APOE Gene Variants and Glial Cells: Implications for Alzheimer's Disease
APOE alleles influence gene activity in glial cells, potentially leading to inflammation in the brain
Beyond neurons
The study of the brain (and broader nervous system) is called neuroscience for a reason. Neuro comes from the Greek for nerve. Nerve, in turn, most often refers to cells that pass along electrochemical messages.
AKA neurons.
Fortunately, science does not stand still. As we’ve become able to study the nervous system in more detail, we’ve come to realize that many more cell types play a role of importance.
Glial cells (or glia for short) are one of those cell types. Glia were long considered to be nothing more than supporting structures for neurons, but they turn out to be involved in a lot of processes, from shuttling nutrients to fighting pathogens and removing dead neurons.
As we age, these glia tend to lose their identity, which means that some genes become less active. This makes the glial cells more ‘generic’ and less specialized. We don’t know exactly what this does, but it seems to occur mostly in brain regions often implicated in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
