Microglia deploy TAM receptors to kill motor neurons in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
Youtong Huang, Ananya Mavinkurve, Bristy Sabikunnahar, Beth Stevens, Greg Lemke · 2026
Read Microglia deploy TAM receptors to kill motor neurons in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis by Youtong Huang, Ananya Mavinkurve, Bristy Sabikunnahar, Beth Stevens, Greg Lemke (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13578243.txt.
Description
Youtong Huang and co-authors show that the brain's gardener cells actively kill motor neurons in a mouse model of ALS. Microglia in ALS raise two TAM receptor switches, Axl and Mer. Those switches read an eat-me tag on cell surfaces. Their 2026 study switches both genes off in the ALS mouse line, in all cells or in microglia alone.
The knockout mice lived longer. Their motor neurons and nerve-muscle links survived in far better shape. In sick cords, microglia bellies were stuffed with neuron remains. That load dropped sharply when the switches were gone. The tag on neuron surfaces also ran high in the disease. The team reads the gardeners as eating living neurons alive, and names the switches as drug targets.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Youtong Huang, Ananya Mavinkurve, Bristy Sabikunnahar, Beth Stevens, Greg Lemke |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 72 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |