TSPO and neurodegenerative disease: In light of TSPO’s association with the pathophysiology of neurodegenerative diseases, it has been well established that part of the neurotoxicity caused by tau and Aβ deposits in AD is induction of a neuroinflammatory response (McGeer and McGeer, 1995; Hoozemans et al., 2011), which triggers the upregulation of TSPO in activated microglia and astrocytes.