Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42393750›Full record

ReviewJournal of neuroinflammation2026

Microglial checkpoint collapse in Alzheimer's disease: a tri-axial framework for biomarker-informed neuroimmune therapy.

Jiahao Zhang, Ning Yang, Peibin Zou, Xuemei Zong

Abstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Journal of neuroinflammation, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
0citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Jiahao ZhangDepartment of Neurology, Institute for Cerebrovascular and Neuroregeneration Research (ICNR), Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, 1501 Kings Highway, Shreveport, LA, 71103, USA.
Ning YangDepartment of Neurology, Institute for Cerebrovascular and Neuroregeneration Research (ICNR), Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, 1501 Kings Highway, Shreveport, LA, 71103, USA.
Peibin ZouDepartment of Neurology, Institute for Cerebrovascular and Neuroregeneration Research (ICNR), Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, 1501 Kings Highway, Shreveport, LA, 71103, USA.
Xuemei ZongDepartment of Neurology, Institute for Cerebrovascular and Neuroregeneration Research (ICNR), Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, 1501 Kings Highway, Shreveport, LA, 71103, USA. xuemei.zong@lsuhs.edu.

Funding

American Heart Association 24CDA1269588
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundAnti-amyloid antibodies have validated amyloid-β (Aβ) as a disease-relevant target in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but their modest clinical effect, efficacy largely restricted to early disease, and amyloid-related imaging abnormalities (ARIA) indicate that Aβ removal alone does not resolve the glial, lipid, and inflammatory programmes that sustain neurodegeneration. Microglia sit at the centre of this therapeutic gap. Single-nucleus and spatial profiling has resolved several AD-associated microglial states, yet state labels remain descriptive and do not explain why adaptive engagement becomes maladaptive. MAIN BODY: We frame AD-relevant microglial dysfunction as checkpoint collapse: progressive failure of regulatory nodes that coordinate lipid sensing, lysosomal competence, neuronal restraint, and inflammatory threshold control. The central nodes are TREM2-mediated lipid and apolipoprotein sensing, progranulin-associated lysosomal regulation, CX3CR1-dependent neuron-microglia restraint, and CD33/Siglec-3 inhibitory tone. When these controls destabilise, downstream pathology can be organised around three coupled effector axes: a lipid axis centred on APOE-biased cholesterol trafficking, ACSL1/DGAT2-driven lipid-droplet accumulation, and impaired lysosomal flux; an iron/ferroptosis axis involving labile iron, phospholipid peroxidation, and insufficient GPX4/FSP1 defences; and an inflammation/complement axis linking NLRP3 activation, type-I interferon signalling, and C1q/C3-dependent synaptic engulfment to tau pathology and synapse loss. White-matter injury, astrocyte-microglia crosstalk, and cGAS-STING-linked senescence are integrated as cross-axis amplifiers.

conclusionsThis framework is proposed as a hypothesis-generating scaffold for biomarker-informed translational studies, rather than as a validated clinical stratification system. It may help organise stage-aware therapeutic hypotheses, including regulatory-node preservation in early disease, lipid-handling restoration and ferroptosis control at intermediate stages, and complement- or senescence-directed modulation in later disease. Current glial, iron, inflammatory, and imaging biomarkers remain insufficiently specific to assign individual patients reliably to discrete pathological axes in clinical practice.

Indexed as

Alzheimer DiseaseImmunotherapyMicrogliaNeuroimmunomodulationAmyloid beta-PeptidesAnimalsBiomarkersHumansAmyloid beta-PeptidesBiomarkersAlzheimer’s diseaseAPOE ε4Biomarker-informed therapycGAS–STINGComplementFerroptosisLipid-droplet–accumulating microgliaMicrogliaNLRP3 inflammasomeTREM2

Identifiers

PMID42393750
PMCPMC13595677

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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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.