eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Regulatory dissection of the severe COVID-19 risk locus introgressed by Neanderthals

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Evelyn Jagoda
   2. Davide Marnetto
   3. Gayani Senevirathne
   4. Victoria Gonzalez
   5. Kaushal Baid
   6. Francesco Montinaro
   7. Daniel Richard
   8. Darryl Falzarano
   9. Emmanuelle V LeBlanc
   10. Che C Colpitts
   11. Arinjay Banerjee
   12. Luca Pagani
   13. Terence D Capellini

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Scientists had previously discovered that humans and neanderthals mated leading to parts of neanderthal DNA becoming part of the human genome today. More recently, it was found that a genetic region, carrying which has been associated with manifestation of severe COVID-19 symptoms, is one that was "introgressed" into humans from neanderthals. This region contains many genetic variants, and this study set out to identify which of these genetic variants may be causally involved in creating severe symptoms in response to COVID-19 infection. The main critiques of the study stem from details of the functional assays to establish the regulatory role of the 4 variants in creating severe COVID-19 symptoms. In particular, the two genes (critical chemokine receptor genes: CCR1 and CCR5) that the authors identify as down-regulated by these variants are actually up-regulated in severe COVID-19 patients, leading to doubt about the role of these variants in changing response to COVID-19 through the regulation of these genes. In that regard, it seems necessary to conduct follow-up experimental and computational analyses to establish the role of these variants in altering CCR1 and CCR5 gene expression.

   Reviewed by eLife, ScreenIT

2. The antidepressant sertraline provides a novel host directed therapy module for augmenting TB therapy

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Deepthi Shankaran
   2. Anjali Singh
   3. Stanzin Dawa
   4. Prabhakar Arumugam
   5. Sheetal Gandotra
   6. Vivek Rao

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Host directed therapies (HDTs) have the potential to improve management of tuberculosis (TB) through shortening of the duration of standard 6-month chemotherapy and promoting recovery of respiratory sufficiency. Several such agents have come to the fore recently and in this study, the authors investigate the use of sertraline (SRT) and demonstrate that it potentiates the activity of anti-tubercular drugs in macrophages as well as in the murine model of TB infection. The authors propose a model whereby SRT acts through modulation of the inflammasome.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Gasotransmitter modulation of hypoglossal motoneuron activity

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Brigitte M Browe
   2. Ying-Jie Peng
   3. Jayasri Nanduri
   4. Nanduri R Prabhakar
   5. Alfredo J Garcia

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The purpose of this study was to determine whether heme oxygenase -2 deficiency translates to deficiencies in motor neuron function. This paper plays a plausible mechanism by which heme oxygenase-2 deficiency can lead to obstructive apneas. Indeed, this is among the first papers to comprehensively describe a signaling pathway in motor neurons and the consequences of its deficiency. Furthermore, the work completed here may be relevant to other diseases in which motor neuron signal transmission is a key contributor.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Dalpiciclib partially abrogates ER signaling activation induced by pyrotinib in HER2+HR+ breast cancer

   This article has 13 authors:

   1. Jiawen Bu
   2. Yixiao Zhang
   3. Nan Niu
   4. Kewei Bi
   5. Lisha Sun
   6. Xinbo Qiao
   7. Yimin Wang
   8. Yinan Zhang
   9. Xiaofan Jiang
   10. Dan Wang
   11. Qingtian Ma
   12. Huajun Li
   13. Caigang Liu

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This study presents a valuable finding that the combined use of pyrotinib with dalpiciclib exhibits better therapeutic efficacy against HER2+/HR+ breast cancer cells. The evidence supporting the claims of the authors is rather solid. The work will be of interest to medical biologists and clinical doctors working on breast cancer.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Dysregulation of the PRUNE2/PCA3 genetic axis in human prostate cancer: from experimental discovery to validation in two independent patient cohorts

   This article has 18 authors:

   1. Richard C Lauer
   2. Marc Barry
   3. Tracey L Smith
   4. Andrew Maltez Thomas
   5. Jin Wu
   6. Ruofei Du
   7. Ji-Hyun Lee
   8. Arpit Rao
   9. Andrey S Dobroff
   10. Marco A Arap
   11. Diana N Nunes
   12. Israel T Silva
   13. Emmanuel Dias-Neto
   14. Isan Chen
   15. Dennis J McCance
   16. Webster K Cavenee
   17. Renata Pasqualini
   18. Wadih Arap

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     Upregulation of PCA3 and downregulation of PRUNE2 in prostate cancer were first discovered in this work, which innovatively demonstrated that PCA3 and PRUNE3 function as an oncogene and a tumor suppressor gene respectively. The conclusion is further enhanced by the use of two distinct patient cohorts, which highlights the clinical significance. Functional experiments will be needed to more comprehensively validate the findings.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Translation of dipeptide repeat proteins in C9ORF72 ALS/FTD through unique and redundant AUG initiation codons

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Yoshifumi Sonobe
   2. Soojin Lee
   3. Gopinath Krishnan
   4. Yuanzheng Gu
   5. Deborah Y Kwon
   6. Fen-Biao Gao
   7. Raymond P Roos
   8. Paschalis Kratsios

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This valuable study by Sonobe et al uses transfected cells and patient iPSC-derived neurons to define mechanisms underlying translation of the antisense C4G2 RNA strand expressed in C9orf72-associated ALS and FTD. The authors design a series of constructs to explore the start codon required to produce toxic PR and prominent PG dipeptides in disease. Using these constructs they provide solid data that translation in the PR and PG reading frames occur due to the presence of AUG codons within the 5'UTR of the RNA strand. However, in its current form the paper is incomplete and the conclusions require additional experimental support.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Dysregulation of mTOR signaling mediates common neurite and migration defects in both idiopathic and 16p11.2 deletion autism neural precursor cells

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Smrithi Prem
   2. Bharati Dev
   3. Cynthia Peng
   4. Monal Mehta
   5. Rohan Alibutud
   6. Robert J Connacher
   7. Madeline St Thomas
   8. Xiaofeng Zhou
   9. Paul Matteson
   10. Jinchuan Xing
   11. James H Millonig
   12. Emanuel DiCicco-Bloom

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment:

     This important study describes converging cellular phenotypes in human neural progenitor cells derived from individuals with differing genetic forms of autism spectrum disorders. These convincing data demonstrate that altered mTOR signaling occurs in all cases of autism examined in the study, providing a common starting point for understanding the etiology of neuronal deficits in autism. The work will be of broad interest to neurobiologists especially those studying molecular mechanisms of brain development and disease.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Competitive interactions between culturable bacteria are highly non-additive

   This article has 3 authors:

   1. Amichai Baichman-Kass
   2. Tingting Song
   3. Jonathan Friedman

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This important study presents an interesting example of how complexities of communities may be reduced by showing that the joint effects of two or more species on a focal species are generally not additive, but rather dominated by the strongest single effect. The evidence, enabled by over 14,000 measurements using nanodroplet-based microfluidics, is compelling, although the generality of the conclusion awaits further studies. This paper is of interest to microbial ecologists.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Structure of Dunaliella photosystem II reveals conformational flexibility of stacked and unstacked supercomplexes

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Ido Caspy
   2. Maria Fadeeva
   3. Yuval Mazor
   4. Nathan Nelson

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The work of Caspy and coworkers resolves the cryo-EM structures of stacked and unstacked PSII supercomplexes of Dunaliella, revealing unexpected connectivity and conformational flexibility, with intriguing implications for the function and regulation of photosynthesis.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Multimodal mapping of cell types and projections in the central nucleus of the amygdala

    This article has 11 authors:

    1. Yuhan Wang
    2. Sabine Krabbe
    3. Mark Eddison
    4. Fredrick E Henry
    5. Greg Fleishman
    6. Andrew L Lemire
    7. Lihua Wang
    8. Wyatt Korff
    9. Paul W Tillberg
    10. Andreas Lüthi
    11. Scott Sternson

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This study uses top-notch spatial profiling methods to present a valuable account of the number of different neuron types in the central nucleus of the amygdala of the mouse. The approaches and evidence presented are compelling, but the analysis is incomplete and would benefit from increases in sample size. With this aspect strengthened, this paper would be of interest to neuroscientists investigating the function of the central amygdala.

    Reviewed by eLife