Characterizing Adaptive Immune Mechanism in Alzheimer: A Key to Therapy
Principal Investigator
Mentors
Project Goals
Systemic inflammation might play a critical role in the onset and progression of Alzheimer disease. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are the major immunomodulatory cell in the blood that might lose their function in AD. For the first time in AD, dysfunctional Tregs will be expanded in culture dish to restore their suppressive function and the impact of these expanded/normalized Tregs will be evaluated on AD pathology. This project could form the rational to apply regulatory T cell expansion as a novel therapeutic approach in dementia patients.
Project Summary
Systemic inflammation might play a critical role in the onset and progression of AD. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are the major immunomodulatory cell type in the blood. These cells might lose their function in AD, shifting the immune system response towards a pro-inflammatory state. Accumulating preclinical and clinical evidence suggests Tregs as a modifiable therapeutic target. For the first time in AD, dysfunctional Alzheimer’s Tregs will be expanded in culture dish to restore their immunomodulatory function. The impact of Tregs expansion/normalization will be evaluated for pathology in an AD mouse model. This project could form the rational to apply regulatory T cell expansion as a novel therapeutic approach in
Alzheimer’s patients.
Publications
Faridar A, Thome AD, Zhao W, Thonhoff JR, Beers DR, Pascual B, Masdeu JC, Appel SH. Restoring regulatory T-cell dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease through ex vivo expansion. Brain Commun. 2020 Jul 20;2(2):fcaa112. doi: 10.1093/braincomms/fcaa112. PMID: 32954348; PMCID: PMC7472911.
First published on: June 12, 2019
Last modified on: May 05, 2024