TSPO levels rise early in Alzheimer’s and persist throughout disease. Targeting this biomarker could open new treatment options.
TSPO, a major marker of brain inflammation, may offer a way to detect Alzheimer’s disease long before memory problems and other symptoms develop.
“This is the first study to really examine how early this biomarker increases and where it begins rising in the brain,” said Tomás R. Guilarte, lead researcher and dean of FIU’s Robert Stempel College of Public Health & Social Work. “If we can use this information to help delay Alzheimer’s progression by even five years, it can drastically improve patients’ lives and reduce disease prevalence.”
In the mouse model, researchers detected elevated TSPO levels in the subiculum – a critical part of the hippocampus – as early as six weeks of age, roughly equivalent to age 18–20 in humans.
Microglia, the brain’s main immune cells, specifically those clustered around amyloid plaques, had the highest levels of TSPO. Notably, female mice had higher TSPO levels, mirroring real-world statistics: two-thirds of Alzheimer’s patients are women.
The brain tissue samples from the Colombian patients with the paisa mutation showed the same pattern. Even in late-stage Alzheimer’s, TSPO remained high in microglia near plaques. These results raise new questions about TSPO’s function – whether it contributes to damage or protects the brain – and whether blocking or enhancing it could halt disease progression.
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