August 21, 2024

Helaina Leuca

9th Grade

Pine Crest School

This article summarizes research by Sohail Tavazoie, a professor at Rockefeller University, highlighting a link between Alzheimer's Disease and exhausted immune cells. Alzheimer’s Disease afflicts 6.7 million people in America alone, according to a 2023 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Using experiments on mice, Tavazoie found that microglia — immune cells found in the central nervous system – become overworked as Alzheimer’s Disease develops in their brains, leading to exhaustion. This is caused by the APOE4 gene. Tavazoie’s lab found that the gene, present in roughly twenty percent of the U.S. population, directly weakens microglia, making it one of the most prominent genetic signals of Alzheimer’s Disease. 

To combat this, Tavazoie’s team attempted to rehabilitate the exhausted microglia. The team believed that this could lead to the treatment and possible prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease as a whole. This is newsworthy because Alzheimer’s affects an incredibly large amount of people. If there were a solution to Alzheimer’s, the quality of life for those patients would increase tremendously. 

Although Tavazoie’s method may help, a more efficient method of treating Alzheimer’s would be to develop a test that easily detects the APOE4 gene. Mass-producing such a test would make early detection of Alzheimer’s Disease easier and thus quicker. Even if the test wasn’t completely foolproof, scientists could catch most cases of the disease during the early onset phase, making it significantly easier to treat than when the immune cells in the patient’s brain have been exhausted (due to later diagnosis). 

Tavazoie’s research also presents a new drug, aducanumab, as a promising cure for Alzheimer’s Disease. His lab found that aducanumab helps repair some of the weakened or damaged microglia, with stronger results in mice that carried the APOE4 gene. If scientists developed a test for the APOE4 gene, then in cases where the test fails to detect Alzheimer’s doctors could then try reducing the advancement of the disease by attempting to rehabilitate the exhausted immune cells using aducanumab. 

Highlighting these points raises awareness of Alzheimer’s Disease, the ongoing research surrounding it, and different routes to finding a cure. This can lead to new research by other scientists working on this problem and other advancements in the process of controlling and regulating Alzheimer’s.