptidoglycan (PG), the primary component of the bacterial cell wall, validating the pipeline through an architectural analysis of several members of the human gut microbiota. The technique is potentially valuable for this sub-field as it would enable researchers interested in peptidoglycan in a range of organisms to easily assess muropeptide composition in an easy, automated manner. However, there is some uncertainty about whether the pipeline was fully automated and it was noted that the pipeline requires prior knowledge of the peptidoglycan composition of an organism. Additionally, the use of the technique to investigate whether PG cross-bridge length is a determinant of cell wall stiffness produced evidence that would need more direct support and is therefore so far incomplete.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Diminishing neuronal acidification by channelrhodopsins with low proton conduction

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Rebecca Frank Hayward
   2. F Phil Brooks
   3. Shang Yang
   4. Shiqiang Gao
   5. Adam E Cohen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important and compelling study investigates the problem of intracellular acidification induced by commonly-used optogenetic stimulating opsins. The low proton permeability of two high-performance opsins is shown to reduce photostimulated acidification. The findings may be of broad interest in the fields of neuroscience research and optogenetic therapies.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Key epigenetic and signaling factors in the formation and maintenance of the blood-brain barrier

   This article has 18 authors:

   1. Jayanarayanan Sadanandan
   2. Sithara Thomas
   3. Iny Elizabeth Mathew
   4. Zhen Huang
   5. Spiros L Blackburn
   6. Nitin Tandon
   7. Hrishikesh Lokhande
   8. Pierre D McCrea
   9. Emery H Bresnick
   10. Pramod K Dash
   11. Devin W McBride
   12. Arif Harmanci
   13. Lalit K Ahirwar
   14. Dania Jose
   15. Ari C Dienel
   16. Hussein A Zeineddine
   17. Sungha Hong
   18. Peeyush Kumar T

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife Assessment

     The specific questions taken up for study by the authors-in mice of HDAC and Polycomb function in the context of vascular endothelial cell (EC) gene expression relevant to the blood-brain barrier, (BBB)-are potentially useful in the context of vascular diversification in understanding and remedying situations where BBB function is compromised. The strength of the evidence presented is incomplete, and to elaborate, it is known that the culturing of endothelial cells can have a strong effect on gene expression.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. A timeline of bacterial and archaeal diversification in the ocean

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Carolina A Martinez-Gutierrez
   2. Josef C Uyeda
   3. Frank O Aylward

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important paper addresses the challenging problem of dating the origin of several groups of marine microorganisms. However, while much of the analyses are solid, the lack of robustness analysis in molecular dating component such as using alternative time calibrations, clock models, and input gene sets makes the study incomplete. Despite some concerns, this work is a commendable attempt at an extremely difficult problem and will be of broad interest to microbiologists, geologists, and evolutionary biologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Ligand bias underlies differential signaling of multiple FGFs via FGFR1

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Kelly Karl
   2. Nuala Del Piccolo
   3. Taylor Light
   4. Tanaya Roy
   5. Pooja Dudeja
   6. Vlad-Constantin Ursachi
   7. Bohumil Fafilek
   8. Pavel Krejci
   9. Kalina Hristova

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript describes useful data on the mechanisms underlying the activation of the receptor tyrosine kinase FGFR1 and stimulation of intracellular signaling pathways in response to FGF4, FGF8, or FGF9 binding to the extracellular domain of FGFR1. Solid evidence for quantitative differences in the downstream responses induced by the three ligands is presented. This manuscript will be of interest to biochemists and cell biologists working on receptor tyrosine kinases and general cell signalling across membranes.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Continuous, long-term crawling behavior characterized by a robotic transport system

    This article has 9 authors:

    1. James Yu
    2. Stephanie Dancausse
    3. Maria Paz
    4. Tolu Faderin
    5. Melissa Gaviria
    6. Joseph W Shomar
    7. Dave Zucker
    8. Vivek Venkatachalam
    9. Mason Klein

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This study describes a useful method to monitor the behavior of Drosophila larvae in a uniform environment over much longer time scales than was possible with previous methods. The authors provide a solid characterization of aspects of the method and show that the behavior of single larvae can be quantified over several hours. The experiments offer a proof-of-concept for a robotic device that will enable the investigation of behavior in long-term experiments in ways that were previously unimaginable.

    Reviewed by eLife