Mount Sinai Researchers Map Brain Immune Cells to Understand Alzheimer's Progression
Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have published a comprehensive map of brain immune cells, highlighting their role in Alzheimer's disease. The study, published in Nature Genetics, identifies a protective subtype of microglia that becomes more abundant as Alzheimer's progresses. These cells help clear harmful material from the brain, and their protective state is maintained through a molecular pathway involving proteins TREM2, MITF, and GPNMB. The research analyzed over 830,000 myeloid-origin immune cells from the prefrontal cortex of 1,607 donors, providing insights into how these cells change with aging and disease progression.