Octopamine metabolically reprograms astrocytes to confer neuroprotection against α-synuclein – Ants have fascinated me for awhile because they appear to be “super organisms”, or a discrete organism comprised of individual organisms with external signalling capacity. We could probably make this argument for most “species” level conceits including humans, but ants are neat because they still mostly use chemical messaging to do their inter-organism signalling, preserving the intra-organism signalling and providing a level of metabolic efficiency that gets lost at “higher” levels of individual organism complexity. Oh yeah, this work has some interesting bits too.
Distinct astrocytic modulatory roles in sensory transmission during sleep, wakefulness, and arousal states in freely moving mice – Very cool work! Watching coordinated system wide activity like this emerge from discrete cells cooperating is endlessly fascinating.
A novel conceptual framework for the functionality of the glymphatic system – Not “waste”, metabolic products in general. We really have to get away from this disorder/disease way of looking at how things function. As an example, without clearance of “memory peptides” generated by astrocytes and encoded to neurons, it interferes with all future encode/recall from that local group.
MicroRNA expression in extracellular vesicles as a novel blood-based biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease – No the to the Alzheimer’s conceit but absolutely one billion percent YES to this idea in general.
Single substitution in H3.3G34 alters DNMT3A recruitment to cause progressive neurodegeneration – This sparked a rant, will post it separately.
Metabolic switch in the aging astrocyte supported via integrative approach comprising network and transcriptome analyses – Imagine the teeth on gears becoming worn over time. Some conditions induce more wear than others. The machine still works but slowly degrades over time until it doesn’t.
Role of Lipids in Regulation of Neuroglial Interactions – No lipids, no learning.
Pathology and Astrocytes in Autism – BIG/little “autism” model.
Two decades of astrocytes in neurovascular coupling – Hope someone does a longitudinal on PDE5 inhibitors soon.
Avian neurons consume three times less glucose than mammalian neurons – Them birbs is efficient.
Molecular Mechanisms of Astrocyte Involvement in Synaptogenesis and Brain Synaptic Plasticity
Modeling the relationship between neuronal activity and the BOLD signal: contributions from astrocyte calcium dynamics – That there was ever a controversy whether cells with vascular endfeet and neuronal synapse coverage had something to do with BOLD signals will seem really stupid eventually.
Deletion of the Circadian Clock Gene Per2 in the Whole Body, but Not in Neurons or Astroglia, Affects Sleep in Response to Sleep Deprivation – Asserting sleep pressure is induced by astroglia or neurons.
Adrenergic regulation of astroglial aerobic glycolysis and lipid metabolism: Towards a noradrenergic hypothesis of neurodegeneration – Haha, this is a yes, Yes, YES, NO!!! paper.
Single-cell transcriptomic landscape of the developing human spinal cord – Christ, it took me forever to figure out what “midgestation human spinal cord” meant. No need to cheap out on the punctuation friends. Very cool work otherwise, and it’s bonkers to think about how high risk the neural tube folding process is. Probably the basis of our entire personality is born in that moment.