Immune mechanisms in aging and neurodegenerative diseases.
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, with prevalence progressively increasing with aging. Pathological hallmarks of the disease include accumulation of amyloid-beta (Aβ) peptides and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain associated with glial activation and synpatotoxicity. In addition, AD involves peripheral and brain-endogenous inflammatory processes that appear to enhance disease progression. Our ongoing […]
Immune cell residence and function within the central nervous system
Microglia are myeloid-derived cells that colonize the central nervous system (CNS) already at early stages of development and constitute up to 20% of the glial populations throughout life. While extensive progress has been recently made in identifying the cellular origin of microglia, the mechanism whereby the cells acquire the unique ramified and quiescent phenotype within […]
Stromal cell-induced immune regulation in a transplantable lymphoid-like cell constructs
In collaboration with Prof. Cohen Smadar, The Department of Biotechnology Engineering, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel Engineering of cell-based constructs for treating a variety of immune-related diseases by local transplantation of the cells in a pre-designed matrix is an emerging therapeutic approach, which can potentially reduce the side effects associated with systemic cell injection. Stromal cells […]
Mechanisms of stress-induced autoimmunity and neuroinflammation
It has been well established that stress may substantially affect the homeostatic regulation of the immune system. In most animal models studied thus far, stressful triggers such as fear, maternal deprivation, social threat or physiological challenge have been shown to induce immunosuppression associated with increased susceptibility to allergies and infectious diseases. These effects are mediated […]