Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is an age-related neurodegenerative disorder for which there are no effective strategies to prevent or slow its progression. Because AD is multifactorial, recent research has focused on understanding interactions among the numerous risk factors and mechanisms underlying the disease. One mechanism through which several risk factors may be acting is inflammation. AD is characterized by chronic inflammation that is observed before clinical onset of dementia. Several genetic and environmental risk factors for AD increase inflammation, including apolipoprotein E4, obesity, and air pollution. Additionally, sex steroid hormones appear to contribute to AD risk, with age-related losses of estrogens in women and androgens in men associated with increased risk. Importantly, sex steroid hormones have anti-inflammatory actions and can interact with several other AD risk factors. This review examines the individual and interactive roles of inflammation and sex steroid hormones in AD, as well as their relationships with the AD risk factors apolipoprotein E4, obesity, and air pollution.

BackgroundObesity exerts negative effects on brain health, including decreased neurogenesis, impaired learning and memory, and increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Because obesity promotes glial activation, chronic neuroinflammation, and neural injury, microglia are implicated in the deleterious effects of obesity. One pathway that is particularly important in mediating the effects of obesity in peripheral tissues is toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) signaling. The potential contribution of TLR4 pathways in mediating adverse neural outcomes of obesity has not been well addressed. To investigate this possibility, we examined how pharmacological inhibition of TLR4 affects the peripheral and neural outcomes of diet-induced obesity.MethodsMale C57BL6/J mice were maintained on either a control or high-fat diet for 12 weeks in the presence or absence of the specific TLR4 signaling inhibitor TAK-242. Outcomes examined included metabolic indices, a range of behavioral assessments, microglial activation, systemic and neuroinflammation, and neural health endpoints.ResultsPeripherally, TAK-242 treatment was associated with partial inhibition of inflammation in the adipose tissue but exerted no significant effects on body weight, adiposity, and a range of metabolic measures. In the brain, obese mice treated with TAK-242 exhibited a significant reduction in microglial activation, improved levels of neurogenesis, and inhibition of Alzheimer-related amyloidogenic pathways. High-fat diet and TAK-242 were associated with only very modest effects on a range of behavioral measures.ConclusionsThese results demonstrate a significant protective effect of TLR4 inhibition on neural consequences of obesity, findings that further define the role of microglia in obesity-mediated outcomes and identify a strategy for improving brain health in obese individuals.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12974-018-1340-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract