Neurodegenerative diseases

A new study has shown that a modulator of metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 can reverse synapse loss in mouse models of Alzheimer disease and has the potential to be developed as a disease-modifying treatment for this condition.

Compromised clearance of dysfunctional mitochondria, through the process of mitophagy, has garnered attention as an essential contributor to aging and neurodegeneration. Schmid and colleagues¹ reveal that genetic enhancement of mitophagy via neuronal overexpression of BNIP3 alleviates brain aging and prolongs healthspan in fruit flies.

A new genome-wide association study has identified 41 previously unknown loci associated with Alzheimer disease. However, these data provide limited insight into disease mechanisms or benefits for clinical prediction of Alzheimer disease.

The mechanistic contribution of cerebrovascular dysfunction to neurodegenerative diseases is difficult to determine. New single-cell transcriptomic analyses of human brain microvessels have identified transcriptomic signatures along the arteriovenous axis and transcriptional changes in the cerebrovasculature in Alzheimer disease and Huntington disease. This approach could advance our understanding of brain health and disease.