eLife

Latest preprint reviews

1. Association of lipid-lowering drugs with COVID-19 outcomes from a Mendelian randomization study

   This article has 4 authors:

   1. Wuqing Huang
   2. Jun Xiao
   3. Jianguang Ji
   4. Liangwan Chen

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     There are mixed results from studies of COVID-19 outcomes in patients treated with statins and there are multiple confounders. The authors use two Mendelian randomization methods to explore the association between HMGCoA reductase inhibitors (statins) and other lipid lowering drugs and outcomes and find that increased expression of HMGCoA reductase and HMGCoA reductase mediated LDL cholesterol increase hospitalization risk. This makes it possible but does not prove that statins could improve outcomes which will be of broad interest.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife, ScreenIT

2. Ligand binding remodels protein side-chain conformational heterogeneity

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Stephanie A Wankowicz
   2. Saulo H de Oliveira
   3. Daniel W Hogan
   4. Henry van den Bedem
   5. James S Fraser

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This work attempts to extract information about protein thermodynamics from X-ray crystallography data, which is a challenging problem. This work presents a comprehensive examination of the structural transitions associated with small molecule binding to proteins. The heterogenous pattern of order parameter changes in response to ligand binding implies that the approach is identifying new information. This work offers insights into ligand binding affinity and specificity mechanisms, suggesting that distal (allosteric) perturbations represent a possible avenue to modulate protein function.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

3. AR-V7 exhibits non-canonical mechanisms of nuclear import and chromatin engagement in castrate-resistant prostate cancer

   This article has 12 authors:

   1. Seaho Kim
   2. CheukMan C Au
   3. Mohd Azrin Bin Jamalruddin
   4. Naira Essam Abou-Ghali
   5. Eiman Mukhtar
   6. Luigi Portella
   7. Adeline Berger
   8. Daniel Worroll
   9. Prerna Vatsa
   10. David S Rickman
   11. David M Nanus
   12. Paraskevi Giannakakou

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     Truncated splice variants of the androgen receptor (AR) lacking a ligand-binding domain are thought to contribute to therapeutic resistance to antiandrogens in advanced prostate cancer. In this manuscript, the authors show that AR-V7, the most well-studied such truncated variant, displays a different mechanism of nuclear targeting and interaction with chromatin compared to the full-length AR. This work provides new insights into how AR-V7 may contribute to the pathology of Castrate-Resistant Prostate Cancer and will be of interest to researchers trying to improve prostate cancer therapies.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

4. Covalent inhibition of endoplasmic reticulum chaperone GRP78 disconnects the transduction of ER stress signals to inflammation and lipid accumulation in diet-induced obese mice

   This article has 10 authors:

   1. Dan Luo
   2. Ni Fan
   3. Xiuying Zhang
   4. Fung Yin Ngo
   5. Jia Zhao
   6. Wei Zhao
   7. Ming Huang
   8. Ding Li
   9. Yu Wang
   10. Jianhui Rong

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This paper is of interest to a broad audience of cell biologists, pharmacologists and researchers who work in metabolic diseases. The work provides substantial new insights into the mechanism of action for a plant derived pentacyclic triterpene called celastrol elastrol, in effectively reducing the high fat diet induced tissue hypertrophy in mouse liver and adipose. A series of compelling experiments depict the site of covalent inhibition of the ER stress sensor GRP78 as essential for the beneficial effects in-vivo, supporting the main conclusions.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

5. Oxytocin neurons mediate the effect of social isolation via the VTA circuits

   This article has 5 authors:

   1. Stefano Musardo
   2. Alessandro Contestabile
   3. Marit Knoop
   4. Olivier Baud
   5. Camilla Bellone

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study examined the effects of social isolation in adolescent and adult male mice, a topic timely and relevant. The work sheds light on oxytocin as a key regulator that modulates the dopaminergic midbrain imparting long-lasting effects on social interaction. A critical open question is whether these results would apply to female subjects. The findings will merit from more thorough interpretations and controls of social behavior data and synaptic plasticity. This paper will be of interest to those interested in social neuroscience and plasticity in general.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

6. FMRP regulates mRNAs encoding distinct functions in the cell body and dendrites of CA1 pyramidal neurons

   This article has 9 authors:

   1. Caryn R Hale
   2. Kirsty Sawicka
   3. Kevin Mora
   4. John J Fak
   5. Jin Joo Kang
   6. Paula Cutrim
   7. Katarzyna Cialowicz
   8. Thomas S Carroll
   9. Robert B Darnell

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     The authors performed transcriptomic analyses from compartment-specific, micro-dissected hippocampal region tissue from transgenic mice. One feature that distinguishes this work from previous studies is the use of conditional knock-in tags (GFP or HA) and tissue specific expression of the Cre recombinase to target a population of pyramidal neurons in the CA1 region. The strengths of the paper are the rich data sets and innovative integration of methods that will provide a valuable technical resource for the field.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

7. Functional diversification gave rise to allelic specialization in a rice NLR immune receptor pair

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Juan Carlos De la Concepcion
   2. Javier Vega Benjumea
   3. Aleksandra Bialas
   4. Ryohei Terauchi
   5. Sophien Kamoun
   6. Mark J Banfield

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     De la Concepcion and colleagues investigated the mode of co-evolution of plant immune receptor pair that functions as a unit to detect pathogen invasion and turn on immunity. The study shows that an allelic mismatch of a receptor paired from rice can cause autoimmunity in the absence of pathogen effectors, and this can be traced to polymorphisms that arose fairly recently. Overall the study provides insights into the co-evolution of paired receptors and supports that the paired receptors have co-evolved to prevent premature inactivation and enable strong activation in response to matching effectors.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

8. Octopamine drives honeybee thermogenesis

   This article has 8 authors:

   1. Sinan Kaya-Zeeb
   2. Lorenz Engelmayer
   3. Mara Straßburger
   4. Jasmin Bayer
   5. Heike Bähre
   6. Roland Seifert
   7. Oliver Scherf-Clavel
   8. Markus Thamm

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This study is of broad interest to researchers in the field of entomology and physiology. These findings may shed light on at least one mechanism underlying selective advantages conferred to insect species on evolutionary timescales. Though the chemical signal, its source and recipient tissues underlying thermogenesis are elucidated, hypotheses regarding their downstream effects remain to be substantiated.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. The reviewers remained anonymous to the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife

9. Visualizing cellular and tissue ultrastructure using Ten-fold Robust Expansion Microscopy (TREx)

   This article has 6 authors:

   1. Hugo GJ Damstra
   2. Boaz Mohar
   3. Mark Eddison
   4. Anna Akhmanova
   5. Lukas C Kapitein
   6. Paul W Tillberg

   This article has been curated by 1 group:

   • Curated by eLife

     Evaluation Summary:

     This manuscript reports a robust and well-characterized expansion method that achieves 10X expansion with a single expansion step using a simple, easy-to-use protocol. The new protocol leads to an enabling methodology for super-resolution imaging of various sub-cellular structures and organelles and is likely to have a high impact.

     (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #2 agreed to share their name with the authors.)

   Reviewed by eLife, preLights

10. DAAM mediates the assembly of long-lived, treadmilling stress fibers in collectively migrating epithelial cells in Drosophila

    This article has 3 authors:

    1. Kristin M Sherrard
    2. Maureen Cetera
    3. Sally Horne-Badovinac

    This article has been curated by 1 group:

    • Curated by eLife

      Evaluation Summary:

      This paper is of broad interest to readers who are interested in understanding cell migration and the cytoskeleton. It characterizes new behaviors of actin-based stress fibers in vivo during collective cell migration, and provides important observations that contribute to our fundamental understanding of these structures. The use of high-resolution live imaging in combination with Drosophila genetics and pharmacological inhibitors provides compelling data that supports the major claims of the paper.

      (This preprint has been reviewed by eLife. We include the public reviews from the reviewers here; the authors also receive private feedback with suggested changes to the manuscript. Reviewer #1 and Reviewer #2 agreed to share their names with the authors.)

    Reviewed by eLife