Science - USA (2021-11-05)

HUMAN GENETICS

OAS1 links dementia

and COVID-19

Dementia increases an

individual’s risk of severe

COVID-19. Alzheimer’s disease

is characterized by extensive

neuroinflammatory changes,

amyloid-beta deposits, and tau

tangles. Oligoadenylate synthe-

tase 1 (OAS1) mediates innate

immune responses through

interferon and is a known risk

factor for the development of

Alzheimer’s disease. Magusali

et al. examined genetic variants

around the gene OAS1 to inves-

tigate the correlation between

severe COVID-19 and demen-

tia. The authors found that a

haplotype near OAS1 contain-

ing four linked genetic variants

down-regulates the expression

of OAS1. Two of the variants are

associated with the development

of Alzheimer’s, and the other

two are associated with severe

COVID-19. Examining co-expres-

sion networks for microglial Oas1

5 NOVEMBER 2021 • VOL 374 ISSUE 6568 705

stratigraphy. The process was

cyclic: Specific assemblages of

complex organisms persisted

stably for tens of millions of

years in each cycle, after which

new assemblages arose over

much shorter time intervals.

Present data suggest that these

bursts of diversification may

have been caused by rapid envi-

ronmental changes associated

with changes in the carbon cycle.

The causes for these episodes

of environmental change remain

poorly understood. —KVH

Sci. Adv. 10.1126/sciadv.abi9643

(2021).

DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY

Sponges and

evolutionary origins

Sponges represent our distant

animal relatives. They do not have

a nervous system but do have

a simple body for filter feeding.

Surveying the cell types in the

freshwater sponge Spongilla

lacustris, Musser et al. found

that many genes important in

synaptic communication are

expressed in cells of the small

digestive chambers. They found

secretory machinery character-

istic of the presynapse in small

multipolar cells contacting all

other cells and also the receptive

apparatus of the postsynapse in

Edited by Caroline Ash

and Jesse Smith

IN OTHER JOURNALS

the choanocytes that generate

water flow and digest microbial

food. These results suggest that

the first directed communication

in animals may have evolved to

regulate feeding, serving as a

starting point on the long path

toward nervous system evolu-

tion. —BAP

Science, abj2949, this issue p. 717

ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

A path to more sleep

and less amyloid

Recent data have demonstrated

a link between sleep disturbances

and Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

However, our understanding

of the mechanisms mediating

sleep disturbances in AD remains

incomplete. Jagirdar et al. show

that the thalamic reticular

nucleus (TRN) plays a main role

in determining the effects of

sleep on hallmarks of AD in mice

and possibly in patients. TRN

activity was reduced in a mouse

model of AD, resulting in reduced

slow-wave sleep. Its activation

restored this sleep and reduced

amyloid plaques in multiple brain

areas. In patients with AD, mark-

ers of TRN activation correlated

with disease stage. Targeting TRN

activation might have therapeutic

effects in AD. —MM

Sci. Transl. Med. 13 , eabh4284 (2021).

IMPRISONMENT

Public health benefits of release

A

lthough the United States is a world leader in sci-

ence and technology, it also takes the top position

for incarcerating its population, and jails are a

hotbed for infectious disease transmission. Those

jails that house pretrial detainees and others serving

less than 1 year are a source of disease, particularly for

disadvantaged communities that suffer disproportion-

ate policing. Using data from jails in 1605 U.S. counties

from January to December 2020, Reinhart et al. found

that avoiding incarceration for nonviolent and petty

offenses not only reduced jail populations by 80%, but

also reduced the daily case growth rates of severe acute

respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in

surrounding communities by 2%. By comparison, mask

mandates are estimated to reduce daily case growth rates

by 2.5%. —BAP JAMA Netw. Open. 4 , e2123405 (2021).

CREDITS (LEFT TO RIGHT: MUSSER ET AL.; JACOB MUSSER, GIULIA MIZZON, CONSTANTIN PAPE, NICOLE SCHIEBER, CREATIVE TEAM/EMBL

SCIENCE science.org

Reconstructed image of sponge digestive cells interacting with a neuroid cell (blue)