Xinhua News Agency, Shenzhen, January 31 (Reporter Chen Yuxuan) The reporter learned from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on January 31 that researchers have developed a neuromodulation technology that can target the regulation of microglia, which is expected to achieve "directional clearance" of Alzheimer's disease-related toxic proteins, providing a new idea for the development of targeted drugs for Alzheimer's disease. The relevant research results were published in the international authoritative journal Neuron on the evening of January 30.
Previous studies have found that there is a toxic protein in the brains of Alzheimer's patients, and the targeted removal of this toxic protein is important for the development of Alzheimer's disease drugs. In this regard, researchers have set their sights on microglia, immune cells in the central nervous system of the brain that have the function of monitoring and removing harmful substances, and how to make microglia accurately eliminate toxic proteins has become the key to research.
In response to this problem, after five years of exploration, researchers have found that optogenetic means can activate microglia, enhance their phagocytic function, and accelerate the removal of toxic proteins related to Alzheimer's disease. At the same time, researchers have adopted the method of inhibiting the complement system signaling pathway in the immune system, which effectively prevents the activated microglia from "accidentally injuring" other normal neurons and achieving "targeted clearance". Researchers confirmed the above conclusions through animal experiments.
*Corresponding author Zhan Yang, a researcher at the Institute of Brain Cognition and Brain Diseases at the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that in the next step, researchers will continue to study the mechanisms related to microglia activation and microglial phagocytosis, and will also develop a variety of neuromodulation strategies to try pathological protein clearance and neuroprotective methods in the study of other neurodegenerative diseases through a combination of multiple strategies.
The research was jointly completed by the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Sun Yat-sen Medical College, Sun Yat-sen University, Shenzhen Graduate School of Peking University, and the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
*: Xinhuanet).