Longevity & AgingCancer Mutations Found in Brain Immune Cells May Drive Alzheimer's Disease
Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital discovered that microglia, the brain's immune cells, accumulate mutations normally linked to blood cancers like lymphoma and leukemia. Rather than causing cancer, these mutations appear to make microglia overly inflammatory, potentially driving Alzheimer's disease. Crucially, the same mutations were also found in blood samples from Alzheimer's patients, suggesting that mutant immune cells from the bloodstream may cross into the brain and contribute to disease. Published in Cell, the study analyzed brain tissue from 190 Alzheimer's patients versus 121 healthy controls. The findings could lead to blood-based screening tests for Alzheimer's risk and open the door to repurposing existing cancer drugs as Alzheimer's treatments.
