eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. MorphoFeatures for unsupervised exploration of cell types, tissues, and organs in volume electron microscopy

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Valentyna Zinchenko
   2. Johannes Hugger
   3. Virginie Uhlmann
   4. Detlev Arendt
   5. Anna Kreshuk

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This paper introduces a fundamentally new automated method for assigning cell types and distinguishing organs in electron microscope (EM) reconstructions, a process that was previously manual. The authors present compelling evidence that their approach works as well or better than human efforts, in at least one species. This new method can help avoid a known bottleneck in EM reconstructions, one that will otherwise limit the ability of EM to scale up to larger volumes and target additional animal species. The main limitation is that the method has only been tested on a single species, but if tests show similar performance on other animals, the method will likely become a mainstay of EM reconstruction efforts.

   Reviewed by eLife

2. Antisense oligonucleotide therapy rescues disturbed brain rhythms and sleep in juvenile and adult mouse models of Angelman syndrome

   This article has 15 authors:

   1. Dongwon Lee
   2. Wu Chen
   3. Heet Naresh Kaku
   4. Xinming Zhuo
   5. Eugene S Chao
   6. Armand Soriano
   7. Allen Kuncheria
   8. Stephanie Flores
   9. Joo Hyun Kim
   10. Armando Rivera
   11. Frank Rigo
   12. Paymaan Jafar-nejad
   13. Arthur L Beaudet
   14. Matthew S Caudill
   15. Mingshan Xue

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript has a number of important findings in the interesting area of attempts to rescue neurodevelopmental phenotypes in the postnatal setting. Ameliorating some of the symptoms of Angelman syndrome at later stages is potentially of major clinical significance and this study provides support for that possibility. More generally, this study also shows that treatment of a syndrome like Angelman with antisense oligonucleotides to modulate allele-specific expression at later stages of life has potential.

   Reviewed by eLife

3. Population codes enable learning from few examples by shaping inductive bias

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Blake Bordelon
   2. Cengiz Pehlevan

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript presents a theory of generalization in neural population codes and proposes sample efficiency as a new normative principle distinct from efficient coding. The theory suggests that, with small numbers of training examples, generalization performance depends exclusively on the population code's 'kernel' (pairwise similarity between population activity patterns), and that sample-efficient learning depends on whether the task is aligned with the population's inductive bias (i.e., the top eigenfunctions of the kernel). The theory can be used to identify the set of 'easily learnable' stimulus-response mappings from neural data which makes strong behavioral predictions that can be easily evaluated.

   Reviewed by eLife

4. FGF21 protects against hepatic lipotoxicity and macrophage activation to attenuate fibrogenesis in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis

   This article has 19 authors:

   1. Cong Liu
   2. Milena Schönke
   3. Borah Spoorenberg
   4. Joost M Lambooij
   5. Hendrik JP van der Zande
   6. Enchen Zhou
   7. Maarten E Tushuizen
   8. Anne-Christine Andreasson
   9. Andrew Park
   10. Stephanie Oldham
   11. Martin Uhrbom
   12. Ingela Ahlstedt
   13. Yasuhiro Ikeda
   14. Kristina Wallenius
   15. Xiao-Rong Peng
   16. Bruno Guigas
   17. Mariëtte R Boon
   18. Yanan Wang
   19. Patrick CN Rensen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     The authors present an important study of the effects of chronic hepatic FGF21 overexpression on the development of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) in a model of obesity and dyslipidemia, i.e. ApoE3-Leiden CETP transgenic mice fed a western diet. NASH is a major global health problem and exogenous FGF21 treatment has been explored as a therapeutic strategy. The authors find that chronic overexpression of FGF21 blocks weight gain on the western diet, and even induces some weight loss compared to the control diet. The findings are convincing and methodologically sound.

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Optogenetic manipulation of neuronal and cardiomyocyte functions in zebrafish using microbial rhodopsins and adenylyl cyclases

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Hanako Hagio
   2. Wataru Koyama
   3. Shiori Hosaka
   4. Aysenur Deniz Song
   5. Janchiv Narantsatsral
   6. Koji Matsuda
   7. Takashi Shimizu
   8. Shoko Hososhima
   9. Satoshi P Tsunoda
   10. Hideki Kandori
   11. Masahiko Hibi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript provides a valuable resource for scientists who wish to manipulate second messengers in zebrafish using optogenetics. The authors provide solid evidence, based on behaviour, monitoring of heart beat and imaging, that several of the opsins tested can have an effect in larval fish. Opsins that lack an effect are also described. As the second messengers affected by the tools are found in multiple cell types, the results should be of interest of scientists working in a variety of areas.

   Reviewed by eLife

6. Optogenetic manipulation of Gq- and Gi/o-coupled receptor signaling in neurons and heart muscle cells

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Hanako Hagio
   2. Wataru Koyama
   3. Shiori Hosaka
   4. Aysenur Deniz Song
   5. Janchiv Narantsatsral
   6. Koji Matsuda
   7. Tomohiro Sugihara
   8. Takashi Shimizu
   9. Mitsumasa Koyanagi
   10. Akihisa Terakita
   11. Masahiko Hibi

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This work provides a potentially useful resource for scientists who wish to use optogenetics to manipulate GPCR signalling in larval zebrafish. It compares the physiological effects of different vertebrate and invertebrate rhodopsins expressed in either reticulospinal neurons or cardiomyocytes. The evidence for light-induced effects on behavior (either tail bending or heart beating) is solid, although only limited cell types and conditions are tested.

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Dynamics of immune memory and learning in bacterial communities

   This article has 2 authors:

   1. Madeleine Bonsma-Fisher
   2. Sidhartha Goyal

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     In this important work, the authors develop a theory for the co-evolutionary dynamics of bacteria and phages, where the major evolutionary pressure comes from CRISPR-Cas adaptive immunity in bacteria. Through extensive stochastic numerical simulations and analytical calculations, the paper presents a compelling analysis of the emergent properties of immune interactions, in the regime of a single proto-spacer and a single spacer. Some of the trends highlighted by the model are recovered from experimental data. The main results concern how diversity in both phage and bacteria population are linked and are shaped by immunity, and should be of broad interest in immunology.

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Ephrin-B1 regulates the adult diastolic function through a late postnatal maturation of cardiomyocyte surface crests

   This article has 23 authors:

   1. Clement Karsenty
   2. Celine Guilbeau-Frugier
   3. Gaël Genet
   4. Marie-Helene Seguelas
   5. Philippe Alzieu
   6. Olivier Cazorla
   7. Alexandra Montagner
   8. Yuna Blum
   9. Caroline Dubroca
   10. Julile Maupoint
   11. Blandine Tramunt
   12. Marie Cauquil
   13. Thierry Sulpice
   14. Sylvain Richard
   15. Silvia Arcucci
   16. Remy Flores-Flores
   17. Nicolas Pataluch
   18. Romain Montoriol
   19. Pierre Sicard
   20. Antoine Deney
   21. Thierry Couffinhal
   22. Jean-Michel Senard
   23. Celine Galés

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This is a valuable paper that relates the function of Ephrin-B1 to diastolic dysfunction via its actions on maturation of cardiomyocytes. The mechanisms of diastolic heart failure remain poorly understood, and this work contributes to advancing our understanding. The hypothesis is novel and the manuscript is fairly extensive and well-illustrated. The data, methods and analyses are presented to the community in a solid manner. The work represents an interesting insight into potential mechanisms of diastolic dysfunction and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction.

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Loss of aquaporin-4 results in glymphatic system dysfunction via brain-wide interstitial fluid stagnation

   This article has 11 authors:

   1. Ryszard Stefan Gomolka
   2. Lauren M Hablitz
   3. Humberto Mestre
   4. Michael Giannetto
   5. Ting Du
   6. Natalie Linea Hauglund
   7. Lulu Xie
   8. Weiguo Peng
   9. Paula Melero Martinez
   10. Maiken Nedergaard
   11. Yuki Mori

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     eLife assessment

     This manuscript is of interest to neuroimaging scientists and neurophysiologists studying the glymphatic system. Using a multi-modal approach including magnetic resonance and histological methods, this work provides substantial data interrogating the effect of removing of aquaporin-4 (AQP4) from the mouse brain parenchyma on the structural morphology and interstitial fluid dynamics stagnation. In particular, the authors provide evidence that deletion of AQP4 in mice results in increased interstitial volume, likely due to increased resistance to parenchymal CSF efflux.

   Reviewed by eLife

10. Efficacy and safety of endocrine therapy after mastectomy in patients with hormone receptor positive breast ductal carcinoma in situ: Retrospective cohort study

    This article has 16 authors:

    1. Nan Niu
    2. Yinan Zhang
    3. Yang Bai
    4. Xin Wang
    5. Shunchao Yan
    6. Dong Song
    7. Hong Xu
    8. Tong Liu
    9. Bin Hua
    10. Yingchao Zhang
    11. Jinchi Liu
    12. Xinbo Qiao
    13. Jiaxiang Liu
    14. Xinyu Zheng
    15. Hongyi Cao
    16. Caigang Liu

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      eLife assessment

      This valuable study describes the effects of endocrine therapy in a large series of Chinese patients treated with mastectomy (both efficacy and side effects). Whilst there are some caveats regarding the methodology (retrospective, small numbers of events, and some potential methodological bias in data collection) this is a solid piece of work and with further, ideally prospective data collection, has the potential to improve the management of patients with DCIS.

    Reviewed by eLife