Authors
Chatila, Z. K., Bradshaw, E. M.
Abstract
While genetics implicate a central role for dysregulated innate immunity in Alzheimer's disease (AD), the contributions of peripheral myeloid cells, such as monocytes, have been largely overlooked in favor of microglia. Here, we investigate whether AD associated loci, specifically rs3865444 in the CD33 locus and rs1057233 in the SPI1 locus, converge on shared functional pathways in monocytes in the context of amyloid-beta peptide 1-42 (AB1-42) as an immune stimulus. To do so, we isolated monocytes from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy individuals and exposed them to aggregated AB1-42. In this study, we identify functional convergence of the CD33 and SPI1 AD risk variants in the context of aggregated AB1-42, both resulting in reduced phagocytosis and loss of surface TREM2 expression, demonstrating an interaction between genetics and environment to reduce myeloid cell fitness. These findings highlight that peripheral monocytes, like brain-resident microglia, are genetically and functionally linked to AD risk, underscoring their importance as accessible immune cells that contribute to disease susceptibility and progression.
Preprint server:
bioRxiv
The authors list and abstract were imported from bioRxiv on 05 Nov 2025.
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