ID: h-929f356e
Hypothesis

GAS6/TAM Axis Activation Stabilizes Blood-Brain Barrier to Reduce Neuroinflammatory Cell Infiltration in Alzheimer's Disease

GAS6/TAM Axis Activation Stabilizes Blood-Brain Barrier to Reduce Neuroinflammatory Cell Infiltration in Alzheimer's Disease starts from the claim that modulating GAS6/TAM receptor complex within the disease context of neuroinflammation .
🧬 GAS6/TAM receptor complex🩺 neuroinflammation🎯 Composite 51%💱 $0.53▲4.7%proposed
EvidencePending (0%)📖 9 cit🗣 1 debates 5 support 4 oppose
✓ All Quality Gates Passed
Mechanistic 0.51 (15%) Evidence 0.55 (15%) Novelty 0.80 (12%) Feasibility 0.42 (12%) Impact 0.62 (12%) Druggability 0.40 (10%) Safety 0.35 (8%) Competition 0.58 (6%) Data Avail. 0.52 (5%) Reproducible 0.55 (5%) KG Connect 0.18 (8%) 0.513 composite

🧪 Overview

Mechanistic Overview


GAS6/TAM Axis Activation Stabilizes Blood-Brain Barrier to Reduce Neuroinflammatory Cell Infiltration in Alzheimer's Disease starts from the claim that modulating GAS6/TAM receptor complex within the disease context of neuroinflammation can redirect a disease-relevant process. The original description reads: "## Mechanistic Overview GAS6/TAM Axis Activation Stabilizes Blood-Brain Barrier to Reduce Neuroinflammatory Cell Infiltration in Alzheimer's Disease starts from the claim that modulating GAS6/TAM receptor complex within the disease context of neuroinflammation can redirect a disease-relevant process. The original description reads: "## Mechanistic Overview GAS6/TAM Axis Activation Stabilizes Blood-Brain Barrier to Reduce Neuroinflammatory Cell Infiltration in Alzheimer's Disease starts from the claim that Blood-brain barrier breakdown allows peripheral immune cells to infiltrate the CNS, exacerbating neuroinflammation and synaptic damage in AD.

...

🧬 Mechanism

🧬 Curated Mechanism Pathway

Curated pathway from expert analysis

flowchart TD
    A["BBB Dysfunction"] --> B["Tight Junction Disruption"]
    B --> C["Plasma Protein Extravasation"]
    C --> D["Neuroinflammation"]
    D --> E["Neuronal Damage"]
    F["GAS6 BBB Restoration"] --> G["Tight Junction Repair"]
    G --> H["Barrier Integrity Recovery"]
    H --> I["Neuroprotection"]
    style A fill:#b71c1c,stroke:#ef9a9a,color:#ef9a9a
    style F fill:#1a237e,stroke:#4fc3f7,color:#4fc3f7
    style I fill:#1b5e20,stroke:#81c784,color:#81c784

⚖️ Evidence

⚖️ Evidence Matrix5 supports4 contradicts
Supports
MERTK deficiency increases viral neuroinvasion due to BBB breakdown
Supports
GAS6 identified as potential therapeutic target for viral encephalitis neuroinflammation
Supports
Blood coagulation pathway highly enriched in TAM receptor interactome (GO:0007596, p=5.69e-11)
Supports
Plasma sAXL correlates with locus coeruleus integrity in AD patients
Supports
Endocytosis pathway enriched in AD risk loci (hypergeometric p=0.0003)
Contradicts
GAS6 overexpression in APP/PS1 mice induces inflammation despite reducing plaques - directly contradicts neuroprotective mechanism
Contradicts
BBB dysfunction in chronic AD involves pericyte degeneration, basement membrane damage that TAM receptors cannot reverse
Contradicts
TAM receptors in cancer promote angiogenesis and metastasis - same vascular effects could be harmful in brain
Contradicts
Coagulation pathway enrichment reflects vascular homeostasis, not necessarily BBB protection in neurodegeneration
📖 Linked Papers

No linked papers recorded for this hypothesis yet.

🏥 Translation

🧬 3D Protein Structure — GAS6

No curated PDB or AlphaFold mapping for GAS6 yet. Search RCSB →

🧠 GTEx v10 Brain ExpressionJSON

Median TPM across 13 brain regions for GAS6/TAM receptor complex from GTEx v10.

Cerebellum71.4 Cerebellar Hemisphere60.0 Hypothalamus58.5 Cortex58.4 Frontal Cortex BA957.9 Substantia nigra44.6 Anterior cingulate cortex BA2439.4 Caudate basal ganglia38.9 Nucleus accumbens basal ganglia38.9 Putamen basal ganglia36.7 Hippocampus34.7 Spinal cord cervical c-133.0 Amygdala28.7median TPM (GTEx v10)

💉 Clinical Trials

No clinical trials data linked to this hypothesis yet.

No curated ClinVar variants loaded for this hypothesis.

Run scripts/backfill_clinvar_variants.py to fetch P/LP/VUS variants.

🔍 Search ClinVar for GAS6 →

No DepMap CRISPR Chronos data found for GAS6.

Run python3 scripts/backfill_hypothesis_depmap.py to populate.

💰 Estimated Development
Cost
$0
Timeline
2.0 years

🏆 Tournament

🏆 Arenas / Elo

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📊 Market Indicators

7d Trend
Stable
7d Momentum
▲ 0.0%
Volatility
Medium
0.0258
Events (7d)
1
Price History
▲4.7%

💾 Resource Usage

LLM Tokens
41,274
$0.1238
Total Cost
$0.1238

🔮 Predictions

🔎 Predictions vs Observations2 predictions · 0 with recorded observations
PredictionPredictedObservedStatusConf
IF AAV-mediated GAS6 overexpression or AXL/MERTK agonist (UNC4240 or similar) is administered via intracerebroventricular injection to 5xFAD mice at 6 months of age (early AD pathology), THEN we will ≥30% reduction in CD45+CD11b- infiltrating leukocytes in CNS parenchyma, accompanied by ≥25% increase in tight junction protein expression (claudin-5, occludin)— no observation —pending0.55
IF TAM receptor signaling is genetically knocked out (Axlfl/fl Mertkfl/fl crossed with Lyzm-Cre) specifically in endothelial cells of APP/PS1 mice, THEN we will observe accelerated cognitive decline aSignificantly impaired performance on Morris water maze (≥20% increase in escape latency) and novel object recognition (≥25% reduction in discrimination index),— no observation —pending0.48
🔮 Falsifiable Predictions (2)
pendingconf 55%
IF AAV-mediated GAS6 overexpression or AXL/MERTK agonist (UNC4240 or similar) is administered via intracerebroventricular injection to 5xFAD mice at 6 months of age (early AD pathology), THEN we will observe a statistically significant reduction in peripheral CD45+ leukocyte infiltration into the hi
Predicted outcome: ≥30% reduction in CD45+CD11b- infiltrating leukocytes in CNS parenchyma, accompanied by ≥25% increase in tight junction protein expression (claudin-5,
Falsification: No significant reduction (p>0.05) in CNS leukocyte infiltration, or reduction in tight junction protein expression, or increased MMP-9 activity indicating BBB degradation despite GAS6/TAM activation.
pendingconf 48%
IF TAM receptor signaling is genetically knocked out (Axlfl/fl Mertkfl/fl crossed with Lyzm-Cre) specifically in endothelial cells of APP/PS1 mice, THEN we will observe accelerated cognitive decline and increased neuroinflammatory cell infiltration compared to littermate controls with intact TAM sig
Predicted outcome: Significantly impaired performance on Morris water maze (≥20% increase in escape latency) and novel object recognition (≥25% reduction in discriminati
Falsification: No difference in cognitive performance or inflammatory cell counts between endothelial-specific TAM knockout and controls (p>0.05), indicating BBB integrity is maintained independently of TAM signalin

📖 References (5)

  1. The TAM receptor Mertk protects against neuroinvasive viral infection by maintaining blood-brain barrier integrity.
    ["Miner Jonathan J" et al.. Nature medicine (2015)
  2. GAS6 as a potential target to alleviate neuroinflammation during Japanese encephalitis in mouse models.
    Journal of neuroinflammation (2024)
  3. Locus coeruleus integrity correlates with plasma soluble Axl levels in Alzheimer's disease patients.
    ["Galgani Alessandro" et al.. Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association (2025)
  4. Gas6 induces inflammation and reduces plaque burden but worsens behavior in a sex-dependent manner in the APP/PS1 model of Alzheimer's disease.
    ["Owlett Laura D" et al.. Journal of neuroinflammation (2022)
  5. The Receptor Tyrosine Kinase AXL in Cancer Progression.
    Cancers (2022)
Metadatasource: v1_phase_c_backfill · origin_type: gap_debate
sourcev1_phase_c_backfill
origin_typegap_debate
_schema_version1
📊 Evidence Profile
Evidence Balance
+0%
Certainty
0%
Debates
0
Incoming
0
Outgoing
0
0 supporting 0 contradicting 0 neutral
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