The Hodge Public Lecture Hosted by the Neuroscience and Mental Health Innovation Institute

Professor Paul Morgan - Inflammation is a powerful defence system that enables the body to rapidly respond to infections or other dangers, recruiting protective immune cells to neutralise and remove the danger; however, inflammation is a double-edged sword that, when not properly controlled, damages our own cells and tissues as seen in diverse diseases, including arthritis and COVID. Roles of inflammation in dementias and other brain diseases received less attention because the brain was considered to be protected from inflammation. My lab works on a system called “complement”, present in blood and tissues; complement activation is a key part of our defence arsenal, acting as an early warning system and trigger for inflammation. In this lecture I will discuss the emerging evidence implicating complement and the inflammation it triggers as a cause of the brain cell loss that typifies dementias. Implicating complement not only provides new understanding of how dementias develop but also opens up completely new ways of treating dementias using complement blocking drugs already in the clinic for other diseases.