Tag: Microglia

A new study suggests that in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis – and possibly other neurodegenerative diseases – the brain’s immune cells devour stressed but still living neurons due to altered signaling [1]. The living dead Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an age-related neurodegenerative disease, is characterized by the progressive loss of motor neurons. Historically, much of ALS...

Researchers have gone into deep detail regarding how each of five senescent brain cell types expresses and receives factors that encourage other cells to become senescent. The contagion of age Cellular SenescenceAs your body ages, more of your cells become senescent. Senescent cells do not divide or support the tissues of which they are part;...

A new study shows that the overexpression of somatostatin (SST), a neuropeptide produced in neurons and acting mostly on microglia, lowers inflammation and amyloid β burden, improving cognitive abilities in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s. Drugs affecting this pathway are already available [1]. The unusual suspect In Alzheimer’s disease, many signaling pathways in the brain...

A new review highlights the promise of microglia replacement, a strategy that made the leap from mouse studies to the first successful human trial in just five years [1]. Repair or replace Microglia, the resident immune cells of the brain, have been implicated in various diseases, including Alzheimer’s [2]. However, treatments modulating microglial behavior are...

A new preprint study from Calico has found that the local brain environment is the primary driver of microglial aging. After being transplanted into old brains, young cells adopted aged characteristics, but their susceptibility to these signals could be turned off [1]. Microglia grow old and irritable Brain aging holds a special place in the...

Researchers have found that inflamed, senescent microglia prune too many synapses in the hippocampus and demonstrated that a senolytic compound can ameliorate this process in Aging Cell. Some synapse pruning is normal During brain development, the resident immune cells of the brain (microglia) prune unneeded synapses as a form of maintenance. This is normally a...