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Sex-specific role for microglial CST7 in Alzheimer’s disease

Nature Reviews Immunology volume 23, page 73 (2023)Cite this article

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Microglia have been implicated in various neuropathologies including Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which is marked by the accumulation of extracellular amyloid plaques and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles. AD is more prevalent in women than in men, suggesting that there are sex-dependent differences in the underlying pathology.

In recent years, a specific microglial gene signature has been described in the context of neurodegeneration that is characterized by the downregulation of genes involved in microglial homeostasis and the upregulation of genes associated with activation and priming, including CST7 — which encodes cystatin F (CST7), an endogenous inhibitor of cysteine proteases. Although the disease-associated microglia transcriptomic signature is well-described, little is known about its functional consequences or whether any of the genes function in a sex-specific manner.

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References

Original article

  • Daniels, M. J. D. et al. Cystatin F (Cst7) drives sex-dependent changes in microglia in an amyloid-driven model of Alzheimer’s Disease. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.11.18.516922 (2022)

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  1. Preprint Club, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Austeja Baleviciute & Lily Keane

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  1. Austeja Baleviciute
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  2. Lily Keane
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Correspondence to Austeja Baleviciute or Lily Keane.

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Baleviciute, A., Keane, L. Sex-specific role for microglial CST7 in Alzheimer’s disease. Nat Rev Immunol 23, 73 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-022-00830-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-022-00830-0

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