The etiology of Alzheimer' s disease (AD) is still unresolved, even if it is becoming clearer that inflammation, a process associated to the onset of several neurodegenerative disorders, plays a central role in this disease. Inflammation is a key component of innate immune system. Innate immunity is a very highly conserved system that protects the host from infections in a non-specific manner. Even if this system provides a powerful response to a range of insults it must be tightly regulated:

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... regulation and chronic activation can have detrimental effects on the host. Chronic inflammation has been involved not only in peripheral diseases but also in neurodegenerative diseases of the central nervous system, like Alzheimer's disease. Our working hypothesis is that inflammation plays a negative role in this pathology and that the mechanisms regulating the inflammatory responses are functional compromised in AD patients compared to Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and to healthy controls (HC). One of the main way in which immunologic tolerance is modulated is through T regulatory cells (Treg). Our results indicate that the development of AD is associated with a reduction of circulating T reg naïve cells, the subpopulation of Treg cells endowed with the strongest suppressive ability. These quantitative changes are associated with qualitative changes, summarized as an