scholarly journals Single-cell transcriptomic analysis elucidates APOE genotype specific changes across cell types in two brain regions in Alzheimer’s disease

Author(s):  
Stella Belonwu ◽  
Yaqiao Li ◽  
Daniel Bunis ◽  
Arjun Arkal Rao ◽  
Caroline Warly Solsberg ◽  
...  

Abstract Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is a complex neurodegenerative disease that gravely affects patients and imposes an immense burden on caregivers. Apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) has been identified as the most common genetic risk factor for AD, yet the molecular mechanisms connecting APOE4 to AD are not well understood. Past transcriptomic analyses in AD have revealed APOE genotype-specific transcriptomic differences; however, these differences have not been explored at a single-cell level. Here, we leverage the first two single-nucleus RNA sequencing AD datasets from human brain samples, including nearly 55,000 cells from the prefrontal and entorhinal cortices. We observed more global transcriptomic changes in APOE4 positive AD cells and identified differences across APOE genotypes primarily in glial cell types. Our findings highlight the differential transcriptomic perturbations of APOE isoforms at a single-cell level in AD pathogenesis and have implications for precision medicine development in the diagnosis and treatment of AD.

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 300-308 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ganlu Hu ◽  
Jie Li ◽  
Guang-Zhong Wang

Abstract Recent advances in single-cell RNA-sequencing technology have enabled us to characterize a variety of different cell types in each brain region. However, the evolutionary differences among these cell types remain unclear. Here, we analyzed single-cell RNA-seq data of >280,000 cells and developmental transcriptomes of bulk brain tissues. At the single-cell level, we found that the evolutionary constraints on the cell types of different organs significantly overlap with each other and the transcriptome of neuron cells is one of the most restricted evolutionarily. In addition, mature neurons are under more constraints than neuron stem cells as well as nascent neurons and the order of the constraints of various cell types of the brain is largely conserved in different subregions. We also found that although functionally similar brain regions have comparable evolutionary constraints, the early fetal brain is the least constrained and this pattern is conserved in the mouse, macaque, and humans. These results demonstrate the importance of maintaining the plasticity of early brain development during evolution. The delineation of evolutionary differences between brain cell types has great potential for an improved understanding of the pathogenesis of neurological diseases and drug development efforts aimed at the manipulation of molecular activities at the single-cell level.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ozkan Is ◽  
Xue Wang ◽  
Tulsi A. Patel ◽  
Zachary S. Quicksall ◽  
Michael G. Heckman ◽  
...  

Blood-brain barrier (BBB) dysfunction is well-known in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but the precise molecular changes contributing to its pathophysiology are unclear. To understand the transcriptional changes in brain vascular cells, we performed single nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNAseq) of temporal cortex tissue in 24 AD and control brains resulting in 79,751 nuclei, 4,604 of which formed three distinct vascular clusters characterized as activated pericytes, endothelia and resting pericytes. We identified differentially expressed genes (DEGs) and their enriched pathways in these clusters and detected the most transcriptional changes within activated pericytes. Using our data and a knowledge-based predictive algorithm, we discovered and prioritized molecular interactions between vascular and astrocyte clusters, the main cell types of the gliovascular unit (GVU) of the BBB. Vascular targets predicted to interact with astrocytic ligands have biological functions in signaling, angiogenesis, amyloid β metabolism and cytoskeletal structure. Top astrocytic and vascular interacting molecules include both novel and known AD risk genes such as APOE, APP and ECE1. Our findings provide information on transcriptional changes in predicted vascular-astrocytic partners at the GVU, bringing insights to the molecular mechanisms of BBB breakdown in AD.


2018 ◽  
Vol 15 (10) ◽  
pp. 938-950 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Zverova ◽  
Eva Kitzlerova ◽  
Zdenek Fisar ◽  
Roman Jirak ◽  
Jana Hroudova ◽  
...  

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with a complex pathogenesis and a common occurrence of comorbid diseases such as depression. It is accepted that the presence of the ε4 allele of the gene that encodes apolipoprotein E (APOE) is the strongest genetic risk factor for the development of sporadic AD. Melatonin, cortisol, homocysteine, and prolactin are presumed to be risk factors or biomarkers for stress- and age-related disorders. Objective: The interplay between the APOE genotype and plasma biomarkers was examined in patients with AD presenting with or without depression to contribute to understanding the interdependence of various molecular mechanisms in the pathophysiology of AD. Method: The APOE genotype and morning plasma melatonin, cortisol, homocysteine, and prolactin concentrations were measured in 85 patients with AD and 44 elderly controls. Results: A significant association between AD and the allele (ε4) or genotype (ε3/ε4 or ε4/ε4) frequencies of APOE was confirmed. Plasma homocysteine and cortisol levels were significantly increased in patients with AD compared to those in controls, independent of the presence of comorbid depressive symptoms or the severity of dementia. Significantly lower plasma melatonin concentration was found in patients with AD but not in controls, who were noncarriers of the APOE ε4 allele, regardless of the presence of depression or the severity of dementia in AD. Conclusion: Our findings indicate the existence of a little-known specific APOE-mediated mechanism that increases the plasma melatonin level in a subgroup of patients with AD who are carriers of the APOE ε4 allele.


2015 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 43-48
Author(s):  
Ya V Gorina ◽  
Yu K Komleva ◽  
O L Lopatina ◽  
V V Volkova ◽  
G E Gersog ◽  
...  

Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is characterized by a significant loss of neurons and synapses, especially in the hippocampus and cortex, the extracellular β-amyloid accumulation and formation of neurofibrillary tangles. Insulin resistance plays important role in neurodegeneration and cognitive disorders in the central nervous system, especially AD. However, the cellular and molecular mechanisms that connect insulin resistance and Alzheimer’s pathogenesis remain largely unexplained. Therefore, great importance is the identification of molecular markers that allow to define new approaches to targeted pharmacological correction of neurodegeneration. This article describes the study of the expression of molecular markers, namely, IRAP, GLUT4, and IL-18 in different brain regions (hippocampus, olfactory bulb) rats with experimental AD


2012 ◽  
Vol 30 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. 10539-10539 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Chieh Wang ◽  
Daniel Ramskold ◽  
Shujun Luo ◽  
Robin Li ◽  
Qiaolin Deng ◽  
...  

10539 Background: Melanoma is the most aggressive type of skin cancer. Late-stage melanoma is highly metastatic and currently lacks effective treatment. This discouraging clinical observation highlights the need for a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying melanoma initiation and progression and for developing new therapeutic approaches based on novel targets. Although genome-wide transcriptome analyses have been frequently used to study molecular alterations in clinical samples, it has been technically challenging to obtain the transcriptomic profiles at single-cell level. Methods: Using antibody-mediated magnetic activated cell separation (MACS), we isolated and individualized putative circulating melanoma cells (CMCs) from the blood samples of the melanoma patients at advance stages. The transcriptomic analysis based on a novel and robust mRNA-Seq protocol (Smart-Seq) was established and applied to the putative CMCs for single-cell profiling. Results: We have discovered distinct gene expression patterns, including new putative markers for CMCs. Meanwhile, the gene expression profiles derived of the CMC candidates isolated from the patient’s blood samples are closely-related to the expression profiles of other cells originated from human melanocytes, including normal melanocytes in primary culture and melanoma cell lines. Compared with existing methods, Smart-Seq has improved read coverage across transcripts, which provides advantage for better analyzing transcript isoforms and SNPs. Conclusions: Our results suggest that the techniques developed in this research for cell isolation and transcriptomic analyses can potentially be used for addressing many biological and clinical questions requiring genomewide transcriptome profiling in rare cells.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jixing Zhong ◽  
Gen Tang ◽  
Jiacheng Zhu ◽  
Xin Qiu ◽  
Weiying Wu ◽  
...  

AbstractParkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease leading to the impairment of execution of movement. PD pathogenesis has been largely investigated, but either restricted in bulk level or at certain cell types, which failed to capture cellular heterogeneity and intrinsic interplays among distinct cell types. To overcome this, we applied single-nucleus RNA-seq and single cell ATAC-seq on cerebellum, midbrain and striatum of PD mouse and matched control. With 74,493 cells in total, we comprehensively depicted the dysfunctions under PD pathology covering proteostasis, neuroinflammation, calcium homeostasis and extracellular neurotransmitter homeostasis. Besides, by multi-omics approach, we identified putative biomarkers for early stage of PD, based on the relationships between transcriptomic and epigenetic profiles. We located certain cell types that primarily contribute to PD early pathology, narrowing the gap between genotypes and phenotypes. Taken together, our study provides a valuable resource to dissect the molecular mechanism of PD pathogenesis at single cell level, which could facilitate the development of novel methods regarding diagnosis, monitoring and practical therapies against PD at early stage.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheng Zhu ◽  
Qiwei Lian ◽  
Wenbin Ye ◽  
Wei Qin ◽  
Zhe Wu ◽  
...  

Abstract Alternative polyadenylation (APA) is a widespread regulatory mechanism of transcript diversification in eukaryotes, which is increasingly recognized as an important layer for eukaryotic gene expression. Recent studies based on single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) have revealed cell-to-cell heterogeneity in APA usage and APA dynamics across different cell types in various tissues, biological processes and diseases. However, currently available APA databases were all collected from bulk 3′-seq and/or RNA-seq data, and no existing database has provided APA information at single-cell resolution. Here, we present a user-friendly database called scAPAdb (http://www.bmibig.cn/scAPAdb), which provides a comprehensive and manually curated atlas of poly(A) sites, APA events and poly(A) signals at the single-cell level. Currently, scAPAdb collects APA information from > 360 scRNA-seq experiments, covering six species including human, mouse and several other plant species. scAPAdb also provides batch download of data, and users can query the database through a variety of keywords such as gene identifier, gene function and accession number. scAPAdb would be a valuable and extendable resource for the study of cell-to-cell heterogeneity in APA isoform usages and APA-mediated gene regulation at the single-cell level under diverse cell types, tissues and species.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soumya Korrapati ◽  
Ian Taukulis ◽  
Rafal Olszewski ◽  
Madeline Pyle ◽  
Shoujun Gu ◽  
...  

AbstractThe stria vascularis (SV) generates the endocochlear potential (EP) in the inner ear and is necessary for proper hair cell mechanotransduction and hearing. While channels belonging to SV cell types are known to play crucial roles in EP generation, relatively little is known about gene regulatory networks that underlie the ability of the SV to generate and maintain the EP. Using single cell and single nucleus RNA-sequencing, we identify and validate known and rare cell populations in the SV. Furthermore, we establish a basis for understanding molecular mechanisms underlying SV function by identifying potential gene regulatory networks as well as druggable gene targets. Finally, we associate known deafness genes with adult SV cell types. This work establishes a basis for dissecting the genetic mechanisms underlying the role of the SV in hearing and will serve as a basis for designing therapeutic approaches to hearing loss related to SV dysfunction.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Li ◽  
Zuwan Lin ◽  
Ren Liu ◽  
Xin Tang ◽  
Jiahao Huang ◽  
...  

AbstractPairwise mapping of single-cell gene expression and electrophysiology in intact three-dimensional (3D) tissues is crucial for studying electrogenic organs (e.g., brain and heart)1–5. Here, we introducein situelectro-sequencing (electro-seq), combining soft bioelectronics within situRNA sequencing to stably map millisecond-timescale cellular electrophysiology and simultaneously profile a large number of genes at single-cell level across 3D tissues. We appliedin situelectro-seq to 3D human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocyte (hiPSC-CM) patches, precisely registering the CM gene expression with electrophysiology at single-cell level, enabling multimodalin situanalysis. Such multimodal data integration substantially improved the dissection of cell types and the reconstruction of developmental trajectory from spatially heterogeneous tissues. Using machine learning (ML)-based cross-modal analysis,in situelectro-seq identified the gene-to-electrophysiology relationship over the time course of cardiac maturation. Further leveraging such a relationship to train a coupled autoencoder, we demonstrated the prediction of single-cell gene expression profile evolution using long-term electrical measurement from the same cardiac patch or 3D millimeter-scale cardiac organoids. As exemplified by cardiac tissue maturation,in situelectro-seq will be broadly applicable to create spatiotemporal multimodal maps and predictive models in electrogenic organs, allowing discovery of cell types and gene programs responsible for electrophysiological function and dysfunction.


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