To build upon these findings, scientists plan to graft human cells into animal models to observe SORLA mutations within living human neural environments.
"Mouse cells and human cells are different," said Tim Huang.
Future clinical translation relies on observing these mechanism dynamics directly within human tissue contexts.
"Because we're looking at human disease, it's more informative if we can observe the modulation and dysfunction of SORLA in the context of a human cell inside of a diseased brain environment," said Tim Huang.
Parallel research also highlights how toxic tau spreads between neurons using tiny biological bubbles called extracellular vesicles associated with the Arc protein.
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While Arc aids in cellular clearance, intercepting these vesicles after release offers another prospective pathway for limiting disease progression alongside SORLA-targeted therapies.
