Issue Cover (December 2020)

Front cover:Amyloid ‐beta (Aβ) is recognized as a danger‐associated molecular pattern by pattern recognition receptors present on microglial cells. The aim of the study was to analyze whether low molecular weight Aβ oligomers, which are stronger neurotoxic than fibrils, could activate NLRP3 inflammasome in microg lial cells. This activation was confirmed using nigericin, a well‐known NLRP3 stimulus. Inflammasome activation is represented by caspase‐1 activation and IL‐1β release. Our results confirm that NLRP3 inflammasome is activated not only by fibrils forming Aβ aggregates but also by small oligo mers. The inflammasome activation could be completely blocked by the specific inhibitor, MCC950. These results highlight that microglia activated by Aβ oligomers and protofibrils are potent drivers of neuroinflammatory processes.Image content: The figure shows caspase ‐1 activation with nigericin in microglia cells. Caspase‐1 was stained using fluorescently labelled caspase‐1 inhibitor YVAD‐FMK (FLICA assay). Staining – nucleus is stained in blue, cell membrane in red and activated caspase‐1 in green.Read the full article ‘Soluble Aβ oligomers and protofibrils induce NLRP3 inflammasome activation in microglia’ by A. Lu čiūnaitė, R. M. McManus, M. Jankunec, I. Rácz, C. Dansokho, I. Dalgėdienė, S. Schwartz, F. Brosseron, M. T. Heneka, (J. Neurochem. 2020, vol. 155 (6), pp. 650 –661) on doi:10.1111/jnc.14945
Source: Journal of Neurochemistry - Category: Neuroscience Tags: Issue Cover Source Type: research