Paper of the month

Habib's Lab: Disease-associated astrocytes in Alzheimer’s disease and aging

Habib, N., McCabe, C., Medina, S. et al.

Nat Neurosci 23, 701–706 (2020)

Lay summary:

The role of non-neuronal cells in Alzheimer’s disease progression has not been fully elucidated. Using single-nucleus RNA sequencing, we identified a population of disease-associated astrocytes in an Alzheimer’s disease mouse model. These disease-associated astrocytes appeared at early disease stages and increased in abundance with disease progression. We discovered that similar astrocytes appeared in aged wild-type mice and in aging human brains, suggesting their linkage to genetic and age-related factors.

“Working memory”