Glycans are important complex carbohydrates found on cell surfaces that serve crucial roles in cell-to-cell communication, structure, and protection. They are attached to many proteins in the body, and their attachment differs protein to protein. Researchers aimed to investigate the selectivity of a specific, cancer-related enzyme, N-acetylglucosaminyltransferase-V (GnT-V or MGAT5). GnT-V is often abnormally upregulated and can be an indicator of a poor prognosis in cancer diagnoses, with N-glycans individually associated with diseases such as Alzheimer's, emphysema, diabetes and cancer. Understanding why and how GnT-V selects substrates may offer therapeutic solutions for diseases involving this enzyme.

International research team identifies distinct population of neuroprotective immune cells of the central nervous system

In Alzheimer’s disease—the leading cause of dementia—microglia, the brain’s immune defenders, can act as both protectors and aggressors, shaping how the disease progresses. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, in close collaboration with The Rockefeller University, The City University of New York and multiple international partners, have identified a distinct population of neuroprotective  microglia, that may point to a new therapeutic approach for Alzheimer’s disease. In a study published in Nature, the team reports that microglia with reduced expression of the transcription factor PU.1 and co-expression of the lymphoid-like receptor CD28 act to limit neuroinflammation and to slow amyloid-plaque build-up and neurotoxic tau protein spreading in the brain, the major hallmarks of Alzheimer’s pathology.