Giving Compass' Take:

• Researchers report that a pair of genes influence risk for both late-onset and early-onset Alzheimer’s disease.

• How can funders get involved in advancing Alzheimer’s research? 

• Learn about how to make an impact on Alzheimer’s disease therapies. 

Most genes implicated in Alzheimer’s so far affect neurons that transmit messages, allowing different regions of the brain to communicate with one another. But the newly identified genes affect an entirely different population of cells: the brain’s immune cells.

The findings, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, could provide scientists with new targets and a strategy for delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s symptoms.

The genes—known as MS4A4A and TREM2—operate in the microglia, the brain’s immune cells. They influence Alzheimer’s risk by altering levels of TREM2, a protein that scientists believe helps microglia cells clear excessive amounts of the Alzheimer’s proteins amyloid and tau from the brain.

“The findings point to a new therapeutic strategy,” says co-senior investigator Carlos Cruchaga, professor of psychiatry and director of the NeuroGenomics and Informatics Group at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “If we can do something to raise levels of the TREM2 protein in the cerebrospinal fluid, we may be able to protect against Alzheimer’s disease or slow its development.”

Read the full article about MS4A4A and TREM2 by Jim Dryden at Futurity.