nCounter^® Neuroinflammation Panels

Genes included in the Neuroinflammation Panels provide unique cell profiling data for measuring the relative abundance of 19 CNS and peripheral immune cell types in a single sample¹. The table below summarizes each cell type represented by gene content in the panel qualified through biostatistical approaches and selected literature in the field of neuroinflammation research.

CNS Cells

Peripheral Immune Cells

¹ Danaher P. et al. Gene expression markers of Tumor Infiltrating Leukocytes JITC 2017

Functional annotations for 23 pathways and processes were assigned across the genes in the Neuroinflammation Panels. The 23 pathways and processes represent three core themes of neuroinflammation: immunity and inflammation, neurobiology and neuropathology, and metabolism and stress.

Immunity and Inflammation

The role of innate immunity in many neurological disorders is now widely accepted in the research world although the relative contributions of these processes to the progression and/or amelioration of these diseases is incompletely understood. Several key processes and pathways are assessed in this panel to provide a comprehensive view of the immune and inflammatory response in the nervous system.

Neurobiology and Neuropathology

Neuropathology research today requires a broad view of all the underlying aspects of neurological disorders and injury, including assessment of neurotransmission, neuron-glia interactions, neuroplasticity, cell integrity, neuroinflammation, and metabolism. There are 13 pathways and processes included in this panel to evaluate the impact of neuroinflammation and immune actions in the nervous system on neuropathology.

Metabolism and Stress

Metabolic dysfunction and stress have been shown to influence brain activity and disrupt CNS homeostasis and cognitive function by adopting neurotoxic functions. The genes selected for this panel are designed to assess important aspects of metabolism and stress that are known to impact neuroinflammation.

• Neuroinflammation Panel Product Bulletin
• Neuropathology Application Note
• White Paper- New Insights into Neuroscience Research
• CNS Poster- Deciphering the complexities of neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation with NanoString gene expression profiling
• nCounter Human Neuroinflammation Gene List 
• nCounter Mouse Neuroinflammation Gene List
• Gene Expression User Manuals

Srinivasan K, Friedman BA, Larson JL, Lauffer BE, Goldstein LD, et al. Untangling the brain's neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative transcriptional responses. Nat Commun. 2016 Apr 21;7:11295. PubMed PMID: 27097852; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4844685.

Holtman IR, Raj DD, Miller JA, Schaafsma W, Yin Z, et al. Induction of a common microglia gene expression signature by aging and neurodegenerative conditions: a co-expression meta-analysis. Acta Neuropathol Commun. 2015 May 23;3:31. PubMed PMID: 26001565; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4489356.

Wang Y, Cella M, Mallinson K, Ulrich JD, Young KL, et al. TREM2 lipid sensing sustains the microglial response in an Alzheimer's disease model. Cell. 2015 Mar 12;160(6):1061-71. PubMed PMID: 25728668; NIHMSID: NIHMS661638; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4477963.

Butovsky O, Jedrychowski MP, Cialic R, Krasemann S, Murugaiyan G, et al. Targeting miR-155 restores abnormal microglia and attenuates disease in SOD1 mice. Ann Neurol. 2015 Jan;77(1):75-99. PubMed PMID: 25381879; NIHMSID: NIHMS679333; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4432483.

Orre M, Kamphuis W, Osborn LM, Jansen AHP, Kooijman L, et al. Isolation of glia from Alzheimer's mice reveals inflammation and dysfunction. Neurobiol Aging. 2014 Dec;35(12):2746-2760. PubMed PMID: 25002035.

Zhang Y, Chen K, Sloan SA, Bennett ML, Scholze AR, et al. An RNA-sequencing transcriptome and splicing database of glia, neurons, and vascular cells of the cerebral cortex. J Neurosci. 2014 Sep 3;34(36):11929-47. PubMed PMID: 25186741; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4152602.

Raj DD, Jaarsma D, Holtman IR, Olah M, Ferreira FM, et al. Priming of microglia in a DNA-repair deficient model of accelerated aging. Neurobiol Aging. 2014 Sep;35(9):2147-60. PubMed PMID: 24799273.

Chiu IM, Morimoto ET, Goodarzi H, Liao JT, O'Keeffe S, et al. A neurodegeneration-specific gene-expression signature of acutely isolated microglia from an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis mouse model. Cell Rep. 2013 Jul 25;4(2):385-401. PubMed PMID: 23850290; NIHMSID: NIHMS499259; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4272581.