Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
Nat Neurosci. 2022 Dec;25(12):1714-1723. doi: 10.1038/s41593-022-01197-0. Epub 2022 Nov 24.
Aging is accompanied by a host of social and biological changes that correlate with behavior, cognitive health and susceptibility to neurodegenerative disease. To understand trajectories of brain aging in a primate, we generated a multiregion bulk (N = 527 samples) and single-nucleus (N = 24 samples) brain transcriptional dataset encompassing 15 brain regions and both sexes in a unique population of free-ranging, behaviorally phenotyped rhesus macaques. We demonstrate that age-related changes in the level and variance of gene expression occur in genes associated with neural functions and neurological diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. Further, we show that higher social status in females is associated with younger relative transcriptional ages, providing a link between the social environment and aging in the brain. Our findings lend insight into biological mechanisms underlying brain aging in a nonhuman primate model of human behavior, cognition and health.
衰老伴随着一系列与行为、认知健康和神经退行性疾病易感性相关的社会和生物学变化。为了了解灵长类动物大脑衰老的轨迹,我们在一个独特的、自由放养的、具有行为表型的恒河猴群体中,生成了一个包含 15 个脑区和两性的多区域批量(N=527 个样本)和单细胞(N=24 个样本)脑转录数据集。我们证明了与神经功能和神经退行性疾病(包括阿尔茨海默病)相关的基因的表达水平和方差随年龄的变化。此外,我们还表明,雌性的较高社会地位与更年轻的相对转录年龄相关,这为大脑衰老与社会环境之间提供了联系。我们的研究结果为人类行为、认知和健康的非人类灵长类动物模型中的大脑衰老的生物学机制提供了新的见解。