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An immune-cell signature marks the brain in Alzheimer’s disease

A subpopulation of adaptive immune cells patrols the brain and cerebrospinal fluid in people who have Alzheimer’s disease. This discovery should broaden our understanding of how the immune system can influence neurodegeneration.
  1. Michael T. Heneka

    1. Michael T. Heneka is in the Department of Neurodegenerative Diseases and Geriatric Psychiatry, University of Bonn Medical Center, and at the German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease, Bonn 53127, Germany.

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For decades, research into Alzheimer’s disease has centred on neurons. Only in the past few years have scientists identified a role for immune cells in the progression of this neurodegenerative disorder1. Most research has focused on the nonspecific, innate branch of the immune system. But writing in Nature, Gate et al.2 report that an immune-cell subpopulation belonging to the adaptive immune system — which remembers and responds to specific foreign invaders — might also have a role in Alzheimer’s disease.

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Nature 577, 322-323 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03892-8

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