Alzheimer's disease-induced phagocytic microglia express a specific profile of coding and non-coding RNAs

Flavia Scoyni, Luca Giudice, Mari-Anna Väänänen, Nicholas Downes, Paula Korhonen, Xin Yi Choo, Nelli-Noora Välimäki, Petri Mäkinen, Nea Korvenlaita, Annemieke J. Rozemuller, Helga E. de Vries, Jose Polo, Tiia A. Turunen, Seppo Ylä-Herttuala, Thomas B. Hansen, Alexandra Grubman, Minna U. Kaikkonen, Tarja Malm

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the main cause of dementia in the elderly. AD pathology is characterized by accumulation of microglia around the beta-amyloid (Aβ) plaques which assumes disease-specific transcriptional signatures, as for the disease-associated microglia (DAM). However, the regulators of microglial phagocytosis are still unknown.

METHODS: We isolated Aβ-laden microglia from the brain of 5xFAD mice for RNA sequencing to characterize the transcriptional signature in phagocytic microglia and to identify the key non-coding RNAs capable of regulating microglial phagocytosis. Through spatial sequencing, we show the transcriptional changes of microglia in the AD mouse brain in relation to Aβ proximity.

RESULTS: Finally, we show that phagocytic messenger RNAs are regulated by miR-7a-5p, miR-29a-3p and miR-146a-5p microRNAs and segregate the DAM population into phagocytic and non-phagocytic states.

DISCUSSION: Our study pinpoints key regulators of microglial Aβ clearing capacity suggesting new targets for future therapeutic approaches.

Original languageEnglish
JournalAlzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association
Early online date12 Oct 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 12 Oct 2023

Keywords

  • Alzheimer's disease
  • microRNAs
  • microglia
  • phagocytosis
  • post-transcriptional regulation

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