Age is one of the proposed main triggers of neuropsychological disease. However, the effect of age is heterogeneous, and the mechanisms behind disease progression are not fully determined. A study in Communications Biology shows that neuroinflammation and white matter disruption have an important role in the progression of delirium in aged mice. When comparing 8- and 25-month-old mice, older mice were more vulnerable to a systemic inflammatory insult, showing increased sickness behavior and inflammation biomarkers. At a regional brain level, older animals subjected to an inflammatory insult exhibited priming of microglia all around, when compared with healthy old animals. Age alone could not explain the cognitive impairment seen in behavioral tests; however, when classifying animals as cognitively resilient or frail, considering their performance in the behavioral tests, frail individuals showed worse performance, increased white matter microgliosis and synaptic loss. These data show that while aging has a role in cognitive vulnerability, factors such as white matter integrity are also relevant for the progression of cognitive impairment and the development of more precise therapies for the prevention of delirium.
Original reference: Healy, D. et al. Commun. Biol. 7, 105 (2024)
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution