Giuseppe Faraco MD, PhD.
Brain perivascular macrophages promote cognitive dysfunction in hypertension.
High blood pressure transforms cells of the immune system that reside around cerebral blood vessels and normally protect the brain into agents of cognitive decline.
A cellular-level understanding of hypertension’s effect on the brain has previously eluded researchers and presented a stumbling block in the development of innovative treatments for patients who are in the early stages of vascular cognitive impairment, a form of mental decline that occurs as a result of impaired blood flow to the brain. Now, in their study, published Nov. 14 in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, researchers have successfully isolated the molecular pathways by which hypertension causes immune cells known as perivascular macrophages (PVMs) to undermine the proper delivery of blood to different parts of the brain in response to its moment-to-moment needs.
“We show for the first time that PVMs can be implicated in the deleterious effects of hypertension on the brain,” said Dr. Giuseppe Faraco, an assistant professor of neuroscience in the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine and lead author of the study. “Specifically, we demonstrate the damaging effects of PVMs on cerebral blood vessels.”
“Perivascular macrophages are critical for activating the immune response during infection and maintaining brain integrity,” said senior author Dr. Costantino Iadecola, director of the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute and the Anne Parrish Titzell Professor of Neurology at Weill Cornell Medicine. “But they present a dichotomy: With hypertension, if the PVMs aren’t working properly, they can prevent the brain from receiving sufficient blood, thereby increasing the risk of stroke and dementia, as well as Alzheimer’s disease.”
Link to the Weill Cornell News feature: