The prominent role of microglia in tissue maintenance and their dependence on intact signaling from the surrounding predestine them to react rapidly to tissue alterations. For instance, neurodegeneration or neuroinflammation elicits a gradual progression from homeostatic to disease-induced gene expression, also known as disease-associated microglia (DAM)10–12. Due to the transitional nature of these adaptations to potential damage, factors that could modulate a potentially harmful disease-associated state would represent promising candidates for intervening in disease progression.
