TREM2 and the neuroimmunology of Alzheimer's disease.

ABSTRACT: Late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a sporadic disorder with increasing prevalence in aging. The ɛ4 allele of Apolipoprotein E(ApoEɛ4) was the only known major risk factor for late onset AD. Recently, two groups of investigators independently identified variants of the TREM2 gene, encoding triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 as causing increased susceptibility to late onset AD with an odds ratio similar to that of ApoEɛ4. TREM2 is a receptor expressed on innate immune cells. Using a novel technology called Direct RNA Sequencing wedetermined the quantitative transcriptome of microglia, the principal innate neuroimmune cells and confirmed that TREM2 is a major microglia-specific gene in the central nervous system. Over the past several years we have shown that microglia play

SUBMITTER: Hickman SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3972304 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature