Umbilical cord stem cells from presenilin 1 E280A carriers, once differentiated into cholinergic-like neurons, pumped out Aβ42 and accumulated phosphorylated tau and apoptotic markers.
Chemicals and particulates may slip across the blood-brain barrier or travel up olfactory nerves to directly affect brain cells. What are the consequences for cognition?
According to a structural analysis, fluorescently tagged tau fragments cannot form paired helical filaments. This suggests the assay does not measure prion-like propagation.
Harvard or MIT? The microbiomes of mice raised in different facilities dictated their response to C9 deficiency, including whether they died young. Do gut microbes influence ALS?
For several neurodegenerative diseases, scientists identified which cell types exert a person’s inherited risk. In Alzheimer’s, it’s microglia; in Parkinson’s, it’s dopaminergic and enteric neurons—and oligodendrocytes.
Loss-of-function variants in the demethylase TET2 raise a person’s risk for early and late-onset Alzheimer’s, as well as FTD and ALS, suggesting a common mechanism.