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53/100

✓ Peer-reviewed alzhub usefulness score 53 out of 100. TREM2 and immune genetics

Topic: Brain proteins, microglia and lab models

TREM2 is exclusively expressed by microglia in the brain and is strongly linked to the risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD). As microglial responses modulated by TREM2 are central to AD pathogenesis, enhancing TREM2 signaling has been explored as an AD therapeutic strategy. However, the effective therapeutic window targeting TREM2 is unclear.

Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris

APA 7th

Zhao, N., Qiao, W., Li, F., Ren, Y., Zheng, J., Martens, Y. A., et al. (2022). Elevating microglia TREM2 reduces amyloid seeding and suppresses disease-associated microglia. The Journal of experimental medicine. https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.20212479

Vancouver

Zhao N, Qiao W, Li F, Ren Y, Zheng J, Martens YA, et al. Elevating microglia TREM2 reduces amyloid seeding and suppresses disease-associated microglia. The Journal of experimental medicine. 2022. doi:10.1084/jem.20212479. PMID: 36107206.

BibTeX

@article{zhao2022-36107206,
  author  = {Zhao, N. and Qiao, W. and Li, F. and Ren, Y. and Zheng, J. and Martens, Y. A. and Wang, X. and Li, L. and others},
  title   = {{Elevating microglia TREM2 reduces amyloid seeding and suppresses disease-associated microglia}},
  journal = {The Journal of experimental medicine},
  year    = {2022},
  doi     = {10.1084/jem.20212479},
  pmid    = {36107206},
  url     = {https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.20212479}
}

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Key findings

As microglial responses modulated by TREM2 are central to AD pathogenesis, enhancing TREM2 signaling has been explored as an AD therapeutic strategy.
However, the effective therapeutic window targeting TREM2 is unclear.
Here, by using microglia-specific inducible mouse models overexpressing human wild-type TREM2 (TREM2-WT) or R47H risk variant (TREM2-R47H), we show that TREM2-WT expression reduces amyloid deposition and neuritic dystrophy only during the early amyloid seeding stage, whereas TREM2-R47H exacerbates amyloid burden during the middle amyloid rapid growth stage.
Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals suppressed disease-associated microglia (DAM) signature and reduced DAM population upon TREM2-WT expression in the early stage, whereas upregulated antigen presentation pathway is detected with TREM2-R47H expression in the middle stage.

Why it matters

In mice engineered to overexpress TREM2, the normal form reduced amyloid deposition and nerve damage only during the early stage of amyloid seeding, while the R47H risk variant did not. This suggests that boosting TREM2 may only help if given very early, and these are animal findings not yet shown in people.

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Study details

Evidence strengthLow

How this study scored 53/100

Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it.

Component	Points	Why
Journal tier	7 / 10	Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (The Journal of experimental medicine)
Journal's citation record	4 / 4	The Journal of Experimental Medicine: journal h-index 652 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29)
Study design	0 / 12	No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Strength of evidence	1 / 5	Rated “low” in our summary
Peer-review validation	10 / 10	Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal.
How recent	3 / 5	2022 — within 6 year(s) of the newest study here
Sample size	0 / 4	Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Effect reported	0 / 3	No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Studied in people	0 / 3	Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Randomised / blinded	0 / 2	No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0)
Times cited	5 / 7	Cited 110 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10)
Citations per year	3 / 5	18.3 citations a year over 6 year(s) since 2022
Impact for its field and year	3 / 6	Cited 5.9× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI)
Cited by studies here	2 / 6	Cited by 9 other studies in this library
Still being cited	3 / 4	Cited 82 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex)
Senior author's track record	4 / 4	Last-listed author Guojun Bu: h-index 120 (OpenAlex, whole career)
Institution's track record	2 / 3	Mayo Clinic: institution h-index 1,606 (OpenAlex)
Multi-centre collaboration	2 / 3	OpenAlex lists 4 institution(s) in 1 country
Indexed in PubMed	2 / 2	Indexed in PubMed (PMID 36107206)
Free to read	2 / 2	Free to read
Total	53 / 100	—

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