Cited by 643Single-cell and spatial transcriptomicsAlzheimer's disease research and treatmentsGenomics and Chromatin Dynamics

Single-nucleus chromatin accessibility and transcriptomic characterization of Alzheimer’s disease

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Morabito, Samuel, Miyoshi, Emily, Michael, Neethu, Shahin, Saba, Martini, Alessandra Cadete, Head, Elizabeth, Silva, Justine, Leavy, Kelsey +2 more·2021·Nature Genetics

Abstract

The gene-regulatory landscape of the brain is highly dynamic in health and disease, coordinating a menagerie of biological processes across distinct cell types. Here, we present a multi-omic single-nucleus study of 191,890 nuclei in late-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD), accessible through our web portal, profiling chromatin accessibility and gene expression in the same biological samples and uncovering vast cellular heterogeneity. We identified cell-type-specific, disease-associated candidate cis-regulatory elements and their candidate target genes, including an oligodendrocyte-associated regulatory module containing links to APOE and CLU. We describe cis-regulatory relationships in specific cell types at a subset of AD risk loci defined by genome-wide association studies, demonstrating the utility of this multi-omic single-nucleus approach. Trajectory analysis of glial populations identified disease-relevant transcription factors, such as SREBF1, and their regulatory targets. Finally, we introduce single-nucleus consensus weighted gene coexpression analysis, a coexpression network analysis strategy robust to sparse single-cell data, and perform a systems-level analysis of the AD transcriptome.

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  • AD DEGs were consistent with published results both for region-specific DEGs and for DEGs computed jointly over all regions for multiple AD variables, and were further corroborated by comparisons with various independent studies.

    “AD DEGs were consistent with published results both for region-specific DEGs and for DEGs computed jointly over all regions for multiple AD variables, and were further corroborated by comparisons with various independent studies11,12,15,19,47–53”

    From Single-cell multiregion dissection of Alzheimer’s disease (2024) · cites this paper as [50]

    The Results section, ‘Multi-omic characterization of AD cellular heterogeneity’ (page unavailable), reports late-stage AD DEGs by cell cluster and notes that NEAT1 upregulation agrees with a previous finding. This makes the paper a relevant independent AD DEG study, but our copy does not establish consistency with the citing authors’ region-specific and jointly computed DEGs across multiple AD variables. (LLM, conf=0.78)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Consensus co-expression network analysis of microglia from three Alzheimer's disease snRNA-seq studies yielded multiple gene modules corresponding to disease-associated microglia and polygenic risk of AD.

    “We performed consensus co-expression network analysis of microglia from three Alzheimer’s disease (AD) snRNA-seq studies,10,11,12 yielding multiple gene modules corresponding to disease-associated microglia and polygenic risk of AD.”
  • All ODC-specific modules were significantly preserved in an independent dataset (Z summary preservation ≥5).

    “we performed module preservation analysis20 to test the reproducibility of these modules in an independent dataset12 and found that all of the ODC-specific modules were significantly preserved (Z summary preservation ≥5).”
  • Multiple cell states of microglia represent a spectrum between homeostatic and disease-associated microglia.

    “Transcriptomic and epigenomic studies in human tissue and AD mouse models have identified multiple cell states of microglia, representing a spectrum between homeostatic and disease-associated microglia (DAMs).12,50,51”
  • A previous study defined a set of transcription factors, genes, and cis-regulatory elements involved in the shift between homeostatic and DAM cell states in human AD, identifying shared and distinct signatures compared with the DAM signature from 5xFAD mice.

    “Our previous study defined a set of transcription factors, genes, and cis-regulatory elements involved in the shift between homeostatic and DAM cell states in human AD, identifying shared and distinct signatures compared with the DAM signature from 5xFAD mice.12”

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Authors
Morabito, S., Miyoshi, E., Michael, N., Shahin, S., Martini, A. C., Head, E., Silva, J., Leavy, K., Perez-Rosendahl, M., & Swarup, V.
Affiliations
University of California, Irvine (US)
Corresponding author
Swarup, Vivek
Venue
Nature Genetics
Published
2021-07-08
Volume
53
Issue
8
Pages
1143-1155
ISSN
  • 1061-4036 (ISSN-L)
  • 1546-1718
OpenAlex
W3179788429
Cited by
643
References
89
Citations by year
2026: 106 · 2025: 166 · 2024: 171 · 2023: 120 · 2022: 70 · 2021: 8 · 2020: 1
FWCI
32.02
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Nature Genetics (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • American Federation for Aging Research (AFA-5550485)
  • U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | NIH | National Institute on Aging (1RF1AG071683)
  • Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Medical Research Foundation
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Single-cell and spatial transcriptomics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
Keywords
Alzheimer's disease, single-nucleus transcriptomics, cis-regulatory elements, cellular heterogeneity, oligodendrocytes, apolipoprotein E, clusterin, SREBF1, transcription factors
MeSH terms
Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alzheimer Disease, Cell Nucleus, Chromatin, Female, Humans, Male, Neuroglia, Oligodendroglia, Regulatory Sequences, Nucleic Acid, Transcription Factors, Case-Control Studies, Prefrontal Cortex, Gene Expression Profiling, Sterol Regulatory Element Binding Protein 1, Gene Regulatory Networks, Genome-Wide Association Study

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