Neurodegeneration articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Increasing progranulin (PGRN) levels is a promising approach for treating frontotemporal dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases. Here Nicholson et al.show that the prosaposin (PSAP) locus is associated with plasma PGRN levels and demonstrate that PSAP can alter PGRN levels and its oligomerization.

    • Alexandra M. Nicholson
    • , NiCole A. Finch
    •  & Rosa Rademakers

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Whole tissue RNA profiling can help identify altered molecular pathways underlying neurodegenerative disease, but often masks cell type-specific transcriptional changes. Here, the authors compare transcriptomes of neurons, astrocytes, and microglia from Alzheimer's disease model brains and identify hundreds of cell-type specific changes.

    • Karpagam Srinivasan
    • , Brad A. Friedman
    •  & David V. Hansen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Protein aggregation plays a crucial role in several neurodegenerative diseases. Here the authors demonstrate that phosphorylation of β-amyloid aggregates—the pathological hallmark of Alzheimer's disease—can change the molecular properties of aggregates, suggesting how phosphorylation contributes to disease progression.

    • Nasrollah Rezaei-Ghaleh
    • , Mehriar Amininasab
    •  & Markus Zweckstetter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    This study presents gene expression responses of cultured brain cells to hundreds of chemicals found in the environment and in food. The authors identified chemicals that induce transcriptomic profiles that overlap those seen in human brains affected with autism, aging, and neurodegeneration.

    • Brandon L. Pearson
    • , Jeremy M. Simon
    •  & Mark J. Zylka

  • Article |

    Applications of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) for disease modelling or cell therapy are hindered by low efficiency and heterogeneity of target cell types differentiated from hPSCs, such as motor neurons (MNs). Here the authors develop a method to derive highly pure motor neuron progenitor populations from human embryonic and induced pluripotent stem cells that yield functional MNs.

    • Zhong-Wei Du
    • , Hong Chen
    •  & Su-Chun Zhang

  • Review Article |

    Proteins are subject to continuous and complex quality-control mechanisms, which ensure integrity of the proteome. Vilchez et al.review how a demise in these processes, collectively referred to as proteostasis, is linked to organismal ageing and the development of age-associated diseases.

    • David Vilchez
    • , Isabel Saez
    •  & Andrew Dillin

  • Article |

    White matter in the human brain is known to change its properties during an individual's lifespan. Here, Yeatman et al. use quantitative imaging measurements of the living human brain to model changes in white mater structure based on tissue development and decline between the ages of 7–85 years.

    • Jason D. Yeatman
    • , Brian A. Wandell
    •  & Aviv A. Mezer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pericytes are cells in the blood–brain barrier that degenerate with the onset of Alzheimer's disease. Here, Sagare et al. show that pericyte loss contributes to disease onset by promoting amyloid-beta accumulation, tau pathology and early loss of neuronal cells.

    • Abhay P. Sagare
    • , Robert D. Bell
    •  & Berislav V. Zlokovic

  • Article |

    Miz1 is a binding partner of the transcription factor c-Myc and a regulator of cell cycle progression. Wolf et al. show that inactivation of Miz1 in the mouse central nervous system results in neurodegeneration, and find that Miz1 is essential for the transcriptional regulation of autophagic flux.

    • Elmar Wolf
    • , Anneli Gebhardt
    •  & Martin Eilers

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Tyrosyl DNA phosphodiesterase 1 (TDP1) repairs DNA breaks and is mutated in the disease Spinocerebellar Ataxia with Axonal Neuropathy. Here TDP1 is shown to be post-translationally modified by sumoylation of lysine 111, and cells carrying a mutation at this residue are inefficient at single-strand DNA break repair.

    • Jessica J.R. Hudson
    • , Shih-Chieh Chiang
    •  & Sherif F. El-Khamisy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Glutathione's key role as a modulator of reactive oxygen species levels has recently been challenged. Quintana-Cabreraet al. now provide in vivoevidence supporting an antioxidant and neuroprotective function for γ-glutamylcysteine, which replaces glutathione by acting as glutathione peroxidase-1 cofactor.

    • Ruben Quintana-Cabrera
    • , Seila Fernandez-Fernandez
    •  & Juan P. Bolaños

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Pluripotent stem cells can be generated from the somatic cells of humans and are a useful model to study disease. Here, pluripotent stem cells are made from a patient with familial Parkinson's disease, and the resulting neurons exhibit elevated levels of α-synuclein, recapitulating the molecular features of the patient's disease.

    • Michael J. Devine
    • , Mina Ryten
    •  & Tilo Kunath

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The central nervous system contains glial cells, which have been shown to have an important role in neuronal survival. Haradaet al. use transgenic mouse models to show that TrkB, a receptor for the growth factor brain-derived neurotrophic factor, is required for retinal Müller glial cells to provide neuroprotection and regeneration.

    • Chikako Harada
    • , Xiaoli Guo
    •  & Takayuki Harada

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