Manipulating the immune system to fight Alzheimer’s

Within Alzheimer’s disease, microglia have been found to become impaired, resulting in an inability to clear the brain of foreign structures such as beta-amyloid peptides. New research however has focused on the possibility of prompting macrophages to take over the role of dysfunctional microglia, highlighting a potential new mechanism for immune action against the disease. The research was carried out at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Germany) and was published recently in The Journal of Experimental Medicine. The team, led by Frank Heppner (Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin) aimed to decipher whether microglia could be driven to migrate to the brain in...