John Lukens
@lukensjohnr.bsky.social
Neuroimmunologist studying MS, autism, Alzheimer's disease, and brain injury at the University of Virginia. Father of two. Fan of Philly sports and US soccer.
www.lukenslab.com
www.lukenslab.com
Resolving the mysteries of brain clearance and immune surveillance: @cp-neuron.bsky.social www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
November 24, 2025 at 4:13 PM
Resolving the mysteries of brain clearance and immune surveillance: @cp-neuron.bsky.social www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
The Alzheimer’s therapeutic Lecanemab attenuates Aβ pathology by inducing an amyloid-clearing program in microglia
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The Alzheimer’s therapeutic Lecanemab attenuates Aβ pathology by inducing an amyloid-clearing program in microglia - Nature Neuroscience
Lecanemab, a leading therapy for Alzheimer’s disease, induces an Fc-mediated transcriptional program in human microglia, linked to osteopontin and enhanced plaque phagocytosis, suggesting alternative ...
www.nature.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:35 PM
The Alzheimer’s therapeutic Lecanemab attenuates Aβ pathology by inducing an amyloid-clearing program in microglia
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A myeloid trisomy 21-associated gene variant is protective from Alzheimer’s disease
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
A myeloid trisomy 21-associated gene variant is protective from Alzheimer’s disease - Nature Neuroscience
Engineering human microglia with a Down-syndrome-linked myeloid gene variant resists tau-induced dysfunction and protects neurons in chimeric brains, offering proof of concept for transformative micro...
www.nature.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:33 PM
A myeloid trisomy 21-associated gene variant is protective from Alzheimer’s disease
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Human microglia differentially respond to β-amyloid, tau, and combined Alzheimer's disease pathologies in vivo
alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... @alzdemjournals.bsky.social
alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... @alzdemjournals.bsky.social
November 21, 2025 at 2:24 PM
Human microglia differentially respond to β-amyloid, tau, and combined Alzheimer's disease pathologies in vivo
alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... @alzdemjournals.bsky.social
alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... @alzdemjournals.bsky.social
Astrocytic Sox9 overexpression in Alzheimer’s disease mouse models promotes Aβ plaque phagocytosis and preserves cognitive function
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
November 21, 2025 at 1:39 PM
Astrocytic Sox9 overexpression in Alzheimer’s disease mouse models promotes Aβ plaque phagocytosis and preserves cognitive function
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Elucidating pathway-selective biased CCKBR agonism for Alzheimer’s disease treatment @cellpress.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
November 20, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Elucidating pathway-selective biased CCKBR agonism for Alzheimer’s disease treatment @cellpress.bsky.social
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Therapeutic VEGFC treatment protects against traumatic brain injury-driven tauopathy pathogenesis @cp-cellreports.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
November 17, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Therapeutic VEGFC treatment protects against traumatic brain injury-driven tauopathy pathogenesis @cp-cellreports.bsky.social
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Innate immune sensing of Z-nucleic acids by ZBP1-RIPK1 axis drives neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s disease: @cp-immunity.bsky.social www.cell.com/immunity/ful...
Innate immune sensing of Z-nucleic acids by ZBP1-RIPK1 axis drives neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s disease
Microglia-mediated neuroinflammation drives Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathogenesis,
yet the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. Song et al. demonstrate that toxic
amyloid-β induces oxidation and...
www.cell.com
September 3, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Innate immune sensing of Z-nucleic acids by ZBP1-RIPK1 axis drives neuroinflammation in Alzheimer’s disease: @cp-immunity.bsky.social www.cell.com/immunity/ful...
Reposted by John Lukens
@lukensjohnr.bsky.social Interesting summary by @erictopol.bsky.social! Also, @erictopol.bsky.social should definitely have you on Ground Truths sometime for your work!
Our brain-immune system axis has recently has some fascinating new reports
Here is one summarized
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
More here erictopol.substack.com/p/our-braini...
Here is one summarized
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
More here erictopol.substack.com/p/our-braini...
August 6, 2025 at 3:17 PM
@lukensjohnr.bsky.social Interesting summary by @erictopol.bsky.social! Also, @erictopol.bsky.social should definitely have you on Ground Truths sometime for your work!
Lipid metabolism and neuroinflammation: What is the link? rupress.org/jem/article/...
August 6, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Lipid metabolism and neuroinflammation: What is the link? rupress.org/jem/article/...
Alzheimer’s disease transcriptional landscape in ex vivo human microglia www.nature.com/articles/s41...
August 4, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Alzheimer’s disease transcriptional landscape in ex vivo human microglia www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Human brain vascular multi-omics elucidates disease-risk associations @cp-neuron.bsky.social www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Human brain vascular multi-omics elucidates disease-risk associations
Reid et al. develop MultiVINE-seq to map thousands of non-coding disease variants
to genes in human brain vascular cells. Cerebrovascular disease variants compromise
vessel integrity, whereas Alzheime...
www.cell.com
July 29, 2025 at 2:08 PM
Human brain vascular multi-omics elucidates disease-risk associations @cp-neuron.bsky.social www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Neural anticipation of virtual infection triggers an immune response
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Neural anticipation of virtual infection triggers an immune response - Nature Neuroscience
Serino et al. show that seeing an infectious avatar approach the body in virtual reality triggers an immune response, indicating that the brain prepares the body to fight infections even for perceived...
www.nature.com
July 28, 2025 at 3:51 PM
Neural anticipation of virtual infection triggers an immune response
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Spatial proteomics of Alzheimer’s disease-specific human microglial states
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Spatial proteomics of Alzheimer’s disease-specific human microglial states - Nature Immunology
In this Resource paper, the authors use MIBI spatial proteomics to map microglial cell states in brains from cognitively normal humans and those with Alzheimer’s disease.
www.nature.com
July 26, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Spatial proteomics of Alzheimer’s disease-specific human microglial states
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
G-protein-coupled receptor ADGRG1 drives a protective microglial state in Alzheimer's disease through MYC activation: @cp-neuron.bsky.social www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
G-protein-coupled receptor ADGRG1 drives a protective microglial state in Alzheimer's disease through MYC activation
Microglial ADGRG1 drives a protective state in Alzheimer’s disease by activating the
transcription factor MYC, which upregulates genes associated with homeostasis, phagocytosis,
and lysosomal function...
www.cell.com
July 25, 2025 at 4:04 PM
G-protein-coupled receptor ADGRG1 drives a protective microglial state in Alzheimer's disease through MYC activation: @cp-neuron.bsky.social www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Mast cells regulate the brain-dura interface and CSF dynamics @cellpress.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Mast cells regulate the brain-dura interface and CSF dynamics
Dural mast cells control cerebrospinal fluid dynamics at critical brain-dura interfaces,
specifically arachnoid cuff exit points. Their activation limits pathogen brain entry
via histamine-induced vas...
www.cell.com
July 24, 2025 at 4:14 PM
Mast cells regulate the brain-dura interface and CSF dynamics @cellpress.bsky.social www.cell.com/cell/fulltex...
Accelerating biomedical discoveries in brain health through transformative neuropathology of aging and neurodegeneration @cp-neuron.bsky.social www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Accelerating biomedical discoveries in brain health through transformative neuropathology of aging and neurodegeneration
Murray et al. introduce “transformative neuropathology” through dynamic, technology-integrated
approaches to accelerate tissue-based discoveries and offer actionable strategies
to strengthen brain ban...
www.cell.com
July 18, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Accelerating biomedical discoveries in brain health through transformative neuropathology of aging and neurodegeneration @cp-neuron.bsky.social www.cell.com/neuron/fullt...
Type 2 cytokines act on enteric sensory neurons to regulate neuropeptide-driven host defense @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Type 2 cytokines act on enteric sensory neurons to regulate neuropeptide-driven host defense
Enteric nervous system (ENS)–derived neuropeptides modulate immune cell function, yet our understanding of how inflammatory cues directly influence enteric neuron responses during infection is conside...
www.science.org
July 17, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Type 2 cytokines act on enteric sensory neurons to regulate neuropeptide-driven host defense @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
APOE ε4 carriers share immune-related proteomic changes across neurodegenerative diseases
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
July 16, 2025 at 1:45 PM
APOE ε4 carriers share immune-related proteomic changes across neurodegenerative diseases
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Cognate interaction-dependent pathogenicity of meningeal B cells drives neuroinflammation relapse: @cp-immunity.bsky.social www.cell.com/immunity/ful...
Cognate interaction-dependent pathogenicity of meningeal B cells drives neuroinflammation relapse
The brain meninges maintain self-tolerized B cells, but the pathological consequences
of breaking this tolerance are unknown. Wang et al. reveal that autoreactive leptomeningeal
B cells drive neuroinf...
www.cell.com
July 15, 2025 at 10:18 PM
Cognate interaction-dependent pathogenicity of meningeal B cells drives neuroinflammation relapse: @cp-immunity.bsky.social www.cell.com/immunity/ful...
Response of spatially defined microglia states with distinct chromatin accessibility in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
July 14, 2025 at 3:46 PM
Response of spatially defined microglia states with distinct chromatin accessibility in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Taking the STING out of neurodegenerative disease url: rupress.org/jem/article/...
July 11, 2025 at 4:26 PM
Taking the STING out of neurodegenerative disease url: rupress.org/jem/article/...
Microglia replacement halts the progression of microgliopathy in mice and humans @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Microglia replacement halts the progression of microgliopathy in mice and humans
Colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) is primarily expressed in microglia. Its monoallelic mutation causes CSF1R-associated microgliopathy (CAMP), a major form of adult-onset leukoencephalopath...
www.science.org
July 10, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Microglia replacement halts the progression of microgliopathy in mice and humans @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Glymphatic dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease: A critical appraisal @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
July 10, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Glymphatic dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease: A critical appraisal @science.org www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Synthetic efferocytic receptor microglia enhances anti-inflammatory clearance of amyloid-β for AD treatment in mice | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Synthetic efferocytic receptor microglia enhances anti-inflammatory clearance of amyloid-β for AD treatment in mice
Microglia with a synthetic receptor show enhanced Aβ clearance without inflammation, opening pathways for AD treatment.
www.science.org
July 10, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Synthetic efferocytic receptor microglia enhances anti-inflammatory clearance of amyloid-β for AD treatment in mice | Science Advances www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...