In infectious disease research, most of the research into genetic determinants of susceptibility to infection and disease severity are focused on the host. For COVID-19, for example, the delta variant’s infectivity, and how likely infection is to lead to severe disease, is the focus of an intense research agenda. But host genetics, too, contribute to the consequences of infections. An ongoing study into the host genetics of SARS-CoV-2 infection has identified 13 such factors that affected either the likelihood of contracting SARS-CoV-2, or the severity of disease, gleaned from the data of 50,000 infected persons and 2 million controls.

Brain plasticity has been postulated to be mainly mediated by neurons. Now, investigators led by Nathalie Rouach at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research in Biology, College De France have demonstrated the role of astrocytes in mediating brain plasticity.

Separate research groups have reported new insights into the process of neurogenesis during development and adulthood, respectively. Their papers appeared in the July 6, 2021, online issue of Cell Reports.

Investigators at the Wistar Institute have identified biomarkers that could discriminate HIV-infected post-treatment controllers, that is, HIV-infected individuals who do not experience viral rebound after analytical treatment interruption.

An exome sequencing study of more than 600,000 individuals of European and mixed American ancestry has identified more than a dozen genes, including five brain-expressed G protein-coupled receptors, that were associated with body mass index.

Researchers have identified an evolutionarily conserved metabolic role for tissue-resident macrophages, they reported in the July 2, 2021, issue of Science. In a commentary published alongside the paper, Conan O’Brien and Ana Domingos from the University of Oxford asserted that the work “introduces a new, macrophage-centered paradigm in… energy storage.”

Sometimes, scientific progress comes from conceptual insights that arrive in a flash. More often, however, such progress arrives in a decidedly less glamorous, though no less important, manner.

Researchers report in the June 21, 2021, online issue of Neuron that overexpression of the LDL receptor can reduce ApoE to prevent tauopathy-associated neurodegeneration in mouse models.

Multiple companies are pursuing CD47-blockade as a tumor immunotherapy approach. Sana Biotechnology Inc., too, is interested in the therapeutic potential of CD47 – but from a very different angle. By overexpressing CD47 on stem cells, researchers at Sana want to make transplanted cells invisible to the immune system.

A deficiency in neurotrophic factor signaling has been shown to exacerbate environmental risk factors for the development of Alzheimer's disease pathogenesis in mice, according to a study reported in the June 22, 2021, online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.