Rutgers scientists have found more clear-cut evidence of how the destructive proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease attack human brain cells and destroy surrounding tissue. In one of the first studies of its kind examining human brain cells grown in a mouse brain, researchers identified a pivotal mechanism that could be a potential therapeutic target for a disease that afflicts millions and has no known cure.
Writing in the journal Cell Stem Cell, the researchers described experiments studying human brain immune cells injected into the brains of specially bred immunodeficient mice, creating what they called a human-mouse chimera. They detailed what happened to specialized immune brain cells known as microglia after those cells were exposed to tau proteins – destructive substances believed to be involved in Alzheimer’s and other severe human brain diseases. To read the full story.