Home › Research › Inflammation and the immune system
Identification of Chlamydia pneumoniae and NLRP3 inflammasome activation in Alzheimer's disease retina
Bhakta Prasad Gaire, Yosef Koronyo, Jean-Philippe Vit, Alexandre Hutton, Lalita Subedi, Dieu-Trang Fuchs, Natalie Swerdlow, Altan Rentsendorj et al.. Nature communications, 2026-01-22
Topic: Inflammation, microglia and astrocytes
Chlamydia pneumoniae is an intracellular bacterium implicated in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but its role in retinal pathology and disease progression is unclear. Here we identify Chlamydia pneumoniae inclusions in the retina, showing higher burden in AD retina and brain, increasing with APOEε4, disease stage, and cognitive deficit. Retinal and cortical proteomics reveal bacterial-infection and related NLRP3-inflammasome pathways. Retinal NLRP3 is elevated in mild cognitive impairment and activated in AD dementia, evidenced by increased caspase-1, cleaved interleukin-1β, and cleaved N-terminal gasdermin-D. Chlamydia pneumoniae associates with amyloid-β42, inflammation, apoptosis, pyroptosis, and AD status. In neuronal cultures and APPSWE/PS1ΔE9 model mice, infection induces amyloid-β, inflammasome activation, neuroinflammation, and neurotoxicity, and chronic infection worsens cognition. Fewer pathogen-colocalized microglia are found in AD retinas, implying impaired clearance. Machine learning detects retinal Chlamydia pneumoniae or NLRP3, combined with amyloid-β42, as predictors of AD diagnosis and stage. These findings support a disease-amplifying role for Chlamydia pneumoniae and propose NLRP3-attenuation or antibiotic-based early interventions.
Key findings
- These findings support a disease-amplifying role for Chlamydia pneumoniae and propose NLRP3-attenuation or antibiotic-based early interventions.
Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 48/100
Published in a leading specialty journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it. We have no data on journal's citation record, times cited, citations per year, impact for its field and year, cited by studies here, still being cited, senior author's track record, institution's track record, multi-centre collaboration and free to read, so those were left out: it earned 27 of the 56 points we could judge it on, which is 48 out of 100.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 9 / 10 | Tier 2 — leading specialty journal (Nature communications) |
| Journal's citation record | — / 4 | No journal record from OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| 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 | 5 / 5 | 2026 — within 1 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 | — / 7 | No citation count (not found in OpenAlex) — left out of this score |
| Citations per year | — / 5 | No citation count or no year — left out of this score |
| Impact for its field and year | — / 6 | No field-weighted citation impact (OpenAlex has none yet) — left out of this score |
| Cited by studies here | — / 6 | Not yet checked against this library's citation graph — left out of this score |
| Still being cited | — / 4 | No yearly citation counts — left out of this score |
| Senior author's track record | — / 4 | Senior author's record not available — left out of this score |
| Institution's track record | — / 3 | No institution listed in OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Multi-centre collaboration | — / 3 | Institutions not listed — left out of this score |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 41571675) |
| Free to read | — / 2 | Access not recorded — left out of this score |
| Points | 27 / 56 | Scored on 10 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 27 of the 56 points we could judge it on is 48 out of 100. |
| Total | 48 / 100 | — |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
Read the original
Free copy unknown: no free-copy check has an answer for this record yet. That does not mean it is paywalled.
Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record's author list ends in “et al.”, so not every author is named. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Gaire, B. P., Koronyo, Y., Vit, J.-P., Hutton, A., Subedi, L., Fuchs, D.-T., et al. (2026). Identification of Chlamydia pneumoniae and NLRP3 inflammasome activation in Alzheimer's disease retina. Nature communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68580-4
Vancouver
Gaire BP, Koronyo Y, Vit J.-P, Hutton A, Subedi L, Fuchs D.-T, et al. Identification of Chlamydia pneumoniae and NLRP3 inflammasome activation in Alzheimer's disease retina. Nature communications. 2026. doi:10.1038/s41467-026-68580-4. PMID: 41571675.
BibTeX
@article{gaire2026-41571675,
author = {Gaire, Bhakta Prasad and Koronyo, Yosef and Vit, Jean-Philippe and Hutton, Alexandre and Subedi, Lalita and Fuchs, Dieu-Trang and Swerdlow, Natalie and Rentsendorj, Altan and others},
title = {{Identification of Chlamydia pneumoniae and NLRP3 inflammasome activation in Alzheimer's disease retina}},
journal = {Nature communications},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-68580-4},
pmid = {41571675},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-68580-4}
}
In the news
1 news article on alzhub's news page cites this paper.
Related studies in Inflammation and the immune system
Also tagged “expressed”
384 studies in the library carry the topic tag “expressed”; these are this study's neighbours in a fixed, alphabetical-by-hash tour of them, not the closest in content. All 384 tagged studies.