Project description:Analysis of gene expression in two large schizophrenia cohorts identifies multiple changes associated with nerve terminal function. Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder with a world-wide prevalence of 1%. The pathophysiology of the illness is not understood, but is thought to have a strong genetic component with some environmental influences on aetiology. To gain further insight into disease mechanism, we used microarray technology to determine the expression of over 30 000 mRNA transcripts in post-mortem tissue from a brain region associated with the pathophysiology of the disease (Brodmann area 10: anterior prefrontal cortex) in 28 schizophrenic and 23 control patients. Post-mortem derived BA10 tissue from 28 schizophrenic and 23 control patients were compared. Age, gender, post-mortem delay and pH of brain lysates data were also captured.
Project description:This laboratory focuses on the molecular mechanisms of neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders Gene expression patterns from the pefrontal cortical region (Brodmann Area 46) of subjects with schizophrenia and age- and sex-match control subjects was analyzed. The prefrontal cortex was chosen since it is a primary brain region implicated in the pathophysiological of schizophrenia. Furthermore, this region was used in our previous proteomics studies, allowing for the direct comparison of changes in protein levels to gene expression results. 16 schizophrenic subjects were studied, consisting of 8 subjects with duration of illness (DOI) < 5 years and 8 subjects with DOI > 22 years. 16 age- and sex-matched controls were also studied. Gene expression profiles were analyzed from individual subjects; a total of 32 samples were hybridized to the custom designed CFG GLYCOv2 glycogene array.
Project description:Transcriptional analysis of the superior temporal cortex (BA22) in schizophrenia: Pathway insight into disease pathology and drug development Schizophrenia is a highly debilitating psychiatric disorder which is known to have heritable genetic and environmental components. To gain some insight into the mechanisms underpinning both positive and negative symptoms of the disease, we determined the genome wide expression of mRNA transcripts in post-mortem tissue from the superior temporal cortex (Brodmann Area 22, BA22) in schizophrenic and control patients. The BA22 region is known to mediate the positive pathophysiology of schizophrenia; we compared this to the anterior prefrontal cortex (BA10) from the same subjects, which is known to mediate negative symptoms. Following adjustments for confounding clinical, sample and experimental sources of variation, we carried out gene set enrichment analysis in each region using pathway data. We identified an over-representation of genes involved in cytoskeletal remodelling, neurodevelopment, cell adhesion, cellular signalling, neurotransmission and autophagy. Collectively our analysis indicates a disruption of processes underpinning synaptic plasticity in both regions. Region-specific changes support the dysregulation of distinct pathways in the BA10 and BA22 regions. This may highlight new therapeutic opportunities to treat both negative and positive symptoms of the disease. Post-mortem derived BA22 tissue from schizophrenic and control patients were compared. Age, gender, post-mortem delay and pH of brain lysates data were also captured.
Project description:Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by progressive neuropathology and cognitive decline. We performed a cross-tissue analysis of methylomic variation in AD using samples from three independent human post-mortem brain cohorts. We identified a differentially methylated region in the ankyrin 1 (ANK1) gene that was associated with neuropathology in the entorhinal cortex, a primary site of AD manifestation. This region was confirmed as being substantially hypermethylated in two other cortical regions (superior temporal gyrus and prefrontal cortex), but not in the cerebellum, a region largely protected from neurodegeneration in AD, or whole blood obtained pre-mortem from the same individuals. Neuropathology-associated ANK1 hypermethylation was subsequently confirmed in cortical samples from three independent brain cohorts. This study represents, to the best of our knowledge, the first epigenome-wide association study of AD employing a sequential replication design across multiple tissues and highlights the power of this approach for identifying methylomic variation associated with complex disease. For the first (discovery) stage of our analysis, we used multiple tissues from donors (N = 122) archived in the MRC London Brainbank for Neurodegenerative Disease. From each donor, we isolated genomic DNA from four brain regions (EC, superior temporal gyrus (STG), prefrontal cortex (PFC) and CER) and, where available, from whole blood obtained pre-mortem. Our analyses focused on identifying differentially methylated positions (DMPs) associated with Braak staging, a standardized measure of neurofibrillary tangle burden determined at autopsy.
Project description:Analysis of gene expression in two large schizophrenia cohorts identifies multiple changes associated with nerve terminal function. Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder with a world-wide prevalence of 1%. The pathophysiology of the illness is not understood, but is thought to have a strong genetic component with some environmental influences on aetiology. To gain further insight into disease mechanism, we used microarray technology to determine the expression of over 30 000 mRNA transcripts in post-mortem tissue from a brain region associated with the pathophysiology of the disease (Brodmann area 10: anterior prefrontal cortex) in 28 schizophrenic and 23 control patients.
Project description:RNA-Seq and ATAC-Seq of iPSC derived neurons under baseline and KCl stimulation conditions from 10 distinct donors, including 5 healthy controls and 5 schizophrenic individuals.
scATAC of human post mortem prefrontal cortex from 4 adult individuals including 2 neurotypical individuals and 2 schizophrenic individuals.
Project description:Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disorder that is characterized by progressive neuropathology and cognitive decline. We performed a cross-tissue analysis of methylomic variation in AD using samples from three independent human post-mortem brain cohorts. We identified a differentially methylated region in the ankyrin 1 (ANK1) gene that was associated with neuropathology in the entorhinal cortex, a primary site of AD manifestation. This region was confirmed as being substantially hypermethylated in two other cortical regions (superior temporal gyrus and prefrontal cortex), but not in the cerebellum, a region largely protected from neurodegeneration in AD, or whole blood obtained pre-mortem from the same individuals. Neuropathology-associated ANK1 hypermethylation was subsequently confirmed in cortical samples from three independent brain cohorts. This study represents, to the best of our knowledge, the first epigenome-wide association study of AD employing a sequential replication design across multiple tissues and highlights the power of this approach for identifying methylomic variation associated with complex disease.
Project description:We analyzed fresh frozen post-mortem brain tissue from a cohort of 73 schizophrenic and 52 control samples, using the Illumina Infinium HumanMethylation450 Bead Chip, to investigate genome-wide DNA methylation patterns in patients diagnosed with schizophrenia.