Year: 2022
Type: editorial
Abstract: Neurodegenerative diseases selectively affect vulnerable brain regions, cause progressive mental and physical debilitation, and collectively cost over $655 billion a year in the US.Although many pre-clinical and clinical trials are currently underway with groundbreaking technologies such as CRISPR and oligonucleotide therapies, most neurodegenerative diseases remain incurable, partly due to the lack of a precise understanding of disease mechanisms, and partly due to the lack of appropriate disease models that can fully recapitulate human disease phenotypes.With these in mind, we collected two reviews and six original research articles in the hope of shedding light on new pathomechanisms of neurodegeneration, therapeutic innovation and biosafety assessment.Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) are the most common neurodegenerative diseases worldwide; both affect neuronal function, movement and cognition.Jiang et al. reviewed the amyloid β (Aβ) cascade with respect to three topological forms in AD pathogenesis, the neurotoxicity arising from spontaneously aggregated α-synuclein fibrils in PD, and the receptor-mediated cell-tocell transmission mechanisms of the prion-like misfolded proteins.The authors also reviewed the recent development and applications of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) in AD and PD.Given the technical limitations of traditional scRNA-seq, such as unfavorable brain dissociation treatment and inability to resolve spatial and positional patterns, the authors suggested that single nuclear RNA-seq (snRNA-seq) may be an alternative strategy that is better suited for frozen clinical samples with a higher cell subtype resolution.Silicon nanoparticles (SiO 2 NPs) are extensively used for drug delivery, molecular imaging and gene therapy, owing to their high dispersibility, stability and biocompatibility.However, Yuan et al. demonstrated that SiO 2 NPs triggered α-synuclein deposition, mitochondrial impairment and autophagic inhibition in vitro as well as enhanced dopaminergic neuronal death in PD transgenic mice post intranasal administration.These observations are in line with SiO 2 NPs' roles in air pollution, neurotoxicity via the gut-brain axis, and promotion of AD pathology.The therapeutic applications of SiO 2 NPs may warrant caution.The familial form of PD represents 5-10% cases with either dominant or recessive inheritance.Although many causal genes and mutations have been identified, the genetic predisposition of many PD patients are still unknown.Kolarikova et al. performed whole exome sequencing on PD subfamily trios of the southeastern Moravia population; this Czech republican population is known to have a higher-thanaverage prevalence of PD.The authors identified six rare genetic variants that could contribute to PD.
Source: Frontiers in Genetics
Authors: Partha S. Sarkar, Giovanni Meola, Nan Zhang
Language: English
Subfield: Physiology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,950
OpenAlex ID: W4282832865