Specifically, we found that, in contrast to previous preliminary findings in a small longitudinal sample of individuals10, increases in TREM2, AXL, MERTK, GAS6, LPL, CST7 and CSF1 are associated with less severe AD-related changes, indicating that microglia may strengthen the brain’s resilience to pathological processes (Extended Data Fig. 1a,b). Here, AXL is linked to Alzheimer disease.