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Activated immune cells drive neurodegeneration in an Alzheimer’s model

An analysis of mice carrying the protein tau — a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease — reveals that immune cells collaborate to drive tau-mediated neurodegeneration, and that drugs already in use in the clinic can combat this decline.
  1. Ian H. Guldner

    1. Ian H. Guldner is in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, and at the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA.

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  2. Tony Wyss-Coray

    1. Tony Wyss-Coray is in the Department of Neurology and Neurological Sciences, and at the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305, USA, and in the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging and the Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience, Stanford University.

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Immune cells called T cells were long discounted as players in brain immunity except in rare circumstances, in part because of dogmatic ideas about their inability to penetrate the blood–brain barrier1. However, it has become clear in the past two decades that the adaptive immune system, of which T cells are a major part, does act in the human brain2. Writing in Nature, Chen et al.3 describe a role for T cells in neurodegeneration. The authors’ work implies the need for a revised view of adaptive immunity in the brain.

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Nature 615, 588-589 (2023)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-00600-5

Updates & Corrections

  • Correction 13 March 2023: The original article incorrectly stated that Chen et al. did not investigate how anti-PD1 treatment affected brain atrophy. This has now been corrected.

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Competing Interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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