Cited by 80Alzheimer's disease research and treatmentsDementia and Cognitive Impairment ResearchAdvanced Proteomics Techniques and Applications

Identification of Conserved Proteomic Networks in Neurodegenerative Dementia

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Swarup, Vivek, Chang, Timothy S., Duong, Duc M., Dammer, Eric B., Dai, Jingting, Lah, James J., Johnson, Erik C.B., Seyfried, Nicholas T. +2 more·2020·Cell Reports

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Abstract

Summary Data-driven analyses of human brain across neurodegenerative diseases possess the potential for identifying disease-specific and shared biological processes. We integrated functional genomics data from postmortem brain, including label-free quantitative proteomics and RNA-seq based transcriptomics in an unprecedented dataset of over 1000 individuals across 5 cohorts representing Alzheimer’s disease (AD), asymptomatic AD, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP), and control patients, as a core analysis of the Accelerating Medicines Project – Alzheimer’s Disease (AMP-AD) consortium. We identified conserved, high confidence proteomic changes during the progression of dementias that were absent in other neurodegenerative disorders. We defined early changes in asymptomatic AD cases that included microglial, astrocyte, and immune response modules and later changes related to synaptic processes and mitochondria, many, but not all of which were conserved at the transcriptomic level. This included a novel module C3, which is enriched in MAPK signaling, and only identified in proteomic networks. To understand the relationship of core molecular processes with causal genetic drivers, we identified glial, immune, and cell-cell interaction processes in modules C8 and C10, which were robustly preserved in multiple independent data sets, up-regulated early in the disease course, and enriched in AD common genetic risk. In contrast to AD, PSP genetic risk was enriched in module C1, which represented synaptic processes, clearly demonstrating that despite shared pathology such as synaptic loss and glial inflammatory changes, AD and PSP have distinct causal drivers. These conserved, high confidence proteomic changes enriched in genetic risk represent new targets for drug discovery. Highlights We distinguish robust early and late proteomic changes in AD in multiple cohorts. We identify changes in dementias that are not preserved in other neurodegenerative diseases. AD genetic risk is enriched in early up-regulated glial-immune modules and PSP in synaptic modules. Almost half of the variance in protein expression reflects gene expression, but an equal fraction is post-transcriptional or -translational.

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  • Co-expression networks have been successful for analyzing bulk proteomics datasets in human disease samples.

    “Co-expression networks have been successful for analyzing bulk proteomics datasets in human disease samples,67,68”
  • Targets among overlapping modules show highly discordant changes at the protein and RNA levels.

    “While differential protein expression within these overlapping modules is reasonably concordant (R~0.5), we have repeatedly observed targets among these modules with highly discordant changes at the protein and RNA levels [62–64].”
  • Nearly a dozen network-based analyses of the AD proteome have been performed in the human brain, including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, temporal cortex, and other cortical regions heavily affected in AD.

    “Nearly a dozen informative network-based analyses of the AD proteome have been performed in the human brain [62–64, 74, 78, 96, 104–108], including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), temporal cortex, and other cortical regions heavily affected in AD.”
  • Only half of the disease-related variance observed in the AD network proteome is reflected in gene expression at the transcriptome level, with the remainder representing post-transcriptional and post-translational effects.

    “Furthermore, only half of the disease-related variance observed in the AD network proteome is reflected in gene expression at the transcriptome level, the remainder representing post-transcriptional and post-translational effects [64].”
  • Differential protein expression within overlapping modules is reasonably concordant (R~0.5).

    “While differential protein expression within these overlapping modules is reasonably concordant (R~0.5), we have repeatedly observed targets among these modules with highly discordant changes at the protein and RNA levels [62–64].”

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Authors
Swarup, V., Chang, T. S., Duong, D. M., Dammer, E. B., Dai, J., Lah, J. J., Johnson, E. C. B., Seyfried, N. T., Levey, A. I., & Geschwind, D. H.
Affiliations
  • University of California, Los Angeles (US)
  • Emory University (US)
  • Central South University (CN)
Corresponding author
Geschwind, Daniel H.
Venue
Cell Reports
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2020-06
Volume
31
Issue
12
Pages
107807
ISSN
2211-1247 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W3036813834
Cited by
78
References
186
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 10 · 2024: 16 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 6
FWCI
6.46
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Cell Reports (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
Funders
  • National Institute on Aging
  • National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
  • Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Spectroscopy › Advanced Proteomics Techniques and Applications
Keywords
Alzheimer's disease, progressive supranuclear palsy, neurodegenerative dementia, postmortem brain, proteomic networks, MAPK signaling, microglia, astrocytes, mRNA splicing, mitochondrial dysfunction, disease progression, drug discovery targets, synaptic loss, glial inflammation
MeSH terms
Alzheimer Disease, Dementia, Humans, Nerve Degeneration, Risk Factors, Genetic Predisposition to Disease, Proteome, Proteomics, Transcriptome

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