Abstract
Growing evidence supports significant involvement of immune dysfunction in the etiology
of neurodegenerative diseases, several of which also display prominent sex differences
across prevalence, pathology, and symptomology. In this review, we summarize evidence
from human studies of established and recent findings of sex differences in multiple
sclerosis, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
and discuss how sex-specific central nervous system innate immune activity could contribute
to downstream sex differences in these diseases. We examine human genomic and transcriptomics
studies in each neurodegenerative disease through the lens of sex differences in the
neuroimmune system and highlight the importance of stratifying sex in clinical and
translational research studies. Finally, we discuss the limitations of the existing
studies and outline recommendations for further advancing sex-based analyses to uncover
novel disease mechanisms that could ultimately help treat both sexes.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 07, 2021
Accepted:
January 4,
2021
Received in revised form:
December 29,
2020
Received:
October 9,
2020
Identification
Copyright
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