Microglia and myelin's role in Alzheimer’s disease

[Tom.G]

From popular article at:
https://www.dailybreeze.com/2023/09...er-possible-new-cause-for-alzheimers-disease/

Microglia cleans up debris when myelin is damaged. Myelin acts as an insulator and protective covering for your brain’s nerve fibers, according to OHSU.

However, researchers found that microglia are demolished while getting rid of myelin, which is heavily rich in iron. This sabotage happens through a form of cell death named ferroptosis.

The research article, Ferroptosis of Microglia in Aging Human White Matter Injury,
is at Annals of Neurology, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ana.26770

Objective​

Because the role of white matter (WM) degenerating microglia (DM) in remyelination failure is unclear, we sought to define the core features of this novel population of aging human microglia.

Interpretation​

Ferroptosis appears to be a major mechanism of WM injury in Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. WM DM are a novel therapeutic target to potentially reduce the impact of WM injury and myelin loss on the progression of cognitive impairment. ANN NEUROL 2023

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I'm confused. Microglia cleans up damaged myelin but then also itself gets damaged.

 

[Tom.G]

I'm confused. Microglia cleans up damaged myelin but then also itself gets damaged.

A quick reading by a decidedly amateur yields --

Per paragraph 4, last sentence:

Aging human WMI in AD and VCID thus involves pronounced susceptibility to ferroptosis-mediated degeneration of iron-rich senescent microglia where lipid peroxidation injury appears to be promoted by dysfunctional microglial clearance of a high burden of myelin debris.

That seems to say:
The microglial are overloaded by heavy clean-up work, and they have been further injured by their inability to clear the extra debris. (think serious constipation!)

Cheers,
Tom

p.s. Come on you medical folks, how about some knowledgable interpretation of the article.

 

[AndreasC]

Having lost two grandparents to it, and having seen what it does to a person, I have to say there is no other disease that scares me as much as Alzheimer's. I don't have the credentials to evaluate or even really understand this. But any research that may lead to improved understanding of the disease and potentially treatment is massively important in my book.

 

[jrmichler]

Having lost one parent, and losing a friend to Alzheimer's, I have been collecting links. This is what I have run across in the last few years:

Why sleep and exercise can reduce risk of Alzheimer’s: Paywalled article: https://www.economist.com/science-a...ers-are-studying-the-brains-plumbing/21808465.

Healthy lifestyle has 60% lower risk of Alzheimer’s (2765 participants) over 100 related ongoing studies as of 2020: Article: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/new...le-traits-may-substantially-reduce-alzheimers.

The MIND diet reduced chances of Alzheimer’s by 53%: Article: https://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/what-to-know-about-mind-diet.

Highest to lowest quartile of lifestyle factors = 36% lower risk of dementia in large scale study: Article: https://scitechdaily.com/5-lifestyle-factors-linked-to-dementia/.

LIfestyle choices reduce chances of dementia by almost 90% in large scale ten year study:
Article: https://www.medicaldaily.com/decade...style-choices-slow-down-memory-decline-467856.
Paper: https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj-2022-072691.

Exercise produces hormone that protects against Alzheimer’s:
Article: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/ar...y-help-reduce-plaque-and-tangles-in-the-brain.
Paper: https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltex...m/retrieve/pii/S0896627323006232?showall=true.

All of which greatly helps me to motivate myself to strap on the running shoes and run 4 or 5 miles every morning at age 71.