{"id":235908,"date":"2026-04-25T06:15:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T11:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/how-a-chemical-reaction-triggers-brain-inflammation-in-alzheimers-disease"},"modified":"2026-04-25T06:15:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T11:15:07","slug":"how-a-chemical-reaction-triggers-brain-inflammation-in-alzheimers-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/04\/how-a-chemical-reaction-triggers-brain-inflammation-in-alzheimers-disease","title":{"rendered":"How a chemical reaction triggers brain inflammation in Alzheimer\u2019s disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/how-a-chemical-reaction-triggers-brain-inflammation-in-alzheimers-disease2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The brain has its own immune system, which detects threats and mounts a defense. A growing body of evidence has shown that in Alzheimer\u2019s disease, those immune cells are chronically overactivated, causing inflammation that damages the connections between brain cells.<\/p>\n<p>Now, in a preclinical study using human Alzheimer\u2019s brain cells, scientists at Scripps Research have identified a molecular switch\u2014and potential drug target\u2014responsible for driving that chronic inflammation.<\/p>\n<p>The research, published in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cell.com\/cell-chemical-biology\/abstract\/S2451-9456(26)00109-1\" target=\"_blank\"><i>Cell Chemical Biology<\/i><\/a> on April 23, 2026, centers on a protein called STING, which normally functions as part of the immune system\u2019s early-warning system. In the brains of people with Alzheimer\u2019s, the team discovered that STING undergoes a chemical modification known as S-nitrosylation (or SNO, a reaction involving sulfur, oxygen and nitrogen) that promotes its overactivation. Blocking this chemical change to STING in a mouse model of the disease decreased neuroinflammation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The brain has its own immune system, which detects threats and mounts a defense. A growing body of evidence has shown that in Alzheimer\u2019s disease, those immune cells are chronically overactivated, causing inflammation that damages the connections between brain cells. Now, in a preclinical study using human Alzheimer\u2019s brain cells, scientists at Scripps Research have [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,19,47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-235908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical","category-chemistry","category-neuroscience"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235908","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=235908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}