Updated January 5, 2021
Research Spotlight
Recently, studies have reported a significant reduction in the incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and dementia among patients taking Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitors (ACE-Is) and Angiotensin Receptor Blockers (ARBs). Given the enormous and immediate potential of ACE-Is and ARBs for AD therapeutics, it is imperative that we understand how they function and why they are beneficial in some patients but not others. Gomes, Lee et al. show that captopril, an ACE-I, and losartan, an ARB, can restore memory defects in flies expressing human AD transgenes in the absence of the canonical RAS pathway. These studies provide a unique opportunity to identify novel targets of ACE-Is and ARBs and evaluate their therapeutic effectiveness in robust models of AD.
This work quantifies network features of distributed brain regions that support language. Historically, language in the brain was analyzed by power activations in discrete regions of the brain. Yellapantula et al. use ECoG data recorded during a language task to generate functional networks, and validated them using disruption evidence, using direct cortical stimulation for the same set of patients – the current gold standard. In this work, the authors demonstrate that the network measures combined with power have greater predictive capability for identifying critical language regions than discrete, regional power analyses alone.
What are the intentions of our fellow humans? Face-to-face, we can observe the direction of someone’s visual attention. But is my partner trying to get to the salt or the pepper shaker, that is directly behind the salt? In an fMRI study, Kraemer, Görner, Ramezanpour et al. found an area in the prefrontal cortex that appears to be responsible for resolving an ambiguity of that type.
Cortical Presynaptic Boutons Progressively Engulf Spinules as They Mature
Synapses are responsible for the sensory, motor, and cognitive processing functions of nervous systems, yet the synaptic spinule, an evolutionarily conserved synaptic structure, remains enigmatic and underexplored. Spinules are finger-like projections from one neuron that can become completely enveloped by the presynaptic boutons of another receiving neuron, potentially representing an undescribed mechanism for neuronal communication, or serving as structural ‘anchors’ that increase synaptic strength and stability. Campbell et al. demonstrate that presynaptic boutons containing spinules are rare during a period of developmental plasticity but become prevalent (~25% of all boutons) in maturity, suggesting spinules play important roles in enhancing the communication and stability of adult synapses.
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