The blood–brain barrier (BBB) is a continuous endothelial membrane within brain microvessels that has sealed cell-to-cell contacts, and is sheathed by mural vascular cells and perivascular astrocyte end-feet. The BBB protects neurons from factors present in the systemic circulation, and maintains the highly regulated CNS internal milieu, which is required for proper synaptic and neuronal functioning. BBB disruption allows influx into the brain of neurotoxic blood-derived debris, cells, and microbial pathogens, and is associated with inflammatory and immune responses, which can initiate multiple pathways of neurodegeneration. This Review discusses neuroimaging studies in the living human brain, post-mortem tissue and biomarker studies demonstrating BBB breakdown in Alzheimer disease, Parkinson disease, Huntington disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, HIV-1-associated dementia and chronic traumatic encephalopathy. The pathogenic mechanisms by which BBB breakdown leads to neuronal injury, synaptic dysfunction, loss of neuronal connectivity and neurodegeneration are described. The importance of a healthy BBB for therapeutic drug delivery, and the adverse effects of disease-initiated, pathological BBB breakdown in relation to brain delivery of neuropharmaceuticals are briefly discussed. Finally, future directions, gaps in the field and opportunities to control the course of neurological diseases by targeting BBB are presented.

Summary The blood-brain barrier (BBB) limits entry of blood-derived products, pathogens and cells into the brain that is essential for normal neuronal functioning and information processing. Post-mortem tissue analysis indicates BBB damage in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The timing of BBB breakdown remains, however, elusive. Using an advanced dynamic contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging protocol with high spatial and temporal resolutions to quantify regional BBB permeability in the living human brain, we show an age-dependent BBB breakdown in the hippocampus, a region critical for learning and memory that is affected early in AD. The BBB breakdown in the hippocampus and its CA1 and dentate gyrus subdivisions worsened with mild cognitive impairment that correlated with injury to BBB-associated pericytes, as shown by the cerebrospinal fluid analysis. Our data suggest that BBB breakdown is an early event in the aging human brain that begins in the hippocampus and may contribute to cognitive impairment.

SUMMARY Pericytes play a key role in the development of cerebral microcirculation. The exact role of pericytes in the neurovascular unit in the adult brain and during brain aging remains, however, elusive. Using adult viable pericyte-deficient mice, we show that pericyte loss leads to brain vascular damage by two parallel pathways: (1) reduction in brain microcirculation causing diminished brain capillary perfusion, cerebral blood flow and cerebral blood flow responses to brain activation which ultimately mediates chronic perfusion stress and hypoxia, and (2) blood-brain barrier breakdown associated with brain accumulation of serum proteins and several vasculotoxic and/or neurotoxic macromolecules ultimately leading to secondary neuronal degenerative changes. We show that age-dependent vascular damage in pericyte-deficient mice precedes neuronal degenerative changes, learning and memory impairment and the neuroinflammatory response. Thus, pericytes control key neurovascular functions that are necessary for proper neuronal structure and function, and pericytes loss results in a progressive age-dependent vascular-mediated neurodegeneration.

Human apolipoprotein E has three isoforms: APOE2, APOE3 and APOE41. APOE4 is a major genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease2, 3 and is associated with Down’s syndrome dementia and poor neurological outcome after traumatic brain injury and haemorrhage3. Neurovascular dysfunction is present in normal APOE4 carriers4, 5, 6 and individuals withAPOE4-associated disorders3, 7, 8, 9, 10. In mice, lack of Apoe leads to blood–brain barrier (BBB) breakdown11, 12, whereas APOE4 increases BBB susceptibility to injury13. How APOE genotype affects brain microcirculation remains elusive. Using different APOE transgenic mice, including mice with ablation and/or inhibition of cyclophilin A (CypA), here we show that expression of APOE4 and lack of murine Apoe, but not APOE2 and APOE3, leads to BBB breakdown by activating a proinflammatory CypA–nuclear factor-κB–matrix-metalloproteinase-9 pathway in pericytes. This, in turn, leads to neuronal uptake of multiple blood-derived neurotoxic proteins, and microvascular and cerebral blood flow reductions. We show that the vascular defects in Apoe-deficient and APOE4-expressing mice precede neuronal dysfunction and can initiate neurodegenerative changes. Astrocyte-secreted APOE3, but not APOE4, suppressed the CypA–nuclear factor-κB–matrix-metalloproteinase-9 pathway in pericytes through a lipoprotein receptor. Our data suggest that CypA is a key target for treating APOE4-mediated neurovascular injury and the resulting neuronal dysfunction and degeneration.

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