A beneficial role for IL-1 beta in Alzheimer disease?

While the term neuroinflammation often conjures up images of cellular damage, mounting evidence suggests that certain proinflammatory molecules, such as the cytokine IL-1 beta, may have beneficial and protective effects. In a report in this issue of the JCI, Shaftel and coworkers have generated an elegant mouse model in which local hippocampal overexpression of IL-1 beta in an Alzheimer disease (AD) transgenic mouse model resulted not in the expected exacerbation of the amyloid beta plaque deposition common to AD, but instead in plaque amelioration (see the related article beginning on page 1595). Thus, manipulation of the immune system may be a potential therapeutic approach to protect against AD, although further studies are needed to understand all of the downstream effects of this manipulation.