The researchers demonstrated that perampanel, an antiepileptic drug, inhibited the activity-dependent neuronal uptake of α-synuclein preformed fibrils via macropinocytosis and the subsequent development of α-synuclein inclusions in Parkinson’s disease models. Targeting neuronal activity with perampanel could represent a new therapeutic strategy for Parkinson’s disease.

In this article, the researchers established a species-wide method for deriving transgene-free iPSCs, and discovered primary colony-forming cells showed a neural stem cell-like profile, named induced neural stem cell-like cells (iNSLCs).

The researchers developed a new inhibitory neuron-specific promoter, GAD65 promoter. Intravenous infusion of blood-brain barrier-penetrating AAV-PHP.B expressing an enhanced green fluorescent protein under the control of the mGAD65 promoter transduced the whole brain in an inhibitory neuron-specific manner.

The researchers utilized the diffusion MRI and neural tracer data of marmoset brains collected by the Brain/MINDS project to optimize the parameters of the algorithms for estimating whole-brain neural connections (connectome). The optimization allowed tracking of long-range fibers and raised an issue of parameter selection in connectomic studies.

Patients with 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) suffer from the onset risk for neuropsychiatric disorders over their lifetime. In this study, the researchers revealed “PRKR-Like Endoplasmic Reticulum Kinase-dependent vulnerabilities in dopaminergic neurons” as one of the molecular pathologies in brains of 22q11.2DS.