Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Accumulating evidence suggests a relationship between neuroinflammation and neurodegenerative pathologies such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). This study sought to investigate the immunological composition of hippocampi in patients afflicted with AD. METHODS: CIBERSORTx RNA deconvolution was applied on gene expression data developed from hippocampi of 38 AD patients and 17 controls to infer the relative proportions of 22 subsets of immune cells. RESULTS: AD-afflicted hippocampi were found to have greater relative abundances of M2 macrophages and CD8 T cells. AD-afflicted hippocampi were also composed of significantly more active dendritic cells and significantly fewer resting dendritic cells than control samples. CONCLUSION: AD-afflicted hippocampi present with a distinct immune signature and dendritic cells may play a critical role in the pathogenesis of AD in this brain component.