Study Identifies Specific Microglia Linked To Disease Progression In Patients With ALS

ALS News Today (8/8, Shapiro) reported a study found that “immune cells in the brain exhibit distinct profiles in the brain and spinal cord of people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).” The research team investigated which “groups of microglia might be associated with ALS, and analyzed gene activity to assess microglia and other immune cells collected from the postmortem brain and spinal cord tissue of people with ALS, comparing them to people without ALS.” They observed that “ALS tissue showed a predominance of a group of microglia, dubbed MG2, that exhibit gene activity alterations consistent with dysregulated cellular energy production.” In addition, “altered gene activity markers for ALS-related microglia subtypes correlated with a marker implicated in neurodegenerative diseases, suggesting a link between immune changes and motor neuron death.” The study was published in Acta Neuropathologica.