NEW YORK: For years scientists have probed how neuroinflammation contributes to Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative ailments. Researchers face a number of immediate questions: Is neuroinflammation a driving force? Does it kick in when the disease is already underway and worsen the process? Could it be harnessed for good in the early stages? Those questions are far from settled, but research is starting to reveal a clearer picture. “It may not be the amyloid plaques themselves that directly damage neurons and the connections between them. Rather, it may be the immune reaction to the plaques that does the damage,” says Cynthia Lemere, a neuroscientist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Still, it is hard to say if microglia are good guys or bad, making it challenging to create therapeutics that target these cells…