A team of researchers at Gladstone Institutes has released a novel computational tool called CHOIR that can improve the detection of "off-key" cells. CHOIR, short for “cluster hierarchy optimization by iterative random forests,” categorizes thousands or even millions of cells into separate, biologically distinct groups, helping home in on specific cell types or conditions that may underlie disease.

Neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s involve progressive neuronal loss due to disease-induced damage. An enzyme known as dual leucine-zipper kinase (DLK) plays a key role in this process, telling neurons that are damaged or unhealthy when they should cut their losses and self-destruct. Hence, sparing neurons from DLK is an attractive therapeutic strategy that could slow disease progression.

Past attempts to inhibit DLK’s action in human patients, however, led to unexpected side effects affecting the nervous system, suggesting that DLK also has beneficial effects on neurons and that blocking it indiscriminately is harmful. Now, in a new study published online April 3 in the journal Nature Communications, a group of scientists led by Gareth Thomas, PhD, Associate Professor of Neural Sciences in the Center for Neural Development and Repair at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, describes a more precise way to block DLK in damaged neurons, while preserving its function in healthy neurons.

Alzheimer’s disease, the most common cause of dementia, is currently incurable. The current drugs available have very limited efficacy and only in mild stages of the disease. A team from the University of Barcelona has developed a promising therapeutic candidate to treat this disease, which affects more than 800,000 people in Spain. According to a study published in the journal ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science, the new drug has been shown to have neuroprotective and anti-inflammatory effects in two murine models of the disease. The patent for the compound has been licensed to a pharmaceutical company to start the preclinical and clinical trials necessary for its approval.