For decades, research into Alzheimer’s disease has centred on neurons. Only in the past few years have scientists identified a role for immune cells in the progression of this neurodegenerative disorder1. Most research has focused on the nonspecific, innate branch of the immune system. But writing in Nature, Gate et al.2 report that an immune-cell subpopulation belonging to the adaptive immune system — which remembers and responds to specific foreign invaders — might also have a role in Alzheimer’s disease.
The authors isolated and analysed immune cells from the blood of healthy people and people who had Alzheimer’s disease or a precursor of the disease known as mild cognitive impairment (MCI). They discovered an immune-cell subpopulation called CD8+ T effector memory CD45RA+ (TEMRA) cells that was associated with MCI and Alzheimer’s disease….
