ArticleNature cell biology2026
Characterizing the metabolomes of microglia, astrocytes and neurons in ageing and Alzheimer's brains.
Article in Nature cell biology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Multi-Targeted Neuroprotection byInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2026Article
- The Immune-Chemokine Axis in Alzheimer's Disease: Roles of Adaptive Immune System in Neuroinflammation and Disease Progression.Biomolecules · 2026Review
- From metabolism to neurodegeneration: how microglial functional reprogramming drives neurodegenerative diseases.Frontiers in molecular neuroscience · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
18 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Neurons and glia are distinct in their morphology, development and function, possessing unique transcriptomes and proteomes, but little is known about their metabolomes. The challenge of brain cell metabolic profiling is to obtain a large number of cells for reliable analysis. Here we purified microglia, astrocytes and neurons from mouse brains, identifying >70 metabolites through targeted metabolomics and 9,854 metabolite features via untargeted metabolomics. We systematically characterized cell type-enriched metabolites and metabolic pathways, revealing an enrichment of glutathione (GSH) and polyamine metabolism in microglia. This enrichment was validated in vivo and showed significant decreases with ageing and in an Alzheimer's disease model. Notably, GSH and polyamine metabolism correlated strongly with chemokine-related gene expression. Disrupting the GSH pathway in microglia resulted in downregulation of chemokine-related genes, aberrant morphogenesis and β-amyloid deposition. Our results provide a valuable resource ( https://metabolismocean.org/braincell ) for metabolic studies related to ageing, Alzheimer's disease and other neurological diseases.
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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.