GPR37 processing in neurodegeneration: a potential marker for Parkinson's Disease progression rate.

The orphan G protein-coupled receptor 37 (GPR37), widely associated with Parkinson's disease (PD), undergoes proteolytic processing under physiological conditions. The N-terminus domain is proteolyzed by a disintegrin and metalloproteinase 10 (ADAM-10), which generates various membrane receptor forms and ectodomain shedding (ecto-GPR37) in the extracellular environment. We investigated the processing and density of GPR37 in several neurodegenerative conditions, including Lewy body disease (LBD), multiple system atrophy (MSA), corticobasal degeneration (CBD), progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), and Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Interneuron diversity in the human dorsal striatum.

Deciphering the striatal interneuron diversity is key to understanding the basal ganglia circuit and to untangling the complex neurological and psychiatric diseases affecting this brain structure. We performed snRNA-seq and spatial transcriptomics of postmortem human caudate nucleus and putamen samples to elucidate the diversity and abundance of interneuron populations and their inherent transcriptional structure in the human dorsal striatum. We propose a comprehensive taxonomy of striatal interneurons with eight main classes and fourteen subclasses, providing their full transcriptomic identity and spatial expression profile as well as additional quantitative FISH validation for specific populations.

Integrated analysis of transcriptomic data reveals the platelet response in COVID-19 disease.

COVID-19 is associated with an increased risk of thrombotic events. However, the pathogenesis of these complications is unclear and reports on platelet infection and activation by the virus are conflicting. Here, we integrated single-cell transcriptomic data to elucidate whether platelet activation is a specific response to SARS-CoV-2 infection or a consequence of a generalized inflammatory state.

Membrane Poration Mechanisms at the Cell-Nanostructure Interface.

3D vertical nanostructures have become one of the most significant methods for interfacing cells and the nanoscale and for accessing significant intracellular functionalities such as membrane potential. As this intracellular access can be induced by means of diverse cellular membrane poration mechanisms, it is important to investigate in detail the cell condition after membrane rupture for assessing the real effects of the poration techniques on the biological environment. Indeed, differences of the membrane dynamics and reshaping have not been observed yet when the membrane-nanostructure system is locally perturbed by, for instance, diverse membrane breakage events.

Inkjet-printed PEDOT:PSS multi-electrode arrays for low-cost in vitro electrophysiology.

Multi-electrode arrays (MEAs) have become a key element in the study of cellular phenomena in vitro. Common modern MEAs are still based on costly microfabrication techniques, making them expensive tools that researchers are pushed to reuse, compromising the reproducibility and the quality of the acquired data. There is a need to develop novel fabrication strategies, able to produce disposable devices that incorporate advanced technologies beyond the standard metal electrodes on rigid substrates.

Cost-effective and multifunctional acquisition system for in vitro electrophysiological investigations with multi-electrode arrays.

In vitro multi-electrode array (MEA) technology is nowadays involved in a wide range of applications beyond neuroscience, such as cardiac electrophysiology and bio-interface studies. However, the cost of commercially available acquisition systems severely limits its adoption outside specialized laboratories with high budget capabilities. Thus, the availability of low-cost methods to acquire signals from MEAs is important to allow research labs worldwide to exploit this technology for an ever-expanding pool of experiments independently from their economic possibilities.

Structure-based classification of FAD binding sites: A comparative study of structural alignment tools.

A total of six different structural alignment tools (TM-Align, TriangleMatch, CLICK, ProBis, SiteEngine and GA-SI) were assessed for their ability to perform two particular tasks: (i) discriminating FAD (flavin adenine dinucleotide) from non-FAD binding sites, and (ii) performing an all-to-all comparison on a set of 883 FAD binding sites for the purpose of classifying them. For the first task, the consistency of each alignment method was evaluated, showing that every method is able to distinguish FAD and non-FAD binding sites with a high Matthews correlation coefficient. Additionally, GA-SI was found to provide alignments different from those of the other approaches.

Comparison of non-sequential sets of protein residues.

A methodology for performing sequence-free comparison of functional sites in protein structures is introduced. The method is based on a new notion of similarity among superimposed groups of amino acid residues that evaluates both geometry and physico-chemical properties. The method is specifically designed to handle disconnected and sparsely distributed sets of residues.