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.
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?
Using a form of confocal microscopy and automated software, the method allows researchers to rapidly identify functional synapses within brain structures.
Researchers used PET scans from 4,000 people to link RBFOX1 risk variants to amyloidosis. People with lower RBFOX1 expression in their brains had more amyloid and worse cognition.
The findings hint at a liver-brain axis that transmits inflammation from periphery to brain, and could suggest therapeutic targets for preserving brain function.
The tracer distinguished people with progressive supranuclear palsy from controls with a sensitivity of 85 percent, suggesting potential as a diagnostic for 4R tauopathies.
Researchers at the online AAT-AD/PD meeting touted therapies that target neuroinflammation, synapses, epigenetic regulation, or the cortisol stress response.