Featured
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News |
Controversial Alzheimer’s drug approval could affect other diseases
Aducanumab’s fast-tracking has researchers both worried and hopeful about the future of drugs for neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington’s and Parkinson’s.
- Asher Mullard
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Article
| Open AccessMechanism of disease and therapeutic rescue of Dok7 congenital myasthenia
In a mouse model of congenital myasthenia caused by mutations in the Dok7 gene, agonist antibodies against MUSK restore synaptic function and survival.
- Julien Oury
- , Wei Zhang
- & Steven J. Burden
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News |
Failure of genetic therapies for Huntington’s devastates community
Hopes were high for drugs designed to lower levels of a mutant protein, but development has stalled.
- Diana Kwon
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Article |
PIK3CA and CCM mutations fuel cavernomas through a cancer-like mechanism
Aggressive cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs) are found to grow through a three-hit cancer-like mechanism, involving gain of function of a gene that promotes vascular growth, and loss of function of genes that suppress it.
- Aileen A. Ren
- , Daniel A. Snellings
- & Mark L. Kahn
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News Feature |
Genetic therapies offer new hope against incurable brain diseases
A class of drugs that silence the effects of faulty genes could help tackle brain diseases — but a halted clinical trial has brought the field up short.
- Diana Kwon
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News Feature |
How gut microbes could drive brain disorders
Scientists are starting to work out how the gut microbiome can affect brain health. That might lead to better and easier treatments for brain diseases.
- Cassandra Willyard
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News Feature |
Alexa, do I have COVID-19?
Researchers are exploring ways to use people’s voices to diagnose coronavirus infections, dementia, depression and much more.
- Emily Anthes
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Article |
Modulating TRADD to restore cellular homeostasis and inhibit apoptosis
The adaptor protein TRADD is a regulator of both cellular homeostasis and apoptosis, and represents a potential therapeutic target for human diseases.
- Daichao Xu
- , Heng Zhao
- & Junying Yuan
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News Feature |
How COVID-19 can damage the brain
Some people who become ill with the coronavirus develop neurological symptoms. Scientists are struggling to understand why.
- Michael Marshall
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News & Views |
Neurodegenerative gene’s function is not all about those bases
A mutation in the C9orf72 gene is the most common genetic cause of two neurodegenerative diseases. A newly identified immunological function for the C9orf72 protein points to a potential therapeutic strategy for these diseases.
- Olivia Gautier
- & Aaron D. Gitler
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Article |
Genome-wide detection of tandem DNA repeats that are expanded in autism
Genome-wide analysis of tandem DNA repeats in the genomes of individuals with autism spectrum disorder and control participants reveals a strong contribution of tandem repeat expansions to the genetic aetiology and phenotypic complexity of autism spectrum disorder.
- Brett Trost
- , Worrawat Engchuan
- & Ryan K. C. Yuen
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Research Highlight |
Blood from fit mice bestows brain benefits of exercise
Workouts rejuvenate the brains of old mice — but so does plasma from well-conditioned rodents.
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Outlook |
Oxford Brain Diagnostics: turning MRI into a diagnosis tool for dementia
The firm behind the brain-imaging analysis is shortlisted for The Spinoff Prize.
- Simon Makin
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News & Views |
Method to combat Parkinson’s disease by astrocyte-to-neuron conversion
Astrocytes are non-neuronal brain cells that express a protein called PTB. It emerges that PTB depletion unlocks the potential of astrocytes to convert to neurons in a mouse model of Parkinson’s disease.
- Ernest Arenas
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News & Views |
Parkinson’s disease grafts benefit from well-timed growth factor
Grafts of stem-cell-derived precursors of dopamine neurons could be used to treat Parkinson’s disease, but this approach has limitations. Injecting a growth factor three weeks after transplantation can overcome some of these limits.
- Lorenz Studer
- & Viviane Tabar
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News & Views |
Risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease breaks the blood–brain barrier
People who carry the gene variant APOE4 are at higher-than-average risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. It emerges that this variant is linked to defects in the blood–brain barrier and subsequent cognitive decline.
- Makoto Ishii
- & Costantino Iadecola
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Article |
Olfactory sniffing signals consciousness in unresponsive patients with brain injuries
Odorant-dependent sniff responses predicted the long-term survival rates of patients with severe brain injury, and discriminated between individuals who were unresponsive and in minimally conscious states.
- Anat Arzi
- , Liron Rozenkrantz
- & Noam Sobel
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Article |
APOE4 leads to blood–brain barrier dysfunction predicting cognitive decline
Breakdown of the blood–brain barrier in individuals carrying the ε4 allele of the APOE gene, but not the ε3 allele, increases with and predicts cognitive impairment and is independent of amyloid β or tau pathology.
- Axel Montagne
- , Daniel A. Nation
- & Berislav V. Zlokovic
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News & Views |
A receptor that lets dementia-associated tau proteins into neurons
In many neurodegenerative disorders, the spread of protein aggregates underlies disease progression in the brain. A receptor molecule has now been found that mediates the neuronal uptake of one such harmful protein.
- Katrin Deinhardt
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News & Views |
Neurodegenerative diseases distinguished through protein-structure analysis
Parkinson’s disease and multiple system atrophy involve the protein α-synuclein. Proof that aggregated α-synuclein adopts a different structure in each case suggests that its conformation underlies the distinct disorders.
- Juan Atilio Gerez
- & Roland Riek
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Research Highlight |
Young-onset Parkinson’s disease could take root at birth
Scientists pinpoint molecular changes that could help to reveal people at risk of developing the disease before age 50.
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Article |
ATP13A2 deficiency disrupts lysosomal polyamine export
The lysosomal polyamine transporter ATP13A2 controls the cellular polyamine content, and impaired lysosomal polyamine export represents a lysosome-dependent cell death pathway that may be implicated in ATP13A2-associated neurodegeneration.
- Sarah van Veen
- , Shaun Martin
- & Peter Vangheluwe
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Article |
NLRP3 inflammasome activation drives tau pathology
The authors show that NLRP3 inflammasome is activated in microglia of patients with fronto-temporal dementia and in a mouse model of tau pathology, and that the loss of NLRP3 inflammasome function decreases tau pathology and improves cognition in mice.
- Christina Ising
- , Carmen Venegas
- & Michael T. Heneka
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News & Views |
Strategy to selectively remove mutant proteins could combat neurodegeneration
Compounds have been found that reduce levels of the harmful protein present in Huntington’s disease, without affecting the normal version. The compounds interact with the mutated protein and the cell’s protein-clearance machinery.
- Huda Y. Zoghbi
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Research Highlight |
Healthy habits ward off dementia — for select seniors
For a fortunate group, exercise and the right diet could protect against cognitive symptoms that develop with age.
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Article |
Opposing T cell responses in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis
Activated clonally expanded CD4+ T cells display specificity to the myelin peptide MOG, whereas clonally expanded CD8+ T cells depend on T cell receptor recognition of unrelated surrogate peptides and have a regulatory function.
- Naresha Saligrama
- , Fan Zhao
- & Mark M. Davis
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Article |
Potential roles of gut microbiome and metabolites in modulating ALS in mice
A study of the functional microbiome in a mouse model of ALS shows that several gut bacteria may modulate the severity of the disease.
- Eran Blacher
- , Stavros Bashiardes
- & Eran Elinav
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News & Views |
Infection triggers symptoms similar to those of Parkinson’s disease in mice lacking PINK1 protein
In mice lacking a protein genetically linked to Parkinson’s disease, an autoimmune response to gut infection compromises the function of dopamine-producing neurons and leads to transient movement impairments.
- Mary K. Herrick
- & Malú G. Tansey
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Letter |
Intestinal infection triggers Parkinson’s disease-like symptoms in Pink1−/− mice
In mice lacking PINK1, bacterial infection in the intestine results in mitochondrial antigen presentation and generation of CD8+ T cells, and infected mice develop motor impairments, suggesting that PINK1 suppresses autoimmunity.
- Diana Matheoud
- , Tyler Cannon
- & Michel Desjardins
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News Feature |
How secret conversations inside cells are transforming biology
Organelles — the cell’s workhorses — mingle far more than scientists ever appreciated.
- Elie Dolgin
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Research Highlight |
RNA snippets snare protein linked to degeneration of neurons
Technique ties up an innocuous protein before it gathers into dangerous clumps.
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News & Views |
Multiple sclerosis enters a grey area
Studies of multiple sclerosis have long focused on the white matter of the brain. Insights into how immune cells target the brain’s grey matter now illuminate the stage of the disease at which neurodegeneration occurs.
- Jenna L. Pappalardo
- & David A. Hafler
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Letter |
Altered human oligodendrocyte heterogeneity in multiple sclerosis
Single-nucleus RNA sequencing analysis identifies different subclusters of oligodendroglia in white matter from individuals with multiple sclerosis compared with controls, and these differences may be important for understanding disease progression.
- Sarah Jäkel
- , Eneritz Agirre
- & Gonçalo Castelo-Branco
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News & Views |
Amyloid-β ‘seeds’ in old vials of growth hormone
Some samples of human growth hormone used as therapy until the mid-1980s contain amyloid-β peptide and cause genetically modified mice to develop amyloid-β deposits in the brain.
- Tien-Phat V. Huynh
- & David M. Holtzman
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News |
‘Transmissible’ Alzheimer’s theory gains traction
Mouse tests confirm that sticky proteins associated with degenerative brain diseases can be transferred — but researchers say risks for humans are likely to be minimal.
- Alison Abbott
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Letter |
Transmission of amyloid-β protein pathology from cadaveric pituitary growth hormone
Archived vials of cadaveric human growth hormone contain substantial levels of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides and can seed Aβ plaques in susceptible mice, suggesting that this material could have transmitted Aβ pathology to humans.
- Silvia A. Purro
- , Mark A. Farrow
- & John Collinge
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Nature Podcast |
Podcast: An ion-drive aeroplane, and DNA rearrangement in neurons
Join Benjamin Thompson and Shamini Bundell for the latest news from the world of science.
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Letter |
Dopamine enhances signal-to-noise ratio in cortical-brainstem encoding of aversive stimuli
Dopamine in the medial prefrontal cortex modulates behavioural responses to aversive stimuli by increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of neurons projecting to the dorsal periaqueductal grey.
- Caitlin M. Vander Weele
- , Cody A. Siciliano
- & Kay M. Tye
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Technology Feature |
Tapping into the brain’s star power
No longer just ‘brain glue’, astrocytes are coming to the fore as a broadening toolset reveals the cells’ complexity and diversity.
- Esther Landhuis
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News & Views |
A neurodegenerative-disease protein forms beneficial aggregates in healthy muscle
Protein aggregation is a characteristic of several neurodegenerative diseases. But disease-associated aggregates of the protein TDP-43 have now been shown to have a beneficial role in healthy muscle.
- Lindsay A. Becker
- & Aaron D. Gitler
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Article |
TDP-43 and RNA form amyloid-like myo-granules in regenerating muscle
Cytoplasmic, amyloid-like oligomeric assemblies that contain TDP-43 are increased in damaged tissues with elevated regeneration, thereby enhancing the possibility of amyloid fibre formation and/or aggregation of TDP-43 in disease.
- Thomas O. Vogler
- , Joshua R. Wheeler
- & Roy Parker
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Article |
Targeted neurotechnology restores walking in humans with spinal cord injury
Spatially selective and temporally controlled stimulation of the spinal cord, together with rehabilitation, results in substantial restoration of locomotor function in humans with spinal cord injury.
- Fabien B. Wagner
- , Jean-Baptiste Mignardot
- & Grégoire Courtine
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Letter |
Common genetic variants contribute to risk of rare severe neurodevelopmental disorders
A genome-wide association study of approximately 7,000 patients with neurodevelopmental disorders demonstrates that overall risk and clinical presentation in putative monogenic disorders is also influenced by common genetic variants present in the general population.
- Mari E. K. Niemi
- , Hilary C. Martin
- & Jeffrey C. Barrett
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News & Views |
Elimination of senescent cells prevents neurodegeneration in mice
Aggregation of the protein tau is implicated in neurodegenerative diseases in humans. It emerges that eliminating a type of damaged cell that no longer divides can prevent tau-mediated neurodegeneration in mice.
- Jay Penney
- & Li-Huei Tsai
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Letter |
Human glioblastoma arises from subventricular zone cells with low-level driver mutations
Human neural stem cells from the subventricular zone are identified as the cells of origin that contain the driver mutations for glioblastomas.
- Joo Ho Lee
- , Jeong Eun Lee
- & Jeong Ho Lee
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Outlook |
Alzheimer’s disease
An effective treatment for the most common form of dementia has so far eluded researchers, but it’s not for want of trying.
- Richard Hodson
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Outlook |
The search for better animal models of Alzheimer’s disease
Improved cellular and animal models of the condition could provide a much needed boost for drug development.
- Anthony King
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Outlook |
An age-old story of dementia
The biology and epidemiology of Alzheimer’s disease.
- Liam Drew
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Outlook |
Drawing on the brain’s resilience to fight Alzheimer’s disease
Behavioural approaches that keep patients mentally and physically active might help to compensate for a lack of effective drugs.
- Lauren Gravitz
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