Jorge L. Del-Aguila

ApoE4 markedly exacerbates tau-mediated neurodegeneration in a mouse model of tauopathy

APOE4 is the strongest genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer disease. ApoE4 increases brain amyloid-β pathology relative to other ApoE isoforms. However, whether APOE independently influences tau pathology, the other major proteinopathy of Alzheimer disease and other tauopathies, or tau-mediated neurodegeneration, is not clear. By generating P301S tau transgenic mice on either a human ApoE knock-in (KI) or ApoE knockout (KO) background, here we show that P301S/E4 mice have significantly higher tau levels in the brain and a greater extent of somatodendritic tau redistribution by three months of age compared with P301S/E2, P301S/E3, and P301S/EKO mice. By nine months of age, P301S mice with different ApoE genotypes display distinct phosphorylated tau protein (p-tau) staining patterns. P301S/E4 mice develop markedly more brain atrophy and neuroinflammation than P301S/E2 and P301S/E3 mice, whereas P301S/EKO mice are largely protected from these changes. In vitro, E4-expressing microglia exhibit higher innate immune reactivity after lipopolysaccharide treatment. Co-culturing P301S tau-expressing neurons with E4-expressing mixed glia results in a significantly higher level of tumour-necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) secretion and markedly reduced neuronal viability compared with neuron/E2 and neuron/E3 co-cultures. Neurons co-cultured with EKO glia showed the greatest viability with the lowest level of secreted TNF-α. Treatment of P301S neurons with recombinant ApoE (E2, E3, E4) also leads to some neuronal damage and death compared with the absence of ApoE, with ApoE4 exacerbating the effect. In individuals with a sporadic primary tauopathy, the presence of an ε4 allele is associated with more severe regional neurodegeneration. In individuals who are positive for amyloid-β pathology with symptomatic Alzheimer disease who usually have tau pathology, ε4-carriers demonstrate greater rates of disease progression. Our results demonstrate that ApoE affects tau pathogenesis, neuroinflammation, and tau-mediated neurodegeneration independently of amyloid-β pathology. ApoE4 exerts a ‘toxic’ gain of function whereas the absence of ApoE is protective.

A common haplotype lowers PU.1 expression in myeloid cells and delays onset of Alzheimer's disease

A genome-wide survival analysis of 14,406 Alzheimers disease (AD) cases and 25,849 controls identified eight previously reported AD risk loci and 14 novel loci associated with age at onset. Linkage disequilibrium score regression of 220 cell types implicated the regulation of myeloid gene expression in AD risk. The minor allele of rs1057233 (G), within the previously reported CELF1 AD risk locus, showed association with delayed AD onset and lower expression of SPI1 in monocytes and macrophages. SPI1 encodes PU.1, a transcription factor critical for myeloid cell development and function. AD heritability was enriched within the PU.1 cistrome, implicating a myeloid PU.1 target gene network in AD. Finally, experimentally altered PU.1 levels affected the expression of mouse orthologs of many AD risk genes and the phagocytic activity of mouse microglial cells. Our results suggest that lower SPI1 expression reduces AD risk by regulating myeloid gene expression and cell function.

Alzheimer's disease: rare variants with large effect sizes.

Recent advances in sequencing technology and novel genotyping arrays (focused on low-frequency and coding variants) have made it possible to identify novel coding variants with large effect sizes and also novel genes (TREM2, PLD3, UNC5C, and AKAP9) associated with Alzheimers disease (AD) risk. The major advantages of these studies over the classic genome-wide association studies (GWAS) include the identification of the functional variant and the gene-driven association. In addition to the large effect size, these studies make it possible to model these variants and genes using cell and animal systems. On the other hand, the underlying population-variability of these very low allele frequency variants poses a great challenge to replicating results. Studies that include very large datasets (>10,000 cases and controls) and combine sequencing and genotyping approaches will lead to the identification of novel genes for Alzheimers disease.

Role of ABCA7 loss-of-function variant in Alzheimer's disease: a replication study in European-Americans

IntroductionA recent study found a significant increase of ABCA7 loss-of-function variants in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) cases compared to controls. Some variants were located on noncoding regions, but it was demonstrated that they affect splicing. Here, we try to replicate the association between AD risk and ABCA7 loss-of-function variants at both the single-variant and gene level in a large and well-characterized European American dataset.MethodsWe genotyped the GWAS common variant and four rare variants previously reported for ABCA7 in 3476 European–Americans.ResultsWe were not able to replicate the association at the single-variant level, likely due to a lower effect size on the European American population which led to limited statistical power. However, we did replicate the association at the gene level; we found a significant enrichment of ABCA7 loss-of-function variants in AD cases compared to controls (P = 0.0388; odds ratio =1.54). We also confirmed that the association of the loss-of-function variants is independent of the previously reported genome-wide association study signal.ConclusionsAlthough the effect size for the association of ABCA7 loss-of-function variants with AD risk is lower in our study (odds ratio = 1.54) compared to the original report (odds ratio = 2.2), the replication of the findings of the original report provides a stronger foundation for future functional applications. The data indicate that different independent signals that modify risk for complex traits may exist on the same locus. Additionally, our results suggest that replication of rare-variant studies should be performed at the gene level rather than focusing on a single variant.

Genetic studies of plasma analytes identify novel potential biomarkers for several complex traits

Genome-wide association studies of 146 plasma protein levels in 818 individuals revealed 56 genome-wide significant associations (28 novel) with 47 analytes. Loci associated with plasma levels of 39 proteins tested have been previously associated with various complex traits such as heart disease, inflammatory bowel disease, Type 2 diabetes, and multiple sclerosis. These data suggest that these plasma protein levels may constitute informative endophenotypes for these complex traits. We found three potential pleiotropic genes: ABO for plasma SELE and ACE levels, FUT2 for CA19-9 and CEA plasma levels, and APOE for ApoE and CRP levels. We also found multiple independent signals in loci associated with plasma levels of ApoH, CA19-9, FetuinA, IL6r, and LPa. Our study highlights the power of biological traits for genetic studies to identify genetic variants influencing clinically relevant traits, potential pleiotropic effects, and complex disease associations in the same locus.

SORL1 variants across Alzheimer's disease European American cohorts.

The accumulation of the toxic Aβ peptide in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) largely relies upon an efficient recycling of amyloid precursor protein (APP). Recent genetic association studies have described rare variants in SORL1 with putative pathogenic consequences in the recycling of APP. In this work, we examine the presence of rare coding variants in SORL1 in three different European American cohorts: early-onset, late-onset AD (LOAD) and familial LOAD.

Analysis of neurodegenerative Mendelian genes in clinically diagnosed Alzheimer disease

Alzheimer disease (AD), Frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTD), Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson disease (PD) have a certain degree of clinical, pathological and molecular overlap. Previous studies indicate that causative mutations in AD and FTD/ALS genes can be found in clinical familial AD. We examined the presence of causative and low frequency coding variants in the AD, FTD, ALS and PD Mendelian genes, in over 450 families with clinical history of AD and over 11,710 sporadic cases and cognitive normal participants from North America. Known pathogenic mutations were found in 1.05% of the sporadic cases, in 0.69% of the cognitively normal participants and in 4.22% of the families. A trend towards enrichment, albeit non-significant, was observed for most AD, FTD and PD genes. Only PSEN1 and PINK1 showed consistent association with AD cases when we used ExAC as the control population. These results suggest that current study designs may contain heterogeneity and contamination of the control population, and that current statistical methods for the discovery of novel genes with real pathogenic variants in complex late onset diseases may be inadequate or underpowered to identify genes carrying pathogenic mutations.

Polygenic risk score of sporadic late-onset Alzheimer's disease reveals a shared architecture with the familial and early-onset forms

To determine whether the extent of overlap of the genetic architecture among the sporadic late‐onset Alzheimers Disease (sLOAD), familial late‐onset AD (fLOAD), sporadic early‐onset AD (sEOAD), and autosomal dominant early‐onset AD (eADAD).

Parkinson disease polygenic risk score is associated with Parkinson disease status and age at onset but not with alpha-synuclein cerebrospinal fluid levels

BackgroundThe genetic architecture of Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is complex and not completely understood. Multiple genetic studies to date have identified multiple causal genes and risk loci. Nevertheless, most of the expected genetic heritability remains unexplained. Polygenic risk scores (PRS) may provide greater statistical power and inform about the genetic architecture of multiple phenotypes. The aim of this study was to test the association between PRS and PD risk, age at onset and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers (α-synuclein, Aβ1–42, t-tau and p-tau).MethodsThe weighted PRS was created using the genome-wide loci from Nalls et al., 2014 PD GWAs meta-analysis. The PRS was tested for association with PD status, age at onset and CSF biomarker levels in 829 cases and 432 controls of European ancestry.ResultsThe PRS was associated with PD status (p = 5.83×10−08) and age at onset (p = 5.70×10−07). The CSF t-tau levels showed a nominal association with the PRS (p = 0.02). However, CSF α-synuclein, amyloid beta and phosphorylated tau were not found to be associated with the PRS.ConclusionOur study suggests that there is an overlap in the genetic architecture of PD risk and onset, although the different loci present different weights for those phenotypes. In our dataset we found a marginal association of the PRS with CSF t-tau but not with α-synuclein CSF levels, suggesting that the genetic architecture for the CSF biomarker levels is different from that of PD risk.

A COMMON ALLELE IN SPI1 LOWERS RISK AND DELAYS AGE AT ONSET FOR ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

Kuan-Lin Huang, Sheng Chih Jin, Oscar Harari, Manav Kapoor, Sarah Bertelsen, Jake Czajkowski, jean-Charles Lambert, Vincent Chouraki, C eline Bellenguez, Benjamin Grenier-Boley, Yuetiva Deming, Andrew McKenzie, Alan E. Renton, John Budde, Jorge L. Del-Aguila, Maria Victoria Fernandez, Laura Ibanez, Denise Harold, Paul Hollingworth, Richard Mayeux, Jonathan L. Haines, Lindsay A. Farrer, Margaret A. Pericak-Vance, Sudha Seshadri, Julie Williams, Philippe Amouyel, Gerard D. Schellenberg, Bin Zhang, Ingrid Borecki, John Kauwe, Eduardo Marcora, Carlos Cruchaga, Alison M. Goate, The Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO, USA; 2 Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA; 3 Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA; Institut Pasteur de Lille, Lille, France; Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA; 6 Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, MO, USA; 7 Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom; 8 Columbia University, New York, NY, USA; Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA; Boston University, Boston, MA, USA; University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, Miami, FL, USA; 12 MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics & Genomics, Institute of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neurosciences, Cardiff University, Cardiff, United Kingdom; University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA; 14 Brigham Young University, Provo, UT, USA. Contact e-mail: kuan-lin. huang@wustl.edu