CHICAGO: For the first time, researchers at LSU Health New Orleans have shown that a protein critical to the body’s ability to remove waste products from the brain and retina is diminished in age-related macular degeneration (AMD), after first making the discovery in an Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brain. The research team also discovered a key reason, identifying a new treatment target.
During their normal day-to-day operation, the brain and retina produce relatively large quantities of waste products, which have to be cleared away so that they do not clog up the delicate parts of the thinking and visual system. Part of the waste disposal system consists of a very special waste-sensing transmembrane protein located in highly specialized cells called microglial cells found in the brain and retina. This waste-sensing protein in microglial cells is known to scientists as the “triggering receptor expressed in microglia,” or TREM2 protein.
The researchers examined human AD-affected brain and AMD-affected retina, the retina of aging 5xFAD transgenic animals and microglial and other brain and retinal cells in culture.
“We have discovered that in age-related degenerative diseases of the brain, such as Alzheimer’s disease, and the retina, such as age-related macular degeneration, there is a lowered and insufficient amount of TREM2 protein, and this may be in part responsible for the inability of the brain and retina to clear away their end-stage waste products,” notes Dr. Lukiw.