A single-cell transcriptomic atlas of six anatomical regions in the aged human brain with and without Alzheimer disease (AD) provides clues to cellular vulnerability to disease, a study in Nature reports. Various region-specific subtypes of excitatory and inhibitory neurons were reduced in brains from people with AD and shared elevated expression of genes in the reelin signalling pathway. In addition, astrocytes showed a high number of differentially expressed genes between the two groups across all regions. Gene expression in astrocytes was associated with cognitive resilience, highlighting an important role of these cells in AD vulnerability.

《自然》杂志的一项研究报道，患有和不患有阿尔茨海默病 (AD) 的老年人大脑中六个解剖区域的单细胞转录组图谱为细胞对疾病的脆弱性提供了线索。 AD 患者大脑中各种特定区域的兴奋性和抑制性神经元亚型减少，并且 reelin 信号通路中的基因表达升高。此外，星形胶质细胞在所有区域的两组之间都显示出大量差异表达基因。星形胶质细胞中的基因表达与认知弹性相关，凸显了这些细胞在 AD 脆弱性中的重要作用。