Scientists at Gladstone Institutes created a new research model for studying Alzheimer’s that involved transplanting human neurons producing the APOE4 protein into the brains of mice. They found that in the presence of APOE4—the most important genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease—immune cells called microglia cause harmful inflammation and deposits of amyloid and tau, two types of misfolded proteins that are hallmarks of the disease.

Newly published research in the journal Glia has identified crucial links between dietary choices and the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS). The study explored how enzymes called ceramide synthase 5 and 6 are responsible for the toxic effect of a palm oil-rich diet on neurons in the central nervous system, which causes a subsequent increase in the severity of MS symptoms.

No less than 16 different types of nerve cells have been identified by scientists in a new study on the human sense of touch. Comparisons between humans, mice and macaques show both similarities and significant differences. The study, a collaboration between researchers at Linköping University and Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the University of Pennsylvania in the USA, has been published in Nature Neuroscience.