{"id":232946,"date":"2026-03-10T10:11:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T15:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/brain-immune-cells-may-help-build-alzheimers-plaques"},"modified":"2026-03-10T10:11:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T15:11:25","slug":"brain-immune-cells-may-help-build-alzheimers-plaques","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/03\/brain-immune-cells-may-help-build-alzheimers-plaques","title":{"rendered":"Brain immune cells may help build Alzheimer\u2019s plaques"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/brain-immune-cells-may-help-build-alzheimers-plaques2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A new study led by researchers from VIB and KU Leuven shows that immune cells called microglia can actively promote the formation of plaques in Alzheimer\u2019s disease, challenging the long-standing view that these cells serve only as defenders against plaque buildup. The findings were recently <a href=\"https:\/\/pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2516774123\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMost studies suggest that microglia are there to clean up the brain and remove the amyloid plaques. What we discovered is that actually they\u2019re part of the problem. They generate plaques,\u201d says Prof. Joost Schymkowitz, co-senior author of the study at the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Neuroscience. \u201cIt was thought that plaques aggregate by themselves. And it seems that the microglia, by trying to deal with the problem, amplify it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Alzheimer\u2019s disease affects nearly 55 million people worldwide and is characterized by the accumulation of toxic protein aggregates in the brain known as amyloid plaques. These plaques are associated with neuronal death and progressive dementia. The brain\u2019s microglia have been hailed as protectors against plaque accumulation in the disease, being the focus of several therapies. Nonetheless, the study shows how microglia are active producers of amyloid plaques in the earlier stages of the disease, reconsidering the therapeutic paradigm for Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new study led by researchers from VIB and KU Leuven shows that immune cells called microglia can actively promote the formation of plaques in Alzheimer\u2019s disease, challenging the long-standing view that these cells serve only as defenders against plaque buildup. The findings were recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-232946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=232946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/232946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=232946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=232946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=232946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}