Gao Wenliang, Kong Wei, Wang Shuaiqun, Wen Gen, Yu Yaling
College of Information Engineering, Shanghai Maritime University, 1550 Haigang Ave., Shanghai 201306, China.
Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Affiliated Sixth People's Hospital, Shanghai 200233, China.
Brain Sci. 2022 Sep 5;12(9):1196. doi: 10.3390/brainsci12091196.
Microglia, the major immune cells in the brain, mediate neuroinflammation, increased oxidative stress, and impaired neurotransmission in Alzheimer's disease (AD), in which most AD risk genes are highly expressed. In microglia, due to the limitations of current single-omics data analysis, risk genes, the regulatory mechanisms, the mechanisms of action of immune responses and the exploration of drug targets for AD immunotherapy are still unclear. Therefore, we proposed a method to integrate multi-omics data based on the construction of gene regulatory networks (GRN), by combining weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) with single-cell regulatory network inference and clustering (SCENIC). This enables snRNA-seq data and bulkRNA-seq data to obtain data on the deeper intermolecular regulatory relationships, related genes, and the molecular mechanisms of immune-cell action. In our approach, not only were central transcription factors (TF) , , and regulatory mechanisms identified more accurately than with single-omics but also immunotherapy targeting central TFs to drugs was found to be significantly different between patients. Thus, in addition to providing new insights into the potential regulatory mechanisms and pathogenic genes of AD microglia, this approach can assist clinicians in making the most rational treatment plans for patients with different risks; it also has significant implications for identifying AD immunotherapy targets and targeting microglia-associated immune drugs.
小胶质细胞是大脑中的主要免疫细胞,在阿尔茨海默病(AD)中介导神经炎症、氧化应激增加和神经传递受损,其中大多数AD风险基因高度表达。在小胶质细胞中,由于当前单组学数据分析的局限性,AD的风险基因、调控机制、免疫反应的作用机制以及AD免疫治疗药物靶点的探索仍不明确。因此,我们提出了一种基于构建基因调控网络(GRN)整合多组学数据的方法,将加权基因共表达网络分析(WGCNA)与单细胞调控网络推断和聚类(SCENIC)相结合。这使得snRNA-seq数据和bulkRNA-seq数据能够获得更深层次的分子间调控关系、相关基因以及免疫细胞作用的分子机制的数据。在我们的方法中,不仅比单组学更准确地识别了核心转录因子(TF) 、 、 及其调控机制,而且发现针对核心TF的免疫治疗药物在患者之间存在显著差异。因此,该方法除了为AD小胶质细胞的潜在调控机制和致病基因提供新的见解外,还可以帮助临床医生为不同风险的患者制定最合理的治疗方案;它对识别AD免疫治疗靶点和靶向小胶质细胞相关免疫药物也具有重要意义。