NEURODEGENERATION
Preventing inflammation in the brain
A drug could help to reduce chronic inflammation in the brain – though at present it’s only been tested on mice.
Signals from microglia cells (green) might trigger the aging of the brain. In this microscope image of a rat’s brain cells, the nerve cells have been coloured red. | Image: Gerry Shaw/Wikipedia
In principle, inflammation is a good thing because it fights infection. But in older people, the immune system often overshoots the mark, and minor chronic inflammation in the brain can contribute to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. “We have now identified a central driver behind such inflammation”, says Natasha Samson of EPFL.
The underlying mechanism is this: As we get older, the homeostatic processes in our cells are disrupted and DNA leaks into the cytoplasm – that’s the gelatinous liquid inside a cell. The immune system then mistakenly identifies this DNA as foreign, triggering an inflammatory reaction in the brain using a specific signalling pathway.
The research team has demonstrated these processes in mice by blocking the signalling pathway with an inhibitor. “This substance penetrates the blood-brain barrier and is thus a candidate for treating brain inflammation”, says Samson.
M. Gulen et al.: cGAS–STING drives ageing-related inflammation and neurodegeneration. Nature (2023)
