title: The role of the immune system in neurodegenerative disorders: Adaptive or maladaptive?
abstract: Neurodegenerative diseases share common features, including catastrophic neuronal loss that leads to cognitive or motor dysfunction. Neuronal injury occurs in an inflammatory milieu that is populated by resident and sometimes, infiltrating, immune cells - all of which participate in a complex interplay between secreted inflammatory modulators and activated immune cell surface receptors. The importance of these immunomodulators is highlighted by the number of immune factors that have been associated with increased risk of neurodegeneration in recent genome-wide association studies. One of the more difficult tasks for designing therapeutic strategies for immune modulation against neurodegenerative diseases is teasing apart beneficial from harmful signals. In this regard, learning more about the immune components of these diseases has yielded common themes. These unifying concepts should eventually enable immune-based therapeutics for treatment of Alzheimer׳s and Parkinson׳s diseases and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Targeted immune modulation should be possible to temper maladaptive factors, enabling beneficial immune responses in the context of neurodegenerative diseases. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled SI: Neuroimmunology in Health And Disease.
authors.affiliation: Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin R
authors.initials: KR
authors.lastname: Doty
authors.affiliation: Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
authors.forename: Marie-Victoire
authors.initials: MV
authors.lastname: Guillot-Sestier
authors.affiliation: Zilkha Neurogenetic Institute, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. Electronic address: ttown@usc.edu.
authors.forename: Terrence
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Town
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D000818:Animals; D001253:Astrocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D001921:Brain / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D004660:Encephalitis / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology; D006801:Humans; D018836:Inflammation Mediators / Q000378:metabolism; D017628:Microglia / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D019636:Neurodegenerative Diseases / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D009474:Neurons / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D010300:Parkinson Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D012307:Risk Factors
chemical_list: D018836:Inflammation Mediators
keywords: Alzheimer׳s disease; Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; Central nervous system; Neuroimmunology; Neuroinflammation; Parkinson׳s disease