Protein Accumulation on Fat Droplets Implicated in Late-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease

In an effort five years in the making, UNC School of Medicine cell biologist Sarah Cohen, PhD, and Rockefeller University’s Ian Windham, PhD, describe the interplay between fats and proteins in brain cells and how their dysfunction contributes to the development of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers Connect Alzheimer’s-Associated Genetic Variants with Brain Cell Function

Led by scientists at UNC-Chapel Hill and UC-San Francisco, research reveals new non-coding genetic variants associated with Alzheimer’s disease functioning in microglia – brain cells already implicated in the progression of this often-fatal neurodegenerative condition.

The Novel Role of Microglia as Modulators of Neurons in the Brain Is Discovered by Mount Sinai Researchers

Findings offer potential target for treating behavioral abnormalities associated with neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s Disease

Brain’s Immune Cells Promising Cellular Target for Therapeutics

Inspired by the need for new and better therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, Rutgers University researchers are exploring the link between uncontrolled inflammation within the brain and the brain’s immune cells, known as microglia, which are emerging as a promising cellular target because of the prominent role they play in brain inflammation. In APL Bioengineering, the group highlights the design considerations and benefits of creating therapeutic nanoparticles for carrying pharmacological factors directly to the sites of the microglia.

Strokes in babies are surprisingly common. Here’s how the body rushes to the rescue.

New research is shedding light on the development of the brain’s immune defenses – and how those defenses respond to strokes that strike one in 4,000 babies in the first month of life.

Researchers Identify a Protein That Is Critical for Wound Healing after a Central Nervous System Injury

after a Central Nervous System Injury

(New York – March 2, 2020) Plexin-B2, an axon guidance protein in the central nervous system (CNS), plays an important role in wound healing and neural repair following spinal cord injury (SCI), according to research conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published today in Nature Neuroscience.

Flickering Light Mobilizes Brain Chemistry That May Fight Alzheimer’s

The promise of flickering light to treat Alzheimer’s takes another step forward in this new study, which reveals stark biochemical mechanisms: The 40 Hertz stimulation triggers a marked release of signaling chemicals.

Genetic Variation in Individual Brain Cell Types May Predict Disease Risk

Researchers identified non-coding regions of the human genome that control the development and function of four brain cell types and mapped genetic risk variants for psychiatric diseases. They found that risk variants for Alzheimer’s disease were enriched in microglia-specific regulatory elements.

Link between brain immune cells and Alzheimer’s disease development identified

Irvine, Calif., Aug. 21, 2019 — Scientists from the University of California, Irvine School of Biological Sciences have discovered how to forestall Alzheimer’s disease in a laboratory setting, a finding that could one day help in devising targeted drugs that prevent it. The researchers found that by removing brain immune cells known as microglia from rodent models of Alzheimer’s disease, beta-amyloid plaques – the hallmark pathology of AD – never formed.