Astrocytes: The Stars in Neurodegeneration?
Katarina Stoklund DittlauKristine Karla FreudePublished in: Biomolecules (2024)
Today, neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) affect millions of people worldwide, and as the average human lifespan increases, similarly grows the number of patients. For many decades, cognitive and motoric decline has been explained by the very apparent deterioration of neurons in various regions of the brain and spinal cord. However, more recent studies show that disease progression is greatly influenced by the vast population of glial cells. Astrocytes are traditionally considered star-shaped cells on which neurons rely heavily for their optimal homeostasis and survival. Increasing amounts of evidence depict how astrocytes lose their supportive functions while simultaneously gaining toxic properties during neurodegeneration. Many of these changes are similar across various neurodegenerative diseases, and in this review, we highlight these commonalities. We discuss how astrocyte dysfunction drives neuronal demise across a wide range of neurodegenerative diseases, but rather than categorizing based on disease, we aim to provide an overview based on currently known mechanisms. As such, this review delivers a different perspective on the disease causes of neurodegeneration in the hope to encourage further cross-disease studies into shared disease mechanisms, which might ultimately disclose potentially common therapeutic entry points across a wide panel of neurodegenerative diseases.
Keyphrases
- spinal cord
- amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
- induced apoptosis
- chronic kidney disease
- endothelial cells
- oxidative stress
- end stage renal disease
- magnetic resonance
- magnetic resonance imaging
- spinal cord injury
- neuropathic pain
- multiple sclerosis
- cell proliferation
- cell death
- white matter
- prognostic factors
- endoplasmic reticulum stress
- blood brain barrier
- subarachnoid hemorrhage
- functional connectivity
- resting state
- patient reported outcomes
- patient reported