Genome-wide methylomic regulation of multiscale gene networks in Alzheimer's disease

Introduction: Recent studies revealed the association of abnormal methylomic changes with Alzheimer's disease (AD) but there is a lack of systematic study of the impact of methylomic alterations over the molecular networks underlying AD.

Methods: We profiled genome-wide methylomic variations in the parahippocampal gyrus from 201 post mortem control, mild cognitive impaired, and AD brains.

Results: We identified 270 distinct differentially methylated regions (DMRs) associated with AD. We quantified the impact of these DMRs on each gene and each protein as well as gene and protein co-expression networks. DNA methylation had a profound impact on both AD-associated gene/protein modules and their key regulators. We further integrated the matched multi-omics data to show the impact of DNA methylation on chromatin accessibility, which further modulates gene and protein expression.

Discussion: The quantified impact of DNA methylation on gene and protein networks underlying AD identified potential upstream epigenetic regulators of AD.

Highlights: A cohort of DNA methylation data in the parahippocampal gyrus was developed from 201 post mortem control, mild cognitive impaired, and Alzheimer's disease (AD) brains. Two hundred seventy distinct differentially methylated regions (DMRs) were found to be associated with AD compared to normal control. A metric was developed to quantify methylation impact on each gene and each protein. DNA methylation was found to have a profound impact on not only the AD-associated gene modules but also key regulators of the gene and protein networks. Key findings were validated in an independent multi-omics cohort in AD. The impact of DNA methylation on chromatin accessibility was also investigated by integrating the matched methylomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic data.