Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2024 Oct 31:18:1499458.
doi: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1499458. eCollection 2024.

More than microglia: myeloid cells and biomarkers in neurodegeneration

Eleftheria Kodosaki  1   2 , Rosie Bell  1   2 , Aitana Sogorb-Esteve  2   3 , Katharine Wiltshire  3 , Henrik Zetterberg  1   2   4   5   6   7 , Amanda Heslegrave  1   2
Affiliations
Review

More than microglia: myeloid cells and biomarkers in neurodegeneration

Eleftheria Kodosaki et al. Front Neurosci. .

Abstract

The role of myeloid cells (granulocytes and monocytes) in neurodegeneration and neurodegenerative disorders (NDD) is indisputable. Here we discuss the roles of myeloid cells in neurodegenerative diseases, and the recent advances in biofluid and imaging myeloid biomarker research with a focus on methods that can be used in the clinic. For this review, evidence from three neurodegenerative diseases will be included, Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and multiple sclerosis (MS). We discuss the potential for these biomarkers to be used in humans with suspected NDD as prognostic, diagnostic, or monitoring tools, identify knowledge gaps in literature, and propose potential approaches to further elucidate the role of myeloid cells in neurodegeneration and better utilize myeloid biomarkers in the understanding and treatment of NDD.

Keywords: biomarker standardization; biomarker utility; microglia; myeloid biomarkers; myeloid cells; neurodegeneration; neuroinflammation.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

HZ has served at scientific advisory boards and/or as a consultant for Abbvie, Acumen, Alector, Alzinova, ALZPath, Amylyx, Annexon, Apellis, Artery Therapeutics, AZTherapies, Cognito Therapeutics, CogRx, Denali, Eisai, LabCorp, Merry Life, Nervgen, Novo Nordisk, Optoceutics, Passage Bio, Pinteon Therapeutics, Prothena, Red Abbey Labs, reMYND, Roche, Samumed, Siemens Healthineers, Triplet Therapeutics, and Wave, has given lectures sponsored by Alzecure, Biogen, Cellectricon, Fujirebio, Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Roche, and WebMD, and is a co-founder of Brain Biomarker Solutions in Gothenburg AB (BBS), which is a part of the GU Ventures Incubator Program (outside submitted work). The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
A summary of the findings for myeloid cells and biomarkers in neurodegenerative disorders. In the first part of this figure/table we include the myeloid cells that have been relevant to NDD, their location, and function in NDDs. For the second part (Biomarker type) while biofluid markers exist and are easy to research for monitoring the function of all myeloid cells, these are not cell specific (with the exception of markers such as neutrophil- or platelet-specific activation markers or EVs), while other biomarkers ranging from genetics and epigenetics-related, or cell behavior and morphology are more widely accessible, but under-investigated. The existence of biofluid biomarker per cell type is indicated with + for either proteins secreted that have been found to have potential as biomarkers in NDD (with examples) or for cell-specific changes that have been observed that can also act as biomarkers (behavior, function, morphology etc.). Myeloid cell related imaging biomarkers for NDD are currently limited to macrophage and microglia-specific, without the ability to distinguish between the two. More details are found in the text. DC, dendritic cells; NDD, neurodegenerative disorders; EV, extracellular vesicles.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Ahn H. J., Chen Z.-L., Zamolodchikov D., Norris E. H., Strickland S. (2017). Interactions of β-amyloid peptide with fibrinogen and coagulation factor XII may contribute to Alzheimer's disease. Curr. Opin. Hematol. 24, 427–431. doi: 10.1097/MOH.0000000000000368, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Alvarez-Sanchez N., Dunn S. E. (2023). Potential biological contributers to the sex difference in multiple sclerosis progression. Front. Immunol. 14:1175874. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1175874, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Andersen H. H., Johnsen K. B., Moos T. (2014). Iron deposits in the chronically inflamed central nervous system and contributes to neurodegeneration. Cell. Mol. Life Sci. 71, 1607–1622. doi: 10.1007/s00018-013-1509-8, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Ashton N. J., Suárez-Calvet M., Heslegrave A., Hye A., Razquin C., Pastor P., et al. . (2019). Plasma levels of soluble TREM2 and neurofilament light chain in TREM2 rare variant carriers. Alzheimers Res. Ther. 11, 1–7. doi: 10.1186/s13195-019-0545-5 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Atagi Y., Liu C.-C., Painter M. M., Chen X.-F., Verbeeck C., Zheng H., et al. . (2015). Apolipoprotein E is a ligand for triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (TREM2). J. Biol. Chem. 290, 26043–26050. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M115.679043, PMID: - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources