Drs. Wei Cao and Ethan Roy Published
Congratulations to Drs. Wei Cao and Ethan Roy for their publication titled “Fate-mapping and functional dissection reveal perilous influence of type I interferon signaling in mouse brain aging” in Journal Molecular Neurodegeneration.
In this study on inflammation in the aging brain using rodent models, we found that the type I interferon pathway, normally activated during the antiviral response, is highly and abnormally elevated during brain aging. When we tested its role in functional decline during the aging process, we identified this pathway as a key driver of various features of brain aging. Among these, we saw that inflammation in the white matter, glial activation, neuron dysfunction, and loss of proteostasis were partly due to interferon signaling in microglia, which are the brain’s resident immune cells. Blocking this signal restored some of the deficits seen with brain aging in mice. We believe this pathway could be a worthwhile therapeutic target for slowing down the cognitive decline that is seen in the elderly population during normal aging.