Innate immune cGAS/STING in HFD‐induced obesity, prediabetes, and cognitive impairment

Increasing in parallel with the worldwide aging population are rates of cognitive impairment and dementia, including Alzheimer’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease Related‐Dementia. Understanding underlying mechanisms that promote cognitive impairment with aging is therefore critical. One factor that significantly increases the risk of cognitive impairment and is reaching pandemic levels is obesity and prediabetes/diabetes. Common mechanisms that could underly the relationship between obesity and prediabetes/diabetes with cognitive impairment are changes in immune system function, particularly microglial dependent changes. Specifically, the innate immune cGAS/STING pathway is implicated in both cognitive impairment and obesity and prediabetes/diabetes.