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Researchers are investigating how the deficiency of a gene in immune cells plays a role in Alzheimer's disease.
The brain's immune cells are called microglia, and they found when deleting a particular gene, CX3CR1, the microglial cells were impaired in their movement towards plaques.
Plaques are created by amyloid beta proteins that clump together and destroy nerve cell connections. The dysfunction in the microglia occurs earlier in the disease course, which results in a cascade of neurotoxic events in the brain.
"CX3CR1 has been shown in both past human and animal studies to be downregulated in neurodegenerative diseases when microglia are activated."
"This research pinpoints how we can target this cell type early in the disease in order to modulate how the disease progresses," says Shweta Puntambekar, MS, Ph.D.
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