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Literature record

The innate immune system in Alzheimer's disease.

PMID 24223593 | PMCID PMC3809371 | DOI 10.1155/2013/576383 · International journal of cell biology · 2013 · View on PubMed ↗

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause for dementia in the world. It is characterized by two biochemically distinct types of protein aggregates: amyloid β (A β ) peptide in the forms of parenchymal amyloid plaques and congophilic amyloid angiopathy (CAA) and aggregated tau protein in the form of intraneuronal neurofibrillary tangles (NFT). Several risk factors have been discovered that are associated with AD. The most well-known genetic risk factor for late-onset AD is apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4) (Potter and Wisniewski (2012), and Verghese et al. (2011)). Recently, it has been reported by two groups independently that a rare functional variant (R47H) of TREM2 is associated with the late-onset risk of AD. TREM2 is expressed on myeloid cells including microglia, macrophages, and dendritic cells, as well as osteoclasts. Microglia are a major part of the innate immune system in the CNS and are also involved in stimulating adaptive immunity. Microglia express several Toll-like receptors (TLRs) and are the resident macrophages of the central nervous system (CNS). In this review, we will focus on the recent advances regarding the role of TREM2, as well as the effects of TLRs 4 and 9 on AD.

Validated evidence

TypeEntitySource evidenceConfidenceExtractor
geneTREM2“Recently, it has been reported by two groups independently that a rare functional variant (R47H) of TREM2 is associated with the late-onset risk of AD.”0.98hgnc_dict_v1
phenotypeAlzheimer disease“The innate immune system in Alzheimer's disease.”0.93phenotype_alias_lexicon_v2
variantR47H“Recently, it has been reported by two groups independently that a rare functional variant (R47H) of TREM2 is associated with the late-onset risk of AD.”0.82literature_variant_regex_v2