Though APOE4 is the strongest genetic risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer’s disease, scientists have struggled for decades to figure out how it affects the cells of the brain. For microglia, at least, there may be some clarity. In the September…
In June 2023, the Company announced that they had advanced to evaluation of compounds of interest in in vivo models in their collaboration with the laboratories of Oleg Butovsky, Ph.D., and Howard L. Weiner, M.D., at Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Foundation for…
Relinquishing microglia of a pesky 22-nucleotide microRNA freed the cells to respond more vigorously to amyloidosis, and to protect nearby neurons. That was the upshot of a study published in Nature Neuroscience on June 8, which was spurred by previous…
Bruce Rosenblum first noticed his symptoms while gliding over rolling snow-covered hills. After a day of cross-country skiing, his balance seemed to shift, leaving him struggling to stay upright.
Almost 30 years after its discovery as the most prominent risk factor for AD, ApoE continues to serve more questions than answers to the field. As evidenced by the many ApoE-focused presentations at this year’s Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, held…
A flurry of recent studies implicating microglia as key players in neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer’s, has cued many labs to try to figure out how these cells function in health, and how they change in disease. Adding a piece to…
Despite years of study, ApoE still has secrets to give up. At the 14th International Conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Diseases, held March 27–31 in Lisbon, Portugal, researchers indicted ApoE4 on several fronts. They charged it with holding back the…
Microglial cell function is implicated in the etiology of Alzheimer’s disease by human genetics. In this issue of Immunity, Krasemann et al. (2017) describe a gene expression signature associated with an APOE- and TREM2-dependent response of microglia to brain tissue damage that accumulates in aging and disease, defining an axis that might be amenable to therapeutic targeting.
A decade ago, scientists and doctors in working on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) were beginning to suspect that inflammation was critical to the disease process. It wasn't a popular idea. But a growing body of evidence is mounting in support…