ArticleHuman molecular genetics2025
Linking DNA methylation in brain regions to Alzheimer's disease risk: a Mendelian randomization study.
Article in Human molecular genetics, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Diagnostic and Prognostic Value of Epigenetic Markers in Neurological Diseases. A Narrative Review.Cellular and molecular neurobiology · 2026Review
- Alzheimer's disease: genetic background in the era of next-generation sequencing technologies.Brain communications · 2026Review
- Review
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Authors and funding
18 authors.
Funding
Abstract
aimDNA methylation in brain regions represents a potential mechanism linking genetic variation to Alzheimer's disease (ad) risk, yet most studies have focused on blood-derived methylation markers. In this study, we conducted a systematic Mendelian randomization (MR) study to evaluate associations between predicted brain region-specific DNA methylation levels and ad risk, using methylation quantitative trait loci (mQTL) as genetic instruments.
methodsWe analyzed mQTLs from five human brain regions: cerebellum (CRBLM), frontal cortex (FCTX), causal pons (PONS), and temporal cortex (TCTX) from 600 individuals in Gibbs et al's study, as well as mQTLs from dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of 543 participants in the Religious Orders Study and the Rush Memory and Aging Project (ROSMAP). In our MR analyses, we integrated these mQTLs with single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP)-ad risk summary statistics derived from 85 934 ad-related cases and 401 577 normal controls.
resultsAmong 62 554 cytosine-guanine dinucleotide (CpG) sites, we identified 597 CpG sites (CpGs) significantly associated with ad risk (false discovery rate (FDR) < 0.05). Of these, 289 were confirmed through colocalization and summary-based MR (SMR) analyses, including one CpG site in CRBLM, 285 in DLPFC, one in FCTX, two in PONS, and one in TCTX. By integrating gene expression data, we identified 19 CpG sites with consistent associations across methylation levels, expression of eight target genes, and ad risk, including novel regulatory mechanisms involving RITA1's modulation of cg11558705 and PCGF3's regulation of cg10009224.
conclusionOur findings highlight brain region-specific DNA methylation as a mediator of genetic risk for ad, offering insights into ad pathogenesis and identifying potential therapeutic targets.
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