Astrocyte transcriptomic changes along the spatiotemporal progression of Alzheimer’s disease
Astrocytes are crucial to brain homeostasis, yet their changes along the spatiotemporal progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD) neuropathology remain unexplored. Here we performed single-nucleus RNA sequencing of 628,943 astrocytes from five brain regions representing the stereotypical progression of AD pathology across 32 donors spanning the entire normal aging to severe AD continuum. We mapped out several unique astrocyte subclusters that exhibited varying responses to neuropathology across the AD-vulnerable neural network (spatial axis) or AD pathology stage (temporal axis). The proportion of homeostatic, intermediate and reactive astrocytes changed only along the spatial axis, whereas two other subclusters changed along the temporal axis. One of these, a trophic factor-rich subcluster, declined along pathology stages, whereas the other increased in the late stage but returned to baseline levels in the end stage, suggesting an exhausted response with chronic exposure to neuropathology. Our study underscores the complex dynamics of astrocytic responses in AD.
Authors
- Eric Karran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6782-5213)
- Robert V. Talanian (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6221-4923)
- Gen Lin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9969-8418)
- Taekyung Kwon
- Clara Muñoz‐Castro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4484-9802)
- Karen Zhao
- Joseph A. Tamm (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7977-2809)
- Ayush Noori (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1420-1236)
- Zhaozhi Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5957-4509)
- Rojashree Jayakumar
- Alberto Serrano‐Pozo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0899-7530)
- Theresa R. Connors (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9706-8217)
- Miwei Hu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5793-5101)
- Sudeshna Das (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9486-6811)
- Timothy Pastika
- Methasit Jaisa-aad (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2994-2416)
- Bradley T. Hyman (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7959-9401)
- Annie G. Bryant (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2217-6520)
- Aicha Abdourahman
- Maya E. Woodbury (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0613-0220)
- Knut Biber
- Rachel E. Bennett (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9640-0575)
- Fan Liao
- Huan Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0263-515X)
- Astrid Wachter (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-3977-7832)
- Lindsay A Welikovitch
- Molly A Healey
Institutions
- Harvard University (US)
- AbbVie (United States) (US)
- Massachusetts General Hospital (US)
- AbbVie (Germany) (DE)
- Klinikum Ludwigshafen (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Nature Neuroscience
- Published
- 2024-11-11
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-024-01791-4
- Citations
- 72
- Primary Topic
- Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 17.82
Funders
- Alzheimer's Association
- Harvard University
- Massachusetts Life Sciences Center
- Real Colegio Complutense
- National Institutes of Health