CXCL10high Microglia in Cerebral Malaria: Toward Translational Validation.

Wang et al. identify CXCL10high TNFαhigh Ki67+ microglia as drivers of CD8+ T cell recruitment during experimental cerebral malaria (ECM). We propose a conservative reframing: rather than asserting a fully validated new taxonomy, CXCL10high microglia should be considered a candidate "neuroimmune endotype" whose translational relevance requires clearly prespecified and testable validation in human disease. Priority validation steps include single-nucleus and spatial transcriptomics of human postmortem tissue, paired plasma/CSF biomarker correlation, and mechanistic assays of microglial antigen presentation. We caution against strong therapeutic inferences from ECM alone; translational work should first establish reproducible human microglial signatures and clinical correlations before precision-targeted interventions are proposed.