Project description:Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by progressive neuropathology and cognitive decline. We performed a cross-tissue analysis of methylomic variation in AD using samples from three independent human post-mortem brain cohorts. We identified a differentially methylated region in the ankyrin 1 (ANK1) gene that was associated with neuropathology in the entorhinal cortex, a primary site of AD manifestation. This region was confirmed as being substantially hypermethylated in two other cortical regions (superior temporal gyrus and prefrontal cortex), but not in the cerebellum, a region largely protected from neurodegeneration in AD, or whole blood obtained pre-mortem from the same individuals. Neuropathology-associated ANK1 hypermethylation was subsequently confirmed in cortical samples from three independent brain cohorts. This study represents, to the best of our knowledge, the first epigenome-wide association study of AD employing a sequential replication design across multiple tissues and highlights the power of this approach for identifying methylomic variation associated with complex disease. For the first (discovery) stage of our analysis, we used multiple tissues from donors (N = 122) archived in the MRC London Brainbank for Neurodegenerative Disease. From each donor, we isolated genomic DNA from four brain regions (EC, superior temporal gyrus (STG), prefrontal cortex (PFC) and CER) and, where available, from whole blood obtained pre-mortem. Our analyses focused on identifying differentially methylated positions (DMPs) associated with Braak staging, a standardized measure of neurofibrillary tangle burden determined at autopsy.
Project description:Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by progressive neuropathology and cognitive decline. We performed a cross-tissue analysis of methylomic variation in AD using samples from three independent human post-mortem brain cohorts. We identified a differentially methylated region in the ankyrin 1 (ANK1) gene that was associated with neuropathology in the entorhinal cortex, a primary site of AD manifestation. This region was confirmed as being substantially hypermethylated in two other cortical regions (superior temporal gyrus and prefrontal cortex), but not in the cerebellum, a region largely protected from neurodegeneration in AD, or whole blood obtained pre-mortem from the same individuals. Neuropathology-associated ANK1 hypermethylation was subsequently confirmed in cortical samples from three independent brain cohorts. This study represents, to the best of our knowledge, the first epigenome-wide association study of AD employing a sequential replication design across multiple tissues and highlights the power of this approach for identifying methylomic variation associated with complex disease.
Project description:Synergistic behavioral and neuroinflammatory effects of amyloid neuropathology and sepsis survival in a murine model of Alzheimer’s disease. 72 post-mortem perfused brain tissue samples from male and female mice (5xFAD and C57BL/6) with and without sepsis, 25 days post CLP infection.
Project description:Synergistic behavioral and neuroinflammatory effects of amyloid neuropathology and sepsis survival in a murine model of Alzheimer’s disease. 40 post-mortem perfused brain tissue samples from both male and female mice (5xFAD and C57BL/6) with and without sepsis, 5 days post CLP infection.
Project description:Methylomic signatures of tau and beta amyloid in transgenic mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology [HorvathMammalMethylChip40 Methylation Beadchip]
Project description:DNA 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), also known as the sixth DNA base of the genome, plays an important role in neurogenerative disorders. However, little is known about its genome-wide distribution and its association with Alzheimer’s disease neuropathology. Here, we report a genome-wide profiling of 5hmC in 1,050 autopsied brains (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) of older adults in the Religious Orders Study/Memory and Aging Project (ROSMAP) cohorts. This resource will facilitate future research of DNA methylation and demethylation in Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders.
Project description:<p>Burkitt lymphoma (BL) is characterized by deregulation of <i>MYC</i>, but the contribution of other genetic mutations to the disease is largely unknown. We sequenced exomes of 59 BL tumors, 14 of which had paired normal tissue. Our work elucidates commonly occurring gene-coding mutations in Burkitt lymphoma and implicates <i>ID3</i> as a novel tumor suppressor gene.</p>
