The mitochondrial protein TSPO in Alzheimer’s disease: relation to the severity of AD pathology and the neuroinflammatory environment

The 18kD translocator protein (TSPO) is used as a positron emission tomography (PET) target to quantify neuroinflammation in patients. In Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the cerebellum is the pseudo-reference region for comparison with the cerebral cortex due to the absence of AD pathology and lower levels of TSPO. However, using the cerebellum as a pseudo-reference region is debated, with other brain regions suggested as more suitable. This paper aimed to establish the neuroinflammatory differences between the temporal cortex and cerebellar cortex, including TSPO expression. Using 60 human post-mortem samples encompassing the spectrum of Braak stages (I–VI), immunostaining for pan-Aβ, hyperphosphorylated (p)Tau, TSPO and microglial proteins Iba1, HLA–DR and MSR-A was performed in the temporal cortex and cerebellum. In the cerebellum, Aβ but not pTau, increased over the course of the disease, in contrast to the temporal cortex, where both proteins were significantly increased. TSPO increased in the temporal cortex, more than twofold in the later stages of AD compared to the early stages, but not in the cerebellum. Conversely, Iba1 increased in the cerebellum, but not in the temporal cortex. TSPO was associated with pTau in the temporal cortex, suggesting that TSPO positive microglia may be reacting to pTau itself and/or neurodegeneration at later stages of AD. Furthermore, the neuroinflammatory microenvironment was examined, using MesoScale Discovery assays, and IL15 only was significantly increased in the temporal cortex. Together this data suggests that the cerebellum maintains a more homeostatic environment compared to the temporal cortex, with a consistent TSPO expression, supporting its use as a pseudo-reference region for quantification in TSPO PET scans. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12974-023-02869-9.