A preclinical assessment of neural stem cells as delivery vehicles for anti-amyloid therapeutics.

Transplantation of neural stems cells (NSCs) could be a useful means to deliver biologic therapeutics for late-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD). In this study, we conducted a small preclinical investigation of whether NSCs could be modified to express metalloproteinase 9 (MMP9), a secreted protease reported to degrade aggregated Aβ peptides that are the major constituents of the senile plaques. Our findings illuminated three issues with using NSCs as delivery vehicles for this particular application.

Ex vivo cultures of microglia from young and aged rodent brain reveal age-related changes in microglial function.

To understand how microglial cell function may change with aging, various protocols have been developed to isolate microglia from the young and aged central nervous system (CNS). Here we report modification of an existing protocol that is marked by less debris contamination and improved yields and demonstrate that microglial functions are varied and dependent on age. Specifically, we found that microglia from aged mice constitutively secrete greater amounts of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) relative to microglia from younger mice and are less responsive to stimulation.