Engineered microglia show promise for treating Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases UC Irvine team develops cell-based platform for brain-wide delivery of therapeutic proteins
University of California, Irvine scientists have unveiled a groundbreaking new way to deliver disease-fighting proteins throughout the brain, potentially revolutionizing the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders. By engineering human immune cells called microglia the researchers have created living cellular “couriers” capable of responding to brain pathology and releasing therapeutic agents exactly where needed.
The National Institutes of Health-supported study, published recently in Cell Stem Cell, demonstrates for the first time that induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) – derived microglia can be genetically programmed to detect disease-specific brain changes – like amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s disease – and to then specifically respond to pathology by releasing enzymes that help break down those toxic proteins. As a result, the cells were able to reduce inflammation, preserve neurons and synaptic connections and reverse multiple other hallmarks of neurodegeneration in mice.
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