Newswise — Certain subtle differences in DNA sequences are known to raise the chances a person may develop Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. Some of these differences may work by altering the genetic activity of microglia, the brain’s immune cells. Those are just a few of the findings from a study led by scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
The researchers analyzed thousands of microglia from different brain regions of deceased patients who had been diagnosed with a variety of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. Their results, published in Nature Genetics, support the idea that microglia may play critical roles in some cases of brain disease while also providing a potentially valuable guide for future studies.
The study was led by Katia de Paiva Lopes, PhD, Gijsje Snijders, MD, PhD, and Jack Humphrey, PhD, working in the laboratories of…
