AD/PD 2022 | Developments on microglia in neuroinflammation: TREM2 upregulation in Alzheimer’s disease

The genes that are responsible for changes in the human genome influencing the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are mostly restricted or exclusively expressed in the microglia. Greg Lemke, PhD, Salk Institute for Biological Studies, San Diego, CA, discusses a presentation by Christian Haass from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München & DZNE – whereby he investigates other genes which are upregulated in microglia. One of the most famous of these genes is TREM2; when subjected to certain mutations, this protein-coding gene can increase the risk of developing AD. It was found that patients with AD can have an upregulation of TREM2 decades before signs of disease onset – portraying an interesting biomarker for AD. This interview took place at AD/PD™ 2022 Conference in Barcelona, Spain.