The analysis of human brain tissue revealed differences in how immune cells behave in the brain with Alzheimer’s disease compared to healthy brains, which shows a potential new goal for treatment.
A study by the University of Washington, published in 2023, discovers the micoglyia in the brain of people with Alzheimer’s disease, are In a pre -inflammatory state More often, it makes them less likely to be protective.
Microglia is immune cells that help to keep our brains healthy by clearing waste and maintaining normal brain function.
In response to an infection or cleansing of dead cells, these exquisite change of shape can become less spindle and more movable to absorb the invaders and the garbage. They also “synapse” synapses during development, which helps to shape the scheme so that our brain can function well.
It is less certain how much they play in Alzheimer’s, but in people with devastating neurodegenerative disease, some microglyia responds too much and can cause inflammation that contributes to the death of brain cells.
Unfortunately, clinical trials of anti -inflammatory drugs for Alzheimer’s have not shown significant effects.
To take a closer look at the role of the microglion in Alzheimer’s disease, the neuronasi of the University of Washington Catherine Prater and Kevin Green, along with colleagues from numerous US institutions, used brain samples of scientific research – 12 who have Alzheimer and 10 healthy controls.
Using a new method of improving the sequencing of RNA with one nucleus, the team was able to identify 10 different clusters of microglyia in brain tissue based on their unique set of gene expression that tells cells what to do.
THrist from clusters was not visible before and one of them was more common in people with Alzheimer’s disease. These types of microglyia are included genes that are involved in inflammation and cell death.
In general, researchers have found that Microglian clusters in the brain of people with Alzheimer’s disease are more likely to be those in a pre-inflammatory state.
This means that it is more likely to produce inflammatory molecules that can damage brain cells and possibly contribute to the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.
The types of microglia in the brain of people with Alzheimer’s disease were less likely to be protective, compromising their ability to pull their weight in cleaning dead cells and waste and promoting healthy brain aging.
Scientists also believe that microglia can change the types over time. So we can’t just look at a person’s brain and say for sure what type of microglia they have; Tracking how microglyia changes over time can help us understand how they contribute to Alzheimer’s disease.
“At this point, we cannot say whether the microglyia causes the pathology or whether the pathology causes these microglyia to change their behavior,” Prater said.
This study progresses to our understanding of the role of these cells in Alzheimer’s disease and suggests that certain microgly clusters can be targeted for new treatments.
The team hopes that their work will lead to the development of new therapies that can improve the lives of people with Alzheimer’s disease.
“Now that we have identified the genetic profiles of these microglyia, we can try to understand exactly what they are doing and hope to identify ways to change their behavior that can contribute to Alzheimer’s disease,” Pourter said.
“If we can determine what they are doing, we may be able to change their behavior with treatments that could prevent or slow down this disease.”
The study has been published in Aging of NatureS
A larger version of this article was published in August 2023.