Kohman Rachel A
Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Beckman Institute, Urbana, IL, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2012;934:193-218. doi: 10.1007/978-1-62703-071-7_11.
Over the years it has become evident that the immune system can affect the function of the central nervous system (CNS), including altering cognitive processes. The impact of immune activation on the CNS is particularly important for aged individuals, as the brain's resident immune cells, microglia, acquire a pro-inflammatory profile. The low-grade chronic neuroinflammation that develops with normal aging likely contributes to the susceptibility to cognitive deficits and a host of age-related pathologies. Understanding why microglia show increased inflammatory activity (i.e., neuroinflammation) and identifying effective treatments to reduce microglia activation is expected to have beneficial effects on cognitive performance and measures of neural plasticity. However, microglia also promote regeneration after injury. Therefore, effective treatments must dampen inflammatory activity while preserving microglia's neuroprotective function. Discovering factors that induce neuroinflammation and investigating potential preventative therapies is expected to uncover the ways of maintaining normal microglia activity in the aged brain.
多年来，免疫系统能够影响中枢神经系统（CNS）功能，包括改变认知过程，这一点已变得显而易见。免疫激活对中枢神经系统的影响对于老年人尤为重要，因为大脑中的常驻免疫细胞——小胶质细胞会呈现促炎状态。随着正常衰老而出现的低度慢性神经炎症可能会导致认知缺陷易感性增加以及一系列与年龄相关的病理状况。了解小胶质细胞为何表现出炎症活动增加（即神经炎症）并确定减少小胶质细胞激活的有效治疗方法，有望对认知表现和神经可塑性指标产生有益影响。然而，小胶质细胞也会促进损伤后的再生。因此，有效的治疗方法必须在抑制炎症活动的同时保留小胶质细胞的神经保护功能。发现诱导神经炎症的因素并研究潜在的预防疗法，有望揭示在老年大脑中维持小胶质细胞正常活动的方法。
