Evidence map›Paper›PMID 40615521›Full record

ArticleCommunications biology2025

3BTRON: A Blood-Brain Barrier Recognition Network.

Nan Fletcher-Lloyd, Isabel Bravo-Ferrer, Katrine Gaasdal-Bech, Blanca Díaz Castro, Payam Barnaghi

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Communications biology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors.

Nan Fletcher-LloydImperial College London, London, UK. nan.fletcher-lloyd17@imperial.ac.uk.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2002-5945
Isabel Bravo-FerrerCentre for Discovery Brain Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Katrine Gaasdal-BechCentre for Discovery Brain Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Blanca Díaz Castro *Centre for Discovery Brain Sciences, The University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1839-985X
Payam Barnaghi *Imperial College London, London, UK.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8591-9638

Funding

Alzheimer's Research UK (ARUK) ARUK-NC2020-SCORCUK | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) EP/W031892/1Wellcome Trust
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The blood-brain barrier (BBB) plays a crucial role in maintaining brain homeostasis. During ageing, the BBB undergoes structural alterations. Electron microscopy (EM) is the gold standard for studying the structural alterations of the brain vasculature. However, analysis of EM images is time-intensive and can be prone to selection bias, limiting our understanding of the structural effect of ageing on the BBB. Here, we introduce 3BTRON, a deep learning framework for the automated analysis of electron microscopy images of the BBB. Using age as a readout, we trained and validated our model on a unique dataset (n = 359). We show that the proposed model could confidently identify the BBB of aged mouse brains from young mouse brains across three different brain regions, achieving a sensitivity of 77.8% and specificity of 80.0% post-stratification when predicting on unseen data. Additionally, feature importance methods revealed the spatial features of each image that contributed most to the predictions. These findings demonstrate a new data-driven approach to analysing age-related changes in the architecture of the BBB.

Indexed as

Blood-Brain BarrierDeep LearningImage Processing, Computer-AssistedMicroscopy, ElectronAgingAnimalsBrainMaleMiceMice, Inbred C57BL

Identifiers

PMID40615521
PMCPMC12227728

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.