More than microglia: myeloid cells and biomarkers in neurodegeneration

Eleftheria Kodosaki; Rosie Bell; Aitana Sogorb-Esteve; Katharine Wiltshire; Henrik Zetterberg; Amanda Heslegrave

doi:10.3389/fnins.2024.1499458

More than microglia: myeloid cells and biomarkers in neurodegeneration

Front Neurosci. 2024 Oct 31:18:1499458. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1499458. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Eleftheria Kodosaki^{1

2}, Rosie Bell^{1

2}, Aitana Sogorb-Esteve^{2

3}, Katharine Wiltshire³, Henrik Zetterberg^{1

2

4

5

6

7}, Amanda Heslegrave^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurodegenerative Disease, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom.
² UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL, London, United Kingdom.
³ Dementia Research Centre, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry and Neurochemistry, Institute of Neuroscience and Physiology, The Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Mölndal, Sweden.
⁵ Clinical Neurochemistry Laboratory, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Mölndal, Sweden.
⁶ Hong Kong Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, Clear Water Bay, Hong Kong SAR, China.
⁷ Wisconsin Alzheimer's Disease Research Center, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, United States.

Abstract

The role of myeloid cells (granulocytes and monocytes) in neurodegeneration and neurodegenerative disorders (NDD) is indisputable. Here we discuss the roles of myeloid cells in neurodegenerative diseases, and the recent advances in biofluid and imaging myeloid biomarker research with a focus on methods that can be used in the clinic. For this review, evidence from three neurodegenerative diseases will be included, Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease (PD), and multiple sclerosis (MS). We discuss the potential for these biomarkers to be used in humans with suspected NDD as prognostic, diagnostic, or monitoring tools, identify knowledge gaps in literature, and propose potential approaches to further elucidate the role of myeloid cells in neurodegeneration and better utilize myeloid biomarkers in the understanding and treatment of NDD.

Keywords: biomarker standardization; biomarker utility; microglia; myeloid biomarkers; myeloid cells; neurodegeneration; neuroinflammation.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare that no financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.