Timing matters: A protective role of astrocyte reactivity in neurodegeneration

Sheehan and Nadarajah et al.1 identified that Bmal1 loss from astrocytes induces the expression of BAG3, a macroautophagy chaperone enriched in Alzheimer's disease patients and in disease-associated astrocytes, enhancing the phagocytosis of misfolded proteins and preventing tau and alpha-synuclein pathologies.