Aging muscle and Alzheimer's brain share inflammatory signals

Researchers analysed gene activity from independent human datasets, including skeletal muscle from 23 donors, brain tissue from 84 donors, and peripheral blood. Cross-tissue comparisons focused on 30 brain donors within an early window of Alzheimer's-related progression. In both muscle and brain, blood vessel lining cells and immune cells showed matching increases in inflammatory activity. The analysis identified six shared pathways covering 109 genes in vessel lining cells, and four pathways covering 51 genes in immune cells. In separate blood datasets from people with frailty, mild cognitive impairment, or Alzheimer's disease, 23 of 30 tissue-derived pathway tests showed significant matching signals, although individual genes did not. Computer simulations also highlighted two candidate regulator genes in vessel lining cells.