Cited by 204Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration MechanismsAlzheimer's disease research and treatmentsAutophagy in Disease and Therapy

Autophagy enables microglia to engage amyloid plaques and prevents microglial senescence

Open access
Choi, Insup, Wang, Minghui, Yoo, Seungyeul, Xu, Peng, Seegobin, Steven P., Li, Xianting, Han, Xian, Wang, Qian +3 more·2023·Nature Cell Biology

Abstract

Dysfunctional autophagy has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Previous evidence suggested disruptions of multiple stages of the autophagy-lysosomal pathway in affected neurons. However, whether and how deregulated autophagy in microglia, a cell type with an important link to AD, contributes to AD progression remains elusive. Here we report that autophagy is activated in microglia, particularly of disease-associated microglia surrounding amyloid plaques in AD mouse models. Inhibition of microglial autophagy causes disengagement of microglia from amyloid plaques, suppression of disease-associated microglia, and aggravation of neuropathology in AD mice. Mechanistically, autophagy deficiency promotes senescence-associated microglia as evidenced by reduced proliferation, increased Cdkn1a/p21 Cip1, dystrophic morphologies and senescence-associated secretory phenotype. Pharmacological treatment removes autophagy-deficient senescent microglia and alleviates neuropathology in AD mice. Our study demonstrates the protective role of microglial autophagy in regulating the homeostasis of amyloid plaques and preventing senescence; removal of senescent microglia is a promising therapeutic strategy.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1038/s41556-023-01158-0

Cites

76 of 76 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

1 retracted

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Choi, I., Wang, M., Yoo, S., Xu, P., Seegobin, S. P., Li, X., Han, X., Wang, Q., Peng, J., Zhang, B., & Yue, Z.
Affiliations
  • Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
  • Sema4 (United States) (US)
  • St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (US)
Corresponding author
Yue, Zhenyu
Venue
Nature Cell Biology
Published
2023-05-25
Volume
25
Issue
7
Pages
963-974
ISSN
  • 1465-7392 (ISSN-L)
  • 1476-4679
OpenAlex
W4378212353
Cited by
202
References
76
Citations by year
2026: 49 · 2025: 75 · 2024: 69 · 2023: 9
FWCI
20.92
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Cell Biology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institutes of Health
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Autophagy in Disease and Therapy
Keywords
autophagy, microglia, Alzheimer's disease, amyloid plaques, microglial senescence, disease-associated microglia, senescence-associated secretory phenotype, autophagy-lysosome pathway, senolytic therapy, microglial proliferation
MeSH terms
Alzheimer Disease, Animals, Autophagy, Disease Models, Animal, Mice, Transgenic, Neurons, Microglia, Mice, Plaque, Amyloid

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review