AAIC 2022 | SPP1-mediated synaptic engulfment in Alzheimer’s disease

Soyon Hong, PhD, University College London, London, UK, discusses the impact of secreted phosphoprotein 1 (SPP1) on synapse engulfment in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) models. In mouse early development, SPP1, secreted from perivascular macrophages, modulates microglia-mediated synaptic engulfment. This conclusion comes from SPP1-depleted mice, in which phagocytosis pathways in microglia are modulated and synaptic engulfment fails. There is a lot of crosstalk between resident macrophages that live in different immune compartments – communication that, in the future, has the potential to be targeted therapeutically. This interview took place at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2022 in San Diego, CA.