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The role of microglia in Alzheimer's disease

  • Xiaoge LIU Lun ZHANG Xiaolin YU
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  • 1. State Key Laboratory of Biochemical Engineering, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190,China 
    2. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

Received date: 2018-05-17

  Revised date: 2018-06-22

  Online published: 2018-10-12

Abstract

Microglia, the innate immune cells of the central nervous system (CNS), serve as resident phagocytes that dynamically survey the environment and play crucial roles in CNS health and disease. Various roles are emerging for microglia in the healthy brain, from sculpting developing neuronal circuits to guiding neural plasticity. Understanding the physiological functions of microglia is important to evaluate their roles in disease. At pathological state, conditions associated with loss of cerebral homeostasis induce several dynamic microglial processes, including changes of cellular morphology, surface phenotype, secretory inflammatory mediators and proliferative responses, termed as an “activated state”. Activation and proliferation of microglia in the brain represents a prominent feature of several neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease (AD). AD is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder that is the most common cause of dementia, which is defined as a significant, persistent, and progressive memory loss combined with cognitive impairment and personality change. The key features of AD pathology are amyloid plaques by extracellular accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles composed of tau proteins. There is mounting evidence that microglia protect against the incidence of AD, as impaired microglial activities and altered microglial responses to Aβ are associated with increased AD risk. In CNS, microglia have protective functions by phagocytosis and clearance of toxic Aβ oligomers, which prevent the development of AD. Once activated, microglia can mediate synapse loss by engulfment of synapses via a complement-dependent mechanism, secrete inflammatory factors and exacerbate tau pathology, resulting in the neuron injury and cognitive deficits. Therefore, microglia show the double-edged sword function in AD pathogenesis. Understanding the multiple states of microglial activation and their roles in AD pathology will provide breakthrough ideas for developing AD therapeutic strategies. In this review, the role of microglia in the pathogenesis of AD and the modulation of microglia activity as a therapeutic potential will be discussed.

Cite this article

Xiaoge LIU Lun ZHANG Xiaolin YU . The role of microglia in Alzheimer's disease[J]. The Chinese Journal of Process Engineering, 2018 , 18(5) : 900 -907 . DOI: 10.12034/j.issn.1009-606X.218206

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