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As humans age, both protective and harmful biological processes shape brain health. When the balance shifts in favor of harmful processes, age-related changes in the brain can accelerate, including synapse loss, disruptions in lipid metabolism and chronic inflammation.

One contributor to neuroinflammation appears to be the buildup of lipid droplets inside microglia, the brain's immune cells. As lipid droplets accumulate, microglia become less effective at clearing waste, maintaining synapses and supporting neurons.

These harmful changes can speed up cognitive decline and increase a person's risk of conditions like mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease. That's why it's important for scientists to study the biological mechanisms that may help offset them.

In a paper published in Nature Neuroscience, titled "An aging-sensitive secreted phospholipase confers neuroprotection and cognitive resilience," researchers sought to identify the protective factors that contribute to cognitive resilience during aging.

Cinzia Vicidomini, Ph.D., and Amar Sahay, Ph.D., of the Mass General Brigham Department of Psychiatry, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, are lead and senior authors of the paper.

Scientists have long recognized that synapse loss in the hippocampus, a brain region critical for memory, is a defining feature of age-related cognitive decline . To better understand this process, a study was designed to identify genes that are activated in response to synapse loss in the hippocampus of mice.

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