[Microglia: a potential target for neurological disorder].

Microglia are the immune cells of the central nervous system. They play an important role in maintaining brain homeostasis by constantly surveying their surrounding microenvironment. During pathological event in the brain, microglia respond quickly to restore homeostasis by clearing damaged cells and secreting various proinflammatory mediators. However, during chronic inflammation, their homeostatic functions is lost and they secrete various proinflammatory cytokines and mediators that induce neural dysfunction and neurodegeneration. These microglia mediated tissue damage plays an important role in pathogenesis of various neurological disorders like Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Microglia require colony receptor factor 1 receptor (CSF1R)-mediated signals for their survival. Recently, CSF1R antagonist has been used to deplete microglia, reset microglia by forced depletion and repopulation or depletion followed by transplantation with new microglia as a therapeutic strategy for various neurological disorders. In this article, we describe the role of microglia in the in various neurological disorders, and discuss potential therapeutic strategy to manipulate microglia by depletion, resetting and transplantation.