GFAP and Alzheimer disease: AD brains have impaired glutamate transporter function, lower levels of the protein glutamate transporter-1 (GLT-1) and increased levels of glial fibrillar associated protein (GFAP) (Masliah et al., 1996; Rothstein et al., 1996; Kirvell et al., 2006; Garcia-Esparcia et al., 2018); however, the mechanisms of how AD leads to astrocyte dysfunction in the brain are not yet fully understood.