In This Issue pubs.acs.org/chemneuro
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HALTING NEURAL STEM CELL AGING
depending on the class of odorant molecule (aldehydes and alcohols). The authors also provide a rationale for why haloanisoles produce a musty odor at low concentrations.
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Brain neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) are a pathological hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and many other tauopathies. In the current issue, Cai et al. (DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.6b00051) report some promising positron emission tomography (PET) radioligands, [18F]THK-523 and [18F]T807, for imaging NFTs. The authors describe new in vitro binding assays that were used to reveal two distinct radioligand binding sites on NFTs in postmortem Alzheimer’s disease brain homogenate, during the exploration of SAR in THK-523 analogues. These in vitro binding assays unveiled selective high-affinity ligands that might serve to develop candidate PET radioligands for imaging brain NFTs in tauopathies.
Aging refers to the physical and functional decline of the tissues over time that often leads to age-related degenerative diseases. Moreover, aging is associated with a decline in stem cell proliferation and senescence of neural stem cells (NSCs), a subpopulation of cells that are able to produce the main lineages of the brain. Accumulating evidence has shown that there is an alteration in the amount and composition of membrane proteins and lipids during aging, leading to a reduction in membrane fluidity and cholinergic activities. In this respect, Daniele et al. (DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.6b00078) report a compound that is effective in normalizing the membrane lipid composition and could constitute therapeutic tools to contrast brain cellular aging. α-Glycerylphosphorylethanolamine (GPE) plays a role in phospholipid biosynthesis and acetylcholine release. Herein, a human model for NSC aging was set up and characterized, and the effects of a pre- or post-treatment with GPE were tested. The compound significantly protected NSCs from aginginduced inflammation and functional integrity of mitochondria, demonstrating the beneficial effects of GPE in a model of stem cell aging.
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IMAGING NEUROFIBRILLARY TANGLES
WHY DO SOME FOODS SMELL MUSTY?
Haloanisoles are small molecules that typically account for the moldy or musty aroma in food and beverages such as eggs, meat, beer, coffee, and so forth. Detection of these odorants is important when assessing the quality of food. Now, Teixeria et al. (DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.5b00335) provide insight into the mechanism by which these molecules interact with olfactory receptors. The authors used a computational approach to explain and predict the interaction of several ligands with three olfactory receptor (OR) GPCRs, OR1A1, OR1A2, and OR3A1. This study showed that each OR has a distinct binding region © 2016 American Chemical Society
Published: July 20, 2016 844
DOI: 10.1021/acschemneuro.6b00190 ACS Chem. Neurosci. 2016, 7, 844−844
