Unravelling cell type specific response to Parkinson’s Disease at single cell resolution
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ABSTRACT: Parkinson’s Disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder. The pathological hallmark of PD is loss of dopaminergic neurons and the presence of aggregated α-synuclein, primarily in the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) of the midbrain. However, the molecular mechanisms that underlie the pathology in different cell types is not currently understood. Here, we present a single nuclei transcriptomic analysis of human post-mortem in substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) tissue from 15 sporadic Parkinson’s Disease (PD) cases and 14 Controls. Our dataset comprised of ∼80K nuclei, representing all major cell types of the brain and allowed us to obtain a transcriptome-level characterization of these cell types. Importantly, we identified multiple subpopulations for each cell type and described subpopulation-specific gene sets that provide insights into the differing roles of these subpopulations. Our findings revealed a significant decrease in neuronal cells in PD samples, accompanied by an increase in glial cells and T cells. Subpopulation analyses demonstrated a significant depletion of tyrosine hydroxylase (TH)-positive astrocyte, microglia, and oligodendrocyte populations, along with the TH-expressing neurons in PD samples, which were also depleted. Moreover, marker gene analysis of the depleted subpopulations identified 28 overlapping genes including those associated with dopamine metabolism (e.g., ALDH1A1, SLC6A3 & SLC18A2). Overall, our study provides a valuable resource for understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in dopaminergic neuron degeneration and glial responses in PD, highlighting the existence of novel subpopulations and cell type-specific gene sets.
ORGANISM(S): Homo sapiens
PROVIDER: GSE243639 | GEO | 2024/01/22
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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