Scientists have discovered the role of cerebrospinal fluid in cognitive impairment, such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Immune cells in brain and spinal fluid become dysregulated and ‘a little angry’ as we age.
- Cerebrospinal fluid immune system is drastically altered in individuals with cognitive impairment
- Discovery could potentially be used to treat inflammation of the brain
- First thorough analysis of important brain immune system
The reason your three-pound brain doesn’t feel heavy is because it floats in a reservoir of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), which flows in and around your brain and spinal cord. This liquid barrier between your brain and skull protects it from a hit to your head and bathes your brain in nutrients.
But the CSF has another critical, if less known, function: it also provides immune protection to the brain. Yet, this function hasn’t been well studied.
A Northwestern Medicine study of CSF published on December 13 in the journal Cell, has discovered its role in cognitive impairment, such as can be searched online.
To analyze the CSF, Gate’s team at Northwestern used a sophisticated technique called single-cell DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.11.019
Other Northwestern authors are Natalie Piehl; Lynn van Olst, PhD; Abhirami Ramakrishnan; Victoria Teregulova; Brooke Simonton; and Ziyang Zhang.
This work was in part supported by a National Institute on Aging (NIA) grant A R01AG078713-01, a 10x Genomics Early Career Investigator Award, a National Institute of Neurologic Disease and Stroke K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award NS112458-01A1, NIA R01AG045034 05, the NIA funded Stanford ADRC P50AG047366, and P30AG066515, R01AG048076, all of the National Institutes of Health.
Other support was from UC San Diego Shiley-Marcos grant, a pilot project through the
