TET2, an "ambiguous" player in inflammation.

Abstract

Microglial cells, the “macrophages” from the central nervous system (CNS), perform a variety of roles necessary to keep the homeostasis in the healthy brain. However, microglial cells are best known for their role as “ first responders” through initiation of an innate immune response against a wide variety of deleterious stimuli in the brain. This controlled inflammatory response is beneficial and disappears once the deleterious stimuli are gone. But, it is also well-acknowledged that uncontrolled activation may transform into a chronic neuroinflammatory response which is partially responsible for the progression of the disease, for instance in Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) (Shen et al., 2018). For this reason, microglia have become a target in the search for new therapeutic strategies to hinder the progression of different neurodegenerative diseases, such as PD or AD.