TREM2
34
MENTIONS
6
EPISODES
6
PODCASTS
Search complete. 34 mentions across 6 episodes found for "TREM2".
Sep 13, 2026
Trevor BerryGUEST
You know, and this is a big thing in post-concussion.
Trevor BerryGUEST
If you're an Alzheimer's genetic predilection, so you're going to hear terms like ApoE4 and Trem2 and things.
Trevor BerryGUEST
If you look some of the top researchers like out of Harvard, like Tansey, just because you have a genetic predilection for something does not mean it has to manifest.
Trevor BerryGUEST
What's going to push you off that cliff? The number one causes inflammation of the brain.
The Melanie Avalon Biohacking Podcast
Sep 4 · 11 Mentions
Top 30%David PerlmutterGUEST
And subsequently, it was learned these receptors, these triggering receptors expressed on myelocytes, were actually triggering receptors expressed on microglial cells.
David PerlmutterGUEST
These receptors were part of the discovered to be part of the way that the microglial cells were able to either remain in TREM2 or M2.
David PerlmutterGUEST
TREM2 stimulates M2, easy to remember.
David PerlmutterGUEST
I have it in the book, actually.
David PerlmutterGUEST
Or when the TREM1 receptor is stimulated, that tends to morph it to being the evil twin.
David PerlmutterGUEST
And it was quite a bit later until we recognized that this was involved in the brain.
David PerlmutterGUEST
That really occurred around 2012, 2013.
David PerlmutterGUEST
As I was actually writing Grain Brain, we began to see that these variants occurred I'm going to break this down a little bit, that carrying genetic variants of the TREM2 receptor that would tend to keep these microglial cells supportive, that people who had genetic variants that would affect that receptor had an increased risk of Alzheimer's.
Darshan ShahHOST
You know, I have one more question for you.
Darshan ShahHOST
Um, you have this mnemonic TREM2.
Darshan ShahHOST
Um, can you talk about that one?
David PerlmutterGUEST
Well, I, I didn't make up TREM2.
Darshan ShahHOST
Oh.
David PerlmutterGUEST
Um, uh, it, it stands for, it's an, a acronym that stands for-
David PerlmutterGUEST
Tri- triggering receptor, triggering receptor expressed on myelocytes.
Darshan ShahHOST
Ah, okay.
Fiona MarshallGUEST
It's in the clinic already for ALS, also for AD.
Fiona MarshallGUEST
This is what's called a TREM2 antibody.
Fiona MarshallGUEST
agonist antibody.
Fiona MarshallGUEST
And this is on microglia.
Fiona MarshallGUEST
And these microglia cells, if you like, they're the brain's immune system.
Fiona MarshallGUEST
And they can be in a protective mode where they reduce your chances of getting the disease, but they can also switch over into a pro-inflammatory mode.
Fiona MarshallGUEST
And what TREM2 does is to stabilize them in the neuroprotective mode.
Fiona MarshallGUEST
And so, you know, That one, we've actually shown that that doesn't have a shuttle, but it's been optimized to get into the CNS.
Lyn VoungGUEST
So they can, so the typical M2, like macrophage markers can be expressed in M1-like macrophages.
Lyn VoungGUEST
For example, in this paper, our hypoxic macrophages can also express things that people have reported to be more M2-like, like TREM2, etc.
Tom PowlesHOST
And is it true it can be like quantum mechanics in that they can be in two places at once? In that you can have cancers expressing multiple within the tumor microenvironment.
Tom PowlesHOST
Macrophages are not all the same.
David PerlmutterGUEST
And at $40,000 a year per patient to be treated with these drugs, there's an awful lot of revenue there.
David PerlmutterGUEST
But let's move past that and recognize that When we target these microglia cells from a pharmaceutical perspective, one powerful receptor on the microglia cell that puts it back to being supportive is called the TREM2 receptor.
David PerlmutterGUEST
TREM stands for targeting receptor or triggering receptor expressed on myelocytes.
David PerlmutterGUEST
And that's the same receptor on the microglia receptor.
6 MINS LATER
David PerlmutterGUEST
And then, you know, for people who have various forms of blood cancers such that you can then transplant the stem cells to allow people to grow new bone marrow producing cells.
David PerlmutterGUEST
I don't think that we're going to need to do that.
David PerlmutterGUEST
I think that the research, one company that was recently acquired by Sanofi, the research that is going to allow us to understand the interventions to target these microglial cells and shift them back to being M2, as I mentioned earlier, this TREM2 receptor targeting that, I think that that's where at least the pharmaceutical industry is going to be able to give us a very effective and much safer, much less aggressive approach in terms of targeting microglia for brain degenerative conditions, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
David PerlmutterGUEST
So let me segue to something because it's top of mind for me right now, because it is in the drug world.