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Goddard TR, Brookes KJ, Sharma R, Moemeni A, Rajkumar AP. Dementia with Lewy Bodies: Genomics, Transcriptomics, and Its Future with Data Science. Cells 2024; 13:223. [PMID: 38334615 PMCID: PMC10854541 DOI: 10.3390/cells13030223] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/14/2023] [Revised: 01/17/2024] [Accepted: 01/23/2024] [Indexed: 02/10/2024] Open
Abstract
Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is a significant public health issue. It is the second most common neurodegenerative dementia and presents with severe neuropsychiatric symptoms. Genomic and transcriptomic analyses have provided some insight into disease pathology. Variants within SNCA, GBA, APOE, SNCB, and MAPT have been shown to be associated with DLB in repeated genomic studies. Transcriptomic analysis, conducted predominantly on candidate genes, has identified signatures of synuclein aggregation, protein degradation, amyloid deposition, neuroinflammation, mitochondrial dysfunction, and the upregulation of heat-shock proteins in DLB. Yet, the understanding of DLB molecular pathology is incomplete. This precipitates the current clinical position whereby there are no available disease-modifying treatments or blood-based diagnostic biomarkers. Data science methods have the potential to improve disease understanding, optimising therapeutic intervention and drug development, to reduce disease burden. Genomic prediction will facilitate the early identification of cases and the timely application of future disease-modifying treatments. Transcript-level analyses across the entire transcriptome and machine learning analysis of multi-omic data will uncover novel signatures that may provide clues to DLB pathology and improve drug development. This review will discuss the current genomic and transcriptomic understanding of DLB, highlight gaps in the literature, and describe data science methods that may advance the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas R. Goddard
- Mental Health and Clinical Neurosciences Academic Unit, Institute of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2TU, UK
| | - Keeley J. Brookes
- Department of Biosciences, School of Science & Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK
| | - Riddhi Sharma
- Biodiscovery Institute, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
- UK Health Security Agency, Radiation Effects Department, Radiation Protection Science Division, Harwell Science Campus, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0RQ, UK
| | - Armaghan Moemeni
- School of Computer Science, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG8 1BB, UK
| | - Anto P. Rajkumar
- Mental Health and Clinical Neurosciences Academic Unit, Institute of Mental Health, School of Medicine, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2TU, UK
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Shi JJ, Mao CY, Guo YZ, Fan Y, Hao XY, Li SJ, Tian J, Hu ZW, Li MJ, Li JD, Ma DR, Guo MN, Zuo CY, Liang YY, Xu YM, Yang J, Shi CH. Joint analysis of proteome, transcriptome, and multi-trait analysis to identify novel Parkinson's disease risk genes. Aging (Albany NY) 2024; 16:1555-1580. [PMID: 38240717 PMCID: PMC10866412 DOI: 10.18632/aging.205444] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2023] [Accepted: 12/04/2023] [Indexed: 02/06/2024]
Abstract
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified multiple risk variants for Parkinson's disease (PD). Nevertheless, how the risk variants confer the risk of PD remains largely unknown. We conducted a proteome-wide association study (PWAS) and summary-data-based mendelian randomization (SMR) analysis by integrating PD GWAS with proteome and protein quantitative trait loci (pQTL) data from human brain, plasma and CSF. We also performed a large transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) and Fine-mapping of causal gene sets (FOCUS), leveraging joint-tissue imputation (JTI) prediction models of 22 tissues to identify and prioritize putatively causal genes. We further conducted PWAS, SMR, TWAS, and FOCUS using a multi-trait analysis of GWAS (MTAG) to identify additional PD risk genes to boost statistical power. In this large-scale study, we identified 16 genes whose genetically regulated protein abundance levels were associated with Parkinson's disease risk. We undertook a large-scale analysis of PD and correlated traits, through TWAS and FOCUS studies, and discovered 26 casual genes related to PD that had not been reported in previous TWAS. 5 genes (CD38, GPNMB, RAB29, TMEM175, TTC19) showed significant associations with PD at both the proteome-wide and transcriptome-wide levels. Our study provides new insights into the etiology and underlying genetic architecture of PD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing-Jing Shi
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
| | - Cheng-Yuan Mao
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
| | - Ya-Zhou Guo
- School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou 310024, Zhejiang, China
| | - Yu Fan
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
| | - Xiao-Yan Hao
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
| | - Shuang-Jie Li
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
| | - Jie Tian
- Zhengzhou Railway Vocational and Technical College, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
| | - Zheng-Wei Hu
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
| | - Meng-Jie Li
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
| | - Jia-Di Li
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
| | - Dong-Rui Ma
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
| | - Meng-Nan Guo
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
| | - Chun-Yan Zuo
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
| | - Yuan-Yuan Liang
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
| | - Yu-Ming Xu
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
- NHC Key Laboratory of Prevention and Treatment of Cerebrovascular Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
- Henan Key Laboratory of Cerebrovascular Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
- Institute of Neuroscience, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
| | - Jian Yang
- School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou 310024, Zhejiang, China
- Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou 310024, Zhejiang, China
| | - Chang-He Shi
- Department of Neurology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
- NHC Key Laboratory of Prevention and Treatment of Cerebrovascular Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
- Henan Key Laboratory of Cerebrovascular Diseases, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
- Institute of Neuroscience, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou 450000, Henan, China
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Sun Y, Zhu J, Yang Y, Zhang Z, Zhong H, Zeng G, Zhou D, Nowakowski RS, Long J, Wu C, Wu L. Identification of candidate DNA methylation biomarkers related to Alzheimer's disease risk by integrating genome and blood methylome data. Transl Psychiatry 2023; 13:387. [PMID: 38092781 PMCID: PMC10719322 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-023-02695-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2022] [Revised: 11/16/2023] [Accepted: 11/29/2023] [Indexed: 12/17/2023] Open
Abstract
Alzheimer disease (AD) is a common neurodegenerative disease with a late onset. It is critical to identify novel blood-based DNA methylation biomarkers to better understand the extent of the molecular pathways affected in AD. Two sets of blood DNA methylation genetic prediction models developed using different reference panels and modelling strategies were leveraged to evaluate associations of genetically predicted DNA methylation levels with AD risk in 111,326 (46,828 proxy) cases and 677,663 controls. A total of 1,168 cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) sites showed a significant association with AD risk at a false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05. Methylation levels of 196 CpG sites were correlated with expression levels of 130 adjacent genes in blood. Overall, 52 CpG sites of 32 genes showed consistent association directions for the methylation-gene expression-AD risk, including nine genes (CNIH4, THUMPD3, SERPINB9, MTUS1, CISD1, FRAT2, CCDC88B, FES, and SSH2) firstly reported as AD risk genes. Nine of 32 genes were enriched in dementia and AD disease categories (P values ranged from 1.85 × 10-4 to 7.46 × 10-6), and 19 genes in a neurological disease network (score = 54) were also observed. Our findings improve the understanding of genetics and etiology for AD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanfa Sun
- College of Life Science, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Animal Infectious Diseases and Biotechnology, Fujian Provincial Universities Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology (Longyan University), Longyan University, Longyan, Fujian, 364012, P. R. China
- Cancer Epidemiology Division, Population Sciences in the Pacific Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, 96813, USA
| | - Jingjing Zhu
- Cancer Epidemiology Division, Population Sciences in the Pacific Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, 96813, USA
| | - Yaohua Yang
- Center for Public Health Genomics, Department of Public Health Sciences, UVA Comprehensive Cancer Center, School of Medicine, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, 22093, USA
| | - Zichen Zhang
- Department of Biostatistics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Hua Zhong
- Cancer Epidemiology Division, Population Sciences in the Pacific Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, 96813, USA
| | - Guanghua Zeng
- College of Life Science, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Animal Infectious Diseases and Biotechnology, Fujian Provincial Universities Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology (Longyan University), Longyan University, Longyan, Fujian, 364012, P. R. China
| | - Dan Zhou
- School of Public Health and the Second Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, 310058, P.R. China
| | - Richard S Nowakowski
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, 32304, USA
| | - Jirong Long
- Division of Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt Epidemiology Center, Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, 37203, USA
| | - Chong Wu
- Department of Biostatistics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, 77030, USA
| | - Lang Wu
- Cancer Epidemiology Division, Population Sciences in the Pacific Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, 96813, USA.
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Bae J, Logan PE, Acri DJ, Bharthur A, Nho K, Saykin AJ, Risacher SL, Nudelman K, Polsinelli AJ, Pentchev V, Kim J, Hammers DB, Apostolova LG. A simulative deep learning model of SNP interactions on chromosome 19 for predicting Alzheimer's disease risk and rates of disease progression. Alzheimers Dement 2023; 19:5690-5699. [PMID: 37409680 PMCID: PMC10770299 DOI: 10.1002/alz.13319] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/20/2023] [Revised: 04/25/2023] [Accepted: 05/12/2023] [Indexed: 07/07/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Identifying genetic patterns that contribute to Alzheimer's disease (AD) is important not only for pre-symptomatic risk assessment but also for building personalized therapeutic strategies. METHODS We implemented a novel simulative deep learning model to chromosome 19 genetic data from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative and the Imaging and Genetic Biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease datasets. The model quantified the contribution of each single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) and their epistatic impact on the likelihood of AD using the occlusion method. The top 35 AD-risk SNPs in chromosome 19 were identified, and their ability to predict the rate of AD progression was analyzed. RESULTS Rs561311966 (APOC1) and rs2229918 (ERCC1/CD3EAP) were recognized as the most powerful factors influencing AD risk. The top 35 chromosome 19 AD-risk SNPs were significant predictors of AD progression. DISCUSSION The model successfully estimated the contribution of AD-risk SNPs that account for AD progression at the individual level. This can help in building preventive precision medicine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jinhyeong Bae
- Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, United States
| | - Paige E. Logan
- Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, United States
| | - Dominic J. Acri
- Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, United States
| | - Apoorva Bharthur
- Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, United States
| | - Kwangsik Nho
- Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, United States
| | - Andrew J. Saykin
- Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, United States
| | - Shannon L. Risacher
- Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, United States
| | - Kelly Nudelman
- Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, United States
| | - Angelina J. Polsinelli
- Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, United States
| | - Valentin Pentchev
- Department of Information Technology, Indiana University Network Science Institute, Bloomington, IN, 47408, United States
| | - Jungsu Kim
- Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, United States
| | - Dustin B. Hammers
- Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, United States
| | - Liana G. Apostolova
- Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, United States
- Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, School of Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, United States
- Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, United States
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Esteban-Martos A, Brokate-Llanos AM, Real LM, Melgar-Locatelli S, de Rojas I, Castro-Zavala A, Bravo MJ, Mañas-Padilla MDC, García-González P, Ruiz-Galdon M, Pacheco-Sánchez B, Polvillo R, Rodriguez de Fonseca F, González I, Castilla-Ortega E, Muñoz MJ, Rivera P, Reyes-Engel A, Ruiz A, Royo JL. A Functional Pipeline of Genome-Wide Association Data Leads to Midostaurin as a Repurposed Drug for Alzheimer's Disease. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:12079. [PMID: 37569459 PMCID: PMC10418421 DOI: 10.3390/ijms241512079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/06/2023] [Revised: 07/24/2023] [Accepted: 07/25/2023] [Indexed: 08/13/2023] Open
Abstract
Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) constitute a powerful tool to identify the different biochemical pathways associated with disease. This knowledge can be used to prioritize drugs targeting these routes, paving the road to clinical application. Here, we describe DAGGER (Drug Repositioning by Analysis of GWAS and Gene Expression in R), a straightforward pipeline to find currently approved drugs with repurposing potential. As a proof of concept, we analyzed a meta-GWAS of 1.6 × 107 single-nucleotide polymorphisms performed on Alzheimer's disease (AD). Our pipeline uses the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) and Drug Gene Interaction (DGI) databases for a rational prioritization of 22 druggable targets. Next, we performed a two-stage in vivo functional assay. We used a C. elegans humanized model over-expressing the Aβ1-42 peptide. We assayed the five top-scoring candidate drugs, finding midostaurin, a multitarget protein kinase inhibitor, to be a protective drug. Next, 3xTg AD transgenic mice were used for a final evaluation of midostaurin's effect. Behavioral testing after three weeks of 20 mg/kg intraperitoneal treatment revealed a significant improvement in behavior, including locomotion, anxiety-like behavior, and new-place recognition. Altogether, we consider that our pipeline might be a useful tool for drug repurposing in complex diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alvaro Esteban-Martos
- Department of Surgery, Biochemistry and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Malaga, Boulevard Louis Pasteur s/n, 29071 Malaga, Spain; (A.E.-M.); (L.M.R.); (M.J.B.); (M.R.-G.); (I.G.); (A.R.-E.)
| | - Ana Maria Brokate-Llanos
- Departamento de Biología Molecular e Ingeniería Bioquímica, Centro Andaluz de Biología del Desarrollo (CABD), Universidad Pablo de Olavide (UPO), UPO/CSIC/JA, Ctra Utrera Km1, 41013 Sevilla, Spain; (A.M.B.-L.); (R.P.); (M.J.M.)
| | - Luis Miguel Real
- Department of Surgery, Biochemistry and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Malaga, Boulevard Louis Pasteur s/n, 29071 Malaga, Spain; (A.E.-M.); (L.M.R.); (M.J.B.); (M.R.-G.); (I.G.); (A.R.-E.)
- Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Infecciosas (CIBERINFEC), 28029 Madrid, Spain
| | - Sonia Melgar-Locatelli
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, 29590 Malaga, Spain; (S.M.-L.); (A.C.-Z.); (M.d.C.M.-P.); (B.P.-S.); (F.R.d.F.); (E.C.-O.); (P.R.)
- Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Málaga, 29071 Malaga, Spain
| | - Itziar de Rojas
- Research Center and Memory Clinic, Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona—Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, 08017 Barcelona, Spain; (I.d.R.); (P.G.-G.); (A.R.)
- Network Center for Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), National Institute of Health Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain
| | - Adriana Castro-Zavala
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, 29590 Malaga, Spain; (S.M.-L.); (A.C.-Z.); (M.d.C.M.-P.); (B.P.-S.); (F.R.d.F.); (E.C.-O.); (P.R.)
- Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Málaga, 29071 Malaga, Spain
| | - Maria Jose Bravo
- Department of Surgery, Biochemistry and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Malaga, Boulevard Louis Pasteur s/n, 29071 Malaga, Spain; (A.E.-M.); (L.M.R.); (M.J.B.); (M.R.-G.); (I.G.); (A.R.-E.)
| | - Maria del Carmen Mañas-Padilla
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, 29590 Malaga, Spain; (S.M.-L.); (A.C.-Z.); (M.d.C.M.-P.); (B.P.-S.); (F.R.d.F.); (E.C.-O.); (P.R.)
- Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Málaga, 29071 Malaga, Spain
| | - Pablo García-González
- Research Center and Memory Clinic, Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona—Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, 08017 Barcelona, Spain; (I.d.R.); (P.G.-G.); (A.R.)
- Network Center for Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), National Institute of Health Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain
| | - Maximiliano Ruiz-Galdon
- Department of Surgery, Biochemistry and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Malaga, Boulevard Louis Pasteur s/n, 29071 Malaga, Spain; (A.E.-M.); (L.M.R.); (M.J.B.); (M.R.-G.); (I.G.); (A.R.-E.)
| | - Beatriz Pacheco-Sánchez
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, 29590 Malaga, Spain; (S.M.-L.); (A.C.-Z.); (M.d.C.M.-P.); (B.P.-S.); (F.R.d.F.); (E.C.-O.); (P.R.)
- Unidad de Gestion Clinica de Salud Mental, Hospital Universitario Regional de Malaga, 29010 Malaga, Spain
| | - Rocío Polvillo
- Departamento de Biología Molecular e Ingeniería Bioquímica, Centro Andaluz de Biología del Desarrollo (CABD), Universidad Pablo de Olavide (UPO), UPO/CSIC/JA, Ctra Utrera Km1, 41013 Sevilla, Spain; (A.M.B.-L.); (R.P.); (M.J.M.)
| | - Fernando Rodriguez de Fonseca
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, 29590 Malaga, Spain; (S.M.-L.); (A.C.-Z.); (M.d.C.M.-P.); (B.P.-S.); (F.R.d.F.); (E.C.-O.); (P.R.)
- Unidad de Gestion Clinica de Salud Mental, Hospital Universitario Regional de Malaga, 29010 Malaga, Spain
| | - Irene González
- Department of Surgery, Biochemistry and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Malaga, Boulevard Louis Pasteur s/n, 29071 Malaga, Spain; (A.E.-M.); (L.M.R.); (M.J.B.); (M.R.-G.); (I.G.); (A.R.-E.)
| | - Estela Castilla-Ortega
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, 29590 Malaga, Spain; (S.M.-L.); (A.C.-Z.); (M.d.C.M.-P.); (B.P.-S.); (F.R.d.F.); (E.C.-O.); (P.R.)
- Departamento de Psicobiología y Metodología de las Ciencias del Comportamiento, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad de Málaga, 29071 Malaga, Spain
| | - Manuel J. Muñoz
- Departamento de Biología Molecular e Ingeniería Bioquímica, Centro Andaluz de Biología del Desarrollo (CABD), Universidad Pablo de Olavide (UPO), UPO/CSIC/JA, Ctra Utrera Km1, 41013 Sevilla, Spain; (A.M.B.-L.); (R.P.); (M.J.M.)
| | - Patricia Rivera
- Instituto de Investigación Biomédica de Málaga y Plataforma en Nanomedicina-IBIMA Plataforma BIONAND, 29590 Malaga, Spain; (S.M.-L.); (A.C.-Z.); (M.d.C.M.-P.); (B.P.-S.); (F.R.d.F.); (E.C.-O.); (P.R.)
- Unidad de Gestion Clinica de Salud Mental, Hospital Universitario Regional de Malaga, 29010 Malaga, Spain
| | - Armando Reyes-Engel
- Department of Surgery, Biochemistry and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Malaga, Boulevard Louis Pasteur s/n, 29071 Malaga, Spain; (A.E.-M.); (L.M.R.); (M.J.B.); (M.R.-G.); (I.G.); (A.R.-E.)
| | - Agustin Ruiz
- Research Center and Memory Clinic, Ace Alzheimer Center Barcelona—Universitat Internacional de Catalunya, 08017 Barcelona, Spain; (I.d.R.); (P.G.-G.); (A.R.)
- Network Center for Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), National Institute of Health Carlos III, 28029 Madrid, Spain
| | - Jose Luis Royo
- Department of Surgery, Biochemistry and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Malaga, Boulevard Louis Pasteur s/n, 29071 Malaga, Spain; (A.E.-M.); (L.M.R.); (M.J.B.); (M.R.-G.); (I.G.); (A.R.-E.)
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6
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Sun Y, Bae YE, Zhu J, Zhang Z, Zhong H, Yu J, Wu C, Wu L. A splicing transcriptome-wide association study identifies novel altered splicing for Alzheimer's disease susceptibility. Neurobiol Dis 2023:106209. [PMID: 37354922 DOI: 10.1016/j.nbd.2023.106209] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2022] [Revised: 05/26/2023] [Accepted: 06/19/2023] [Indexed: 06/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common neurodegenerative disease in aging individuals. Alternative splicing is reported to be relevant to AD development while their roles in etiology of AD remain largely elusive. We performed a comprehensive splicing transcriptome-wide association study (spTWAS) using intronic excision expression genetic prediction models of 12 brain tissues developed through three modelling strategies, to identify candidate susceptibility splicing introns for AD risk. A total of 111,326 (46,828 proxy) cases and 677,663 controls of European ancestry were studied. We identified 343 associations of 233 splicing introns (143 genes) with AD risk after Bonferroni correction (0.05/136,884 = 3.65 × 10-7). Fine-mapping analyses supported 155 likely causal associations corresponding to 83 splicing introns of 55 genes. Eighteen causal splicing introns of 15 novel genes (EIF2D, WDR33, SAP130, BYSL, EPHB6, MRPL43, VEGFB, PPP1R13B, TLN2, CLUHP3, LRRC37A4P, CRHR1, LINC02210, ZNF45-AS1, and XPNPEP3) were identified for the first time to be related to AD susceptibility. Our study identified novel genes and splicing introns associated with AD risk, which can improve our understanding of the etiology of AD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanfa Sun
- College of Life Science, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Animal Infectious Diseases and Biotechnology, Fujian Provincial Universities Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology (Longyan University), Longyan University, Longyan, Fujian 364012, PR China; Cancer Epidemiology Division, Population Sciences in the Pacific Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA
| | - Ye Eun Bae
- Department of Statistics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32304, USA
| | - Jingjing Zhu
- Cancer Epidemiology Division, Population Sciences in the Pacific Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA
| | - Zichen Zhang
- Department of Statistics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32304, USA
| | - Hua Zhong
- Cancer Epidemiology Division, Population Sciences in the Pacific Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA
| | - Jie Yu
- College of Life Science, Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Animal Infectious Diseases and Biotechnology, Fujian Provincial Universities Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology (Longyan University), Longyan University, Longyan, Fujian 364012, PR China
| | - Chong Wu
- Department of Biostatistics, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
| | - Lang Wu
- Cancer Epidemiology Division, Population Sciences in the Pacific Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA.
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7
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Ma M, Moulton MJ, Lu S, Bellen HJ. 'Fly-ing' from rare to common neurodegenerative disease mechanisms. Trends Genet 2022; 38:972-984. [PMID: 35484057 PMCID: PMC9378361 DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2022.03.018] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2022] [Revised: 03/29/2022] [Accepted: 03/31/2022] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
Abstract
Advances in genome sequencing have enabled researchers and clinicians to probe vast numbers of human variants to distinguish pathogenic from benign variants. Model organisms have been crucial in variant assessment and in delineating the molecular mechanisms of some of the diseases caused by these variants. The fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, has played a valuable role in this endeavor, taking advantage of its genetic technologies and established biological knowledge. We highlight the utility of the fly in studying the function of genes associated with rare neurological diseases that have led to a better understanding of common disease mechanisms. We emphasize that shared themes emerge among disease mechanisms, including the importance of lipids, in two prominent neurodegenerative diseases: Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD).
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Affiliation(s)
- Mengqi Ma
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Matthew J Moulton
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Shenzhao Lu
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, USA
| | - Hugo J Bellen
- Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute, Texas Children's Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, USA; Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
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8
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Wang M, Song WM, Ming C, Wang Q, Zhou X, Xu P, Krek A, Yoon Y, Ho L, Orr ME, Yuan GC, Zhang B. Guidelines for bioinformatics of single-cell sequencing data analysis in Alzheimer's disease: review, recommendation, implementation and application. Mol Neurodegener 2022; 17:17. [PMID: 35236372 PMCID: PMC8889402 DOI: 10.1186/s13024-022-00517-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2021] [Accepted: 01/18/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia, characterized by progressive cognitive impairment and neurodegeneration. Extensive clinical and genomic studies have revealed biomarkers, risk factors, pathways, and targets of AD in the past decade. However, the exact molecular basis of AD development and progression remains elusive. The emerging single-cell sequencing technology can potentially provide cell-level insights into the disease. Here we systematically review the state-of-the-art bioinformatics approaches to analyze single-cell sequencing data and their applications to AD in 14 major directions, including 1) quality control and normalization, 2) dimension reduction and feature extraction, 3) cell clustering analysis, 4) cell type inference and annotation, 5) differential expression, 6) trajectory inference, 7) copy number variation analysis, 8) integration of single-cell multi-omics, 9) epigenomic analysis, 10) gene network inference, 11) prioritization of cell subpopulations, 12) integrative analysis of human and mouse sc-RNA-seq data, 13) spatial transcriptomics, and 14) comparison of single cell AD mouse model studies and single cell human AD studies. We also address challenges in using human postmortem and mouse tissues and outline future developments in single cell sequencing data analysis. Importantly, we have implemented our recommended workflow for each major analytic direction and applied them to a large single nucleus RNA-sequencing (snRNA-seq) dataset in AD. Key analytic results are reported while the scripts and the data are shared with the research community through GitHub. In summary, this comprehensive review provides insights into various approaches to analyze single cell sequencing data and offers specific guidelines for study design and a variety of analytic directions. The review and the accompanied software tools will serve as a valuable resource for studying cellular and molecular mechanisms of AD, other diseases, or biological systems at the single cell level.
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Affiliation(s)
- Minghui Wang
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
- Mount Sinai Center for Transformative Disease Modeling, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
| | - Won-min Song
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
- Mount Sinai Center for Transformative Disease Modeling, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
| | - Chen Ming
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
- Mount Sinai Center for Transformative Disease Modeling, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
| | - Qian Wang
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
- Mount Sinai Center for Transformative Disease Modeling, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
| | - Xianxiao Zhou
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
- Mount Sinai Center for Transformative Disease Modeling, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
| | - Peng Xu
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
- Mount Sinai Center for Transformative Disease Modeling, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
| | - Azra Krek
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
- Institute for Personalized Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, One Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY 10029 USA
| | - Yonejung Yoon
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
- Mount Sinai Center for Transformative Disease Modeling, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
| | - Lap Ho
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
- Mount Sinai Center for Transformative Disease Modeling, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
| | - Miranda E. Orr
- Department of Internal Medicine, Section of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina USA
- Sticht Center for Healthy Aging and Alzheimer’s Prevention, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, North Carolina USA
| | - Guo-Cheng Yuan
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
- Institute for Personalized Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, One Gustave L. Levy Place, New York, NY 10029 USA
| | - Bin Zhang
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
- Mount Sinai Center for Transformative Disease Modeling, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
- Icahn Institute of Genomics and Multiscale Biology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
- Department of Pharmacological Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, Room S8-111, New York, NY 10029 USA
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9
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Mahoney E, Janve V, Hohman TJ, Dumitrescu L. Evaluation of Sex-Aware PrediXcan Models for Predicting Gene Expression. PACIFIC SYMPOSIUM ON BIOCOMPUTING. PACIFIC SYMPOSIUM ON BIOCOMPUTING 2022; 27:361-372. [PMID: 34890163 PMCID: PMC8924937] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Gene-based methods such as PrediXcan use expression quantitative trait loci to build tissue-specific gene expression models when only genetic data is available. There are known sex differences in tissue-specific gene expression and in the genetic architecture of gene expression, but such differences have not been incorporated into predicted gene expression models to date. We built sex-aware PrediXcan models using whole blood transcriptomic data from the Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project (195 females and 371 males) and evaluated their performance in an independent dataset. Specifically, PrediXcan models were built following the method described in Gamazon et al. 2015, but we included both whole-sample and sex-specific models. Validation was evaluated leveraging lymphoblast RNA sequencing data from the EUR cohort of the 1000 Genomes Project (178 females and 171 males). Correlations (R2) between observed and predicted expression were evaluated in 5,283 autosomal genes to determine performance of models. In sum, we successfully predicted 1,149 genes in males and 623 in females, while 3,511 genes appeared to be not sex-specific. Of the sex-specific genes, 15% (189 genes in males and 73 genes in females) exhibited higher R2 in sex-specific models compared to whole-sample models, although the overall gain in predictive power was generally minimal and well within measurement error. Nevertheless, two female-specific genes and six male-specific genes showed significantly better prediction when using the sex-specific weights versus the whole-sample weights; furthermore, several of these genes play a role in mitochondrial metabolism, which is known to be influenced by sex hormones. Taken together, these results support previous reports of the small contribution of genetic architecture to sex-specific expression. Still, sex-aware PrediXcan models were able to provide robust sex-specific prediction signals. Future studies exploring the contribution of the X chromosome and tissue specificity on sex-specific genetically regulated expression will clarify the utility of this method.
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Affiliation(s)
- Emily Mahoney
- Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer’s Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37212, USA
| | - Vaibhav Janve
- Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer’s Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37212, USA
| | - Timothy J. Hohman
- Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer’s Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37212, USA,Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37212, USA
| | - Logan Dumitrescu
- Vanderbilt Memory and Alzheimer’s Center, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37212, USA,Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37212, USA,
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10
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Sun Y, Zhou D, Rahman MR, Zhu J, Ghoneim D, Cox NJ, Beach TG, Wu C, Gamazon ER, Wu L. A transcriptome-wide association study identifies novel blood-based gene biomarker candidates for Alzheimer's disease risk. Hum Mol Genet 2021; 31:289-299. [PMID: 34387340 PMCID: PMC8831284 DOI: 10.1093/hmg/ddab229] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/01/2021] [Revised: 07/12/2021] [Accepted: 07/23/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (ad) adversely affects the health, quality of life and independence of patients. There is a critical need to identify novel blood gene biomarkers for ad risk assessment. We performed a transcriptome-wide association study to identify biomarker candidates for ad risk. We leveraged two sets of gene expression prediction models of blood developed using different reference panels and modeling strategies. By applying the prediction models to a meta-GWAS including 71 880 (proxy) cases and 383 378 (proxy) controls, we identified significant associations of genetically determined expression of 108 genes in blood with ad risk. Of these, 15 genes were differentially expressed between ad patients and controls with concordant directions in measured expression data. With evidence from the analyses based on both genetic instruments and directly measured expression levels, this study identifies 15 genes with strong support as biomarkers in blood for ad risk, which may enhance ad risk assessment and mechanism-focused studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yanfa Sun
- Department of Animal Science and Veterinary Medicine, College of Life Science, Longyan University, Longyan, Fujian, 364012, P.R. China
- Cancer Epidemiology Division, Population Sciences in the Pacific Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA
- Fujian Provincial Key Laboratory for the Prevention and Control of Animal Infectious Diseases and Biotechnology, Longyan, Fujian 364012, P.R. China
- Fujian Province Universities Key Laboratory of Preventive Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology (Longyan University), Longyan, Fujian, 364012, P.R. China
| | - Dan Zhou
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute and Division of Genetic Medicine, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
| | - Md Rezanur Rahman
- Queensland Brain Institute, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld 4072, Australia
| | - Jingjing Zhu
- Cancer Epidemiology Division, Population Sciences in the Pacific Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA
| | - Dalia Ghoneim
- Cancer Epidemiology Division, Population Sciences in the Pacific Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA
| | - Nancy J Cox
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute and Division of Genetic Medicine, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
| | - Thomas G Beach
- Banner Sun Health Research Institute, Sun City, AZ 85351, USA
| | - Chong Wu
- Department of Statistics, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
| | - Eric R Gamazon
- Vanderbilt Genetics Institute and Division of Genetic Medicine, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN 37232, USA
- Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 9AL, UK
- MRC Epidemiology Unit, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 0SL, UK
| | - Lang Wu
- Cancer Epidemiology Division, Population Sciences in the Pacific Program, University of Hawaii Cancer Center, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96813, USA
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11
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Genetically regulated expression in late-onset Alzheimer's disease implicates risk genes within known and novel loci. Transl Psychiatry 2021; 11:618. [PMID: 34873149 PMCID: PMC8648734 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-021-01677-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/05/2021] [Revised: 09/27/2021] [Accepted: 10/06/2021] [Indexed: 12/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Late-onset Alzheimer disease (LOAD) is highly polygenic, with a heritability estimated between 40 and 80%, yet risk variants identified in genome-wide studies explain only ~8% of phenotypic variance. Due to its increased power and interpretability, genetically regulated expression (GReX) analysis is an emerging approach to investigate the genetic mechanisms of complex diseases. Here, we conducted GReX analysis within and across 51 tissues on 39 LOAD GWAS data sets comprising 58,713 cases and controls from the Alzheimer's Disease Genetics Consortium (ADGC) and the International Genomics of Alzheimer's Project (IGAP). Meta-analysis across studies identified 216 unique significant genes, including 72 with no previously reported LOAD GWAS associations. Cross-brain-tissue and cross-GTEx models revealed eight additional genes significantly associated with LOAD. Conditional analysis of previously reported loci using established LOAD-risk variants identified eight genes reaching genome-wide significance independent of known signals. Moreover, the proportion of SNP-based heritability is highly enriched in genes identified by GReX analysis. In summary, GReX-based meta-analysis in LOAD identifies 216 genes (including 72 novel genes), illuminating the role of gene regulatory models in LOAD.
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12
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Gerring ZF, Gamazon ER, White A, Derks EM. Integrative Network-Based Analysis Reveals Gene Networks and Novel Drug Repositioning Candidates for Alzheimer Disease. NEUROLOGY-GENETICS 2021; 7:e622. [PMID: 34532569 PMCID: PMC8441674 DOI: 10.1212/nxg.0000000000000622] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/31/2021] [Accepted: 07/13/2021] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Background and Objectives To integrate genome-wide association study data with tissue-specific gene expression information to identify coexpression networks, biological pathways, and drug repositioning candidates for Alzheimer disease. Methods We integrated genome-wide association summary statistics for Alzheimer disease with tissue-specific gene coexpression networks from brain tissue samples in the Genotype-Tissue Expression study. We identified gene coexpression networks enriched with genetic signals for Alzheimer disease and characterized the associated networks using biological pathway analysis. The disease-implicated modules were subsequently used as a molecular substrate for a computational drug repositioning analysis, in which we (1) imputed genetically regulated gene expression within Alzheimer disease implicated modules; (2) integrated the imputed gene expression levels with drug-gene signatures from the connectivity map to identify compounds that normalize dysregulated gene expression underlying Alzheimer disease; and (3) prioritized drug compounds and mechanisms of action based on the extent to which they normalize dysregulated expression signatures. Results Genetic factors for Alzheimer disease are enriched in brain gene coexpression networks involved in the immune response. Computational drug repositioning analyses of expression changes within the disease-associated networks retrieved known Alzheimer disease drugs (e.g., memantine) as well as biologically meaningful drug categories (e.g., glutamate receptor antagonists). Discussion Our results improve the biological interpretation of genetic data for Alzheimer disease and provide a list of potential antidementia drug repositioning candidates for which the efficacy should be investigated in functional validation studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zachary F Gerring
- Translational Neurogenomics Laboratory (Z.F.G., E.M.D.), QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; Division of Genetic Medicine (E.R.G.), Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN; and Cellular and Molecular Neurodegeneration (A.W.), QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Eric R Gamazon
- Translational Neurogenomics Laboratory (Z.F.G., E.M.D.), QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; Division of Genetic Medicine (E.R.G.), Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN; and Cellular and Molecular Neurodegeneration (A.W.), QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Anthony White
- Translational Neurogenomics Laboratory (Z.F.G., E.M.D.), QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; Division of Genetic Medicine (E.R.G.), Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN; and Cellular and Molecular Neurodegeneration (A.W.), QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
| | - Eske M Derks
- Translational Neurogenomics Laboratory (Z.F.G., E.M.D.), QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia; Division of Genetic Medicine (E.R.G.), Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN; and Cellular and Molecular Neurodegeneration (A.W.), QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
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13
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A transcriptome-wide association study of Alzheimer's disease using prediction models of relevant tissues identifies novel candidate susceptibility genes. Genome Med 2021; 13:141. [PMID: 34470669 PMCID: PMC8408990 DOI: 10.1186/s13073-021-00959-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2021] [Accepted: 08/25/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified over 56 susceptibility loci associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD), but the genes responsible for these associations remain largely unknown. METHODS We performed a large transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) leveraging modified UTMOST (Unified Test for MOlecular SignaTures) prediction models of ten brain tissues that are potentially related to AD to discover novel AD genetic loci and putative target genes in 71,880 (proxy) cases and 383,378 (proxy) controls of European ancestry. RESULTS We identified 53 genes with predicted expression associations with AD risk at Bonferroni correction threshold (P value < 3.38 × 10-6). Based on fine-mapping analyses, 21 genes at nine loci showed strong support for being causal. CONCLUSIONS Our study provides new insights into the etiology and underlying genetic architecture of AD.
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14
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Korbolina EE, Bryzgalov LO, Ustrokhanova DZ, Postovalov SN, Poverin DV, Damarov IS, Merkulova TI. A Panel of rSNPs Demonstrating Allelic Asymmetry in Both ChIP-seq and RNA-seq Data and the Search for Their Phenotypic Outcomes through Analysis of DEGs. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:ijms22147240. [PMID: 34298860 PMCID: PMC8303726 DOI: 10.3390/ijms22147240] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/31/2021] [Revised: 06/24/2021] [Accepted: 06/30/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Currently, the detection of the allele asymmetry of gene expression from RNA-seq data or the transcription factor binding from ChIP-seq data is one of the approaches used to identify the functional genetic variants that can affect gene expression (regulatory SNPs or rSNPs). In this study, we searched for rSNPs using the data for human pulmonary arterial endothelial cells (PAECs) available from the Sequence Read Archive (SRA). Allele-asymmetric binding and expression events are analyzed in paired ChIP-seq data for H3K4me3 mark and RNA-seq data obtained for 19 individuals. Two statistical approaches, weighted z-scores and predicted probabilities, were used to improve the efficiency of finding rSNPs. In total, we identified 14,266 rSNPs associated with both allele-specific binding and expression. Among them, 645 rSNPs were associated with GWAS phenotypes; 4746 rSNPs were reported as eQTLs by GTEx, and 11,536 rSNPs were located in 374 candidate transcription factor binding motifs. Additionally, we searched for the rSNPs associated with gene expression using an SRA RNA-seq dataset for 281 clinically annotated human postmortem brain samples and detected eQTLs for 2505 rSNPs. Based on these results, we conducted Gene Ontology (GO), Disease Ontology (DO), and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway enrichment analyses and constructed the protein-protein interaction networks to represent the top-ranked biological processes with a possible contribution to the phenotypic outcome.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elena E. Korbolina
- The Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics, The Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, 10 LavrentyevaProspekt, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia; (L.O.B.); (I.S.D.); (T.I.M.)
- Correspondence:
| | - Leonid O. Bryzgalov
- The Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics, The Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, 10 LavrentyevaProspekt, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia; (L.O.B.); (I.S.D.); (T.I.M.)
- VECTOR-BEST, PO BOX 492, 630117 Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Diana Z. Ustrokhanova
- Department of Information Biology, The Novosibirsk State University, 1 Pirogovast, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia;
| | - Sergey N. Postovalov
- Department of Theoretical and Applied Informatics, The Novosibirsk State Technical University, 630073 Novosibirsk, Russia; (S.N.P.); (D.V.P.)
| | - Dmitry V. Poverin
- Department of Theoretical and Applied Informatics, The Novosibirsk State Technical University, 630073 Novosibirsk, Russia; (S.N.P.); (D.V.P.)
| | - Igor S. Damarov
- The Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics, The Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, 10 LavrentyevaProspekt, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia; (L.O.B.); (I.S.D.); (T.I.M.)
| | - Tatiana I. Merkulova
- The Federal Research Center Institute of Cytology and Genetics, The Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, 10 LavrentyevaProspekt, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia; (L.O.B.); (I.S.D.); (T.I.M.)
- Department of Information Biology, The Novosibirsk State University, 1 Pirogovast, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia;
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15
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Degtyareva AO, Antontseva EV, Merkulova TI. Regulatory SNPs: Altered Transcription Factor Binding Sites Implicated in Complex Traits and Diseases. Int J Mol Sci 2021; 22:6454. [PMID: 34208629 PMCID: PMC8235176 DOI: 10.3390/ijms22126454] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2021] [Revised: 06/15/2021] [Accepted: 06/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/19/2022] Open
Abstract
The vast majority of the genetic variants (mainly SNPs) associated with various human traits and diseases map to a noncoding part of the genome and are enriched in its regulatory compartment, suggesting that many causal variants may affect gene expression. The leading mechanism of action of these SNPs consists in the alterations in the transcription factor binding via creation or disruption of transcription factor binding sites (TFBSs) or some change in the affinity of these regulatory proteins to their cognate sites. In this review, we first focus on the history of the discovery of regulatory SNPs (rSNPs) and systematized description of the existing methodical approaches to their study. Then, we brief the recent comprehensive examples of rSNPs studied from the discovery of the changes in the TFBS sequence as a result of a nucleotide substitution to identification of its effect on the target gene expression and, eventually, to phenotype. We also describe state-of-the-art genome-wide approaches to identification of regulatory variants, including both making molecular sense of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and the alternative approaches the primary goal of which is to determine the functionality of genetic variants. Among these approaches, special attention is paid to expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) analysis and the search for allele-specific events in RNA-seq (ASE events) as well as in ChIP-seq, DNase-seq, and ATAC-seq (ASB events) data.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arina O. Degtyareva
- Department of Molecular Genetic, Institute of Cytology and Genetics, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia; (A.O.D.); (E.V.A.)
| | - Elena V. Antontseva
- Department of Molecular Genetic, Institute of Cytology and Genetics, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia; (A.O.D.); (E.V.A.)
| | - Tatiana I. Merkulova
- Department of Molecular Genetic, Institute of Cytology and Genetics, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia; (A.O.D.); (E.V.A.)
- Department of Natural Sciences, Novosibirsk State University, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
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16
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Zhu X, Zhang Y, Yang X, Hao C, Duan H. Gene Therapy for Neurodegenerative Disease: Clinical Potential and Directions. Front Mol Neurosci 2021; 14:618171. [PMID: 34194298 PMCID: PMC8236824 DOI: 10.3389/fnmol.2021.618171] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/16/2020] [Accepted: 05/07/2021] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs) is complex and diverse. Over the decades, our understanding of NDD has been limited to pathological features. However, recent advances in gene sequencing have facilitated elucidation of NDD at a deeper level. Gene editing techniques have uncovered new genetic links to phenotypes, promoted the development of novel treatment strategies and equipped researchers with further means to construct effective cell and animal models. The current review describes the history of evolution of gene editing tools, with the aim of improving overall understanding of this technology, and focuses on the four most common NDD disorders to demonstrate the potential future applications and research directions of gene editing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiaolin Zhu
- Department of Neurosurgery, First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
| | - Yu Zhang
- Department of Neurosurgery, First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
| | - Xin Yang
- Department of Neurosurgery, First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
| | - Chunyan Hao
- Department of Geriatrics, First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China
| | - Hubin Duan
- Department of Neurosurgery, First Hospital of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan, China.,Department of Neurosurgery, Lvliang People's Hospital, Lvliang, China
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17
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Brain-Specific Gene Expression and Quantitative Traits Association Analysis for Mild Cognitive Impairment. Biomedicines 2021; 9:biomedicines9060658. [PMID: 34201204 PMCID: PMC8229744 DOI: 10.3390/biomedicines9060658] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/24/2021] [Revised: 06/03/2021] [Accepted: 06/04/2021] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
Transcriptome–wide association studies (TWAS) have identified several genes that are associated with qualitative traits. In this work, we performed TWAS using quantitative traits and predicted gene expressions in six brain subcortical structures in 286 mild cognitive impairment (MCI) samples from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) cohort. The six brain subcortical structures were in the limbic region, basal ganglia region, and cerebellum region. We identified 9, 15, and 6 genes that were stably correlated longitudinally with quantitative traits in these three regions, of which 3, 8, and 6 genes have not been reported in previous Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or MCI studies. These genes are potential drug targets for the treatment of early–stage AD. Single–Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP) analysis results indicated that cis–expression Quantitative Trait Loci (cis–eQTL) SNPs with gene expression predictive abilities may affect the expression of their corresponding genes by specific binding to transcription factors or by modulating promoter and enhancer activities. Further, baseline structure volumes and cis–eQTL SNPs from correlated genes in each region were used to predict the conversion risk of MCI patients. Our results showed that limbic volumes and cis–eQTL SNPs of correlated genes in the limbic region have effective predictive abilities.
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18
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Novikova G, Andrews SJ, Renton AE, Marcora E. Beyond association: successes and challenges in linking non-coding genetic variation to functional consequences that modulate Alzheimer's disease risk. Mol Neurodegener 2021; 16:27. [PMID: 33882988 PMCID: PMC8061035 DOI: 10.1186/s13024-021-00449-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/19/2020] [Accepted: 04/13/2021] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common type of dementia, affecting millions of people worldwide; however, no disease-modifying treatments are currently available. Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified more than 40 loci associated with AD risk. However, most of the disease-associated variants reside in non-coding regions of the genome, making it difficult to elucidate how they affect disease susceptibility. Nonetheless, identification of the regulatory elements, genes, pathways and cell type/tissue(s) impacted by these variants to modulate AD risk is critical to our understanding of disease pathogenesis and ability to develop effective therapeutics. In this review, we provide an overview of the methods and approaches used in the field to identify the functional effects of AD risk variants in the causal path to disease risk modification as well as describe the most recent findings. We first discuss efforts in cell type/tissue prioritization followed by recent progress in candidate causal variant and gene nomination. We discuss statistical methods for fine-mapping as well as approaches that integrate multiple levels of evidence, such as epigenomic and transcriptomic data, to identify causal variants and risk mechanisms of AD-associated loci. Additionally, we discuss experimental approaches and data resources that will be needed to validate and further elucidate the effects of these variants and genes on biological pathways, cellular phenotypes and disease risk. Finally, we discuss future steps that need to be taken to ensure that AD GWAS functional mapping efforts lead to novel findings and bring us closer to finding effective treatments for this devastating disease.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gloriia Novikova
- Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer's Disease, Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Shea J Andrews
- Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer's Disease, Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA
| | - Alan E Renton
- Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer's Disease, Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
| | - Edoardo Marcora
- Ronald M. Loeb Center for Alzheimer's Disease, Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
- Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA.
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19
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Liu N, Xu J, Liu H, Zhang S, Li M, Zhou Y, Qin W, Li MJ, Yu C. Hippocampal transcriptome-wide association study and neurobiological pathway analysis for Alzheimer's disease. PLoS Genet 2021; 17:e1009363. [PMID: 33630843 PMCID: PMC7906391 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009363] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2020] [Accepted: 01/12/2021] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Genome-wide association studies (GWASs) have identified multiple susceptibility loci for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), which is characterized by early and progressive damage to the hippocampus. However, the association of hippocampal gene expression with AD and the underlying neurobiological pathways remain largely unknown. Based on the genomic and transcriptomic data of 111 hippocampal samples and the summary data of two large-scale meta-analyses of GWASs, a transcriptome-wide association study (TWAS) was performed to identify genes with significant associations between hippocampal expression and AD. We identified 54 significantly associated genes using an AD-GWAS meta-analysis of 455,258 individuals; 36 of the genes were confirmed in another AD-GWAS meta-analysis of 63,926 individuals. Fine-mapping models further prioritized 24 AD-related genes whose effects on AD were mediated by hippocampal expression, including APOE and two novel genes (PTPN9 and PCDHA4). These genes are functionally related to amyloid-beta formation, phosphorylation/dephosphorylation, neuronal apoptosis, neurogenesis and telomerase-related processes. By integrating the predicted hippocampal expression and neuroimaging data, we found that the hippocampal expression of QPCTL and ERCC2 showed significant difference between AD patients and cognitively normal elderly individuals as well as correlated with hippocampal volume. Mediation analysis further demonstrated that hippocampal volume mediated the effect of hippocampal gene expression (QPCTL and ERCC2) on AD. This study identifies two novel genes associated with AD by integrating hippocampal gene expression and genome-wide association data and reveals candidate hippocampus-mediated neurobiological pathways from gene expression to AD. The hippocampus is a potential neuroimaging endophenotype for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This study identifies genes whose expression in hippocampal tissue is associated with AD and establishes the pathways from hippocampal gene expression to hippocampal volume to AD. We demonstrate that 24 genes are associated with AD in hippocampal tissue, and these genes are enriched for AD-related biological processes of amyloid-beta formation, phosphorylation/dephosphorylation, neuronal apoptosis, neurogenesis and telomerase-related processes. We further show that hippocampal volume mediates the effects of the hippocampal gene expression of QPCTL and ERCC2 on AD. These findings improve our understanding of the genetic and neural mechanisms of AD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nana Liu
- Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China
| | - Jiayuan Xu
- Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China
| | - Huaigui Liu
- Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China
| | - Shijie Zhang
- The Province and Ministry Co-sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics, Department of Pharmacology, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Miaoxin Li
- Department of Medical Genetics, Center for Genome Research, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China
- Centre for Genomic Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
- Department of Psychiatry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
- Centre for Reproduction, Development and Growth, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China
| | - Yao Zhou
- The Province and Ministry Co-sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics, Department of Pharmacology, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
| | - Wen Qin
- Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China
| | - Mulin Jun Li
- The Province and Ministry Co-sponsored Collaborative Innovation Center for Medical Epigenetics, Tianjin Key Laboratory of Medical Epigenetics, Department of Pharmacology, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China
- * E-mail: (MJL); (CY)
| | - Chunshui Yu
- Department of Radiology and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Functional Imaging, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China
- Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China
- * E-mail: (MJL); (CY)
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