ArticleCells2021
Phagocytic Activities of Reactive Microglia and Astrocytes Associated with Prion Diseases Are Dysregulated in Opposite Directions.
Article in Cells, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 40 citations in OpenAlex.
- Article
- Mitochondria as a Therapeutic Target in Neurodegeneration: Strategies for Restoring Cellular Homeostasis.Current neuropharmacology · 2026Review
- Induced Microglial-like Cells Derived from Familial and Sporadic Alzheimer's Disease Peripheral Blood Monocytes Show Abnormal Phagocytosis and Inflammatory Response to PSEN1 E280A Cholinergic-like Neurons.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Glial phagocytosis for synapse and toxic proteins in neurodegenerative diseases.Molecular neurodegeneration · 2025Review
- NEU1-Mediated Extracellular Vesicle Glycosylation in Alzheimer's Disease: Mechanistic Insights into Intercellular Communication and Therapeutic Targeting.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Microglia-specific NF-κB signaling is a critical regulator of prion-induced glial inflammation and neuronal loss.PLoS pathogens · 2025Article
- Reactive Microglia and Astrocytes as Therapeutic Targets in Prion Diseases.Sub-cellular biochemistry · 2025Review
- Reactive astrocytes in prion diseases: Friend or foe?PLoS pathogens · 2024Review
- Review
- Multiple steps of prion strain adaptation to a new host.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2024Article
- Reactive astrocytes associated with prion disease impair the blood brain barrier.Neurobiology of disease · 2023Article
- The Central Nervous System Source Modulates Microglia Function and Morphology In Vitro.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Role of sialylation of N-linked glycans in prion pathogenesis.Cell and tissue research · 2023Review
- Reactive astrocytes associated with prion disease impair the blood brain barrier.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2023Article
- The roles of microglia and astrocytes in myelin phagocytosis in the central nervous system.Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism · 2023Review
- Aβ plaques do not protect against HSV-1 infection in a mouse model of familial Alzheimer's disease, and HSV-1 does not induce Aβ pathology in a model of late onset Alzheimer's disease.Brain pathology (Zurich, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Microglial morphometric analysis: so many options, so little consistency.Frontiers in neuroinformatics · 2023Review
- Review
- Distinct translatome changes in specific neural populations precede electroencephalographic changes in prion-infected mice.PLoS pathogens · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Phagocytosis is one of the most important physiological functions of the glia directed at maintaining a healthy, homeostatic environment in the brain. Under a homeostatic environment, the phagocytic activities of astrocytes and microglia are tightly coordinated in time and space. In neurodegenerative diseases, both microglia and astrocytes contribute to neuroinflammation and disease pathogenesis, however, whether their phagocytic activities are up- or downregulated in reactive states is not known. To address this question, this current study isolated microglia and astrocytes from C57BL/6J mice infected with prions and tested their phagocytic activities in live-cell imaging assays that used synaptosomes and myelin debris as substrates. The phagocytic uptake by the reactive microglia was found to be significantly upregulated, whereas that of the reactive astrocytes was strongly downregulated. The up- and downregulation of phagocytosis by the two cell types were observed irrespective of whether disease-associated synaptosomes, normal synaptosomes, or myelin debris were used in the assays, indicating that dysregulations are dictated by cell reactive states, not substrates. Analysis of gene expression confirmed dysregulation of phagocytic functions in both cell types. Immunostaining of animal brains infected with prions revealed that at the terminal stage of disease, neuronal cell bodies were subject to engulfment by reactive microglia. This study suggests that imbalance in the phagocytic activities of the reactive microglia and astrocytes, which are dysregulated in opposite directions, is likely to lead to excessive microglia-mediated neuronal death on the one hand, and the inability of astrocytes to clear cell debris on the other hand, contributing to the neurotoxic effects of glia as a whole.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.