The next wave in neurodegeneration expands beyond neurons

Working in the background, while amyloid therapies have floundered, has been a group of companies betting that the immune system can do for neurodegeneration what it is has done for oncology. The first wave of these companies is moving into early stage trials with therapies that modulate microglia, the brain’s immune cells, and the first data could come by year end.

As the immune system is increasingly implicated in all areas of disease, the neurodegeneration field is hoping for a paradigm shift analogous to the one that all but turned oncology into immuno-oncology. ...