Genetic risk for Alzheimer's dementia predicts motor deficits through multi-omic systems in older adults

Transl Psychiatry. 2019 Oct 3;9(1):241. doi: 10.1038/s41398-019-0577-4.

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease manifests with both cognitive and motor deficits. However, the degree to which genetic risk of Alzheimer's dementia contributes to late-life motor impairment, and the specific molecular systems underlying these associations, are uncertain. Here, we adopted an integrative multi-omic approach to assess genetic influence on motor impairment in older adults and identified key molecular pathways that may mediate this risk. We built a polygenic risk score for clinical diagnosis of Alzheimer's dementia (AD-PRS) and examined its relationship to several motor phenotypes in 1885 older individuals from two longitudinal aging cohorts. We found that AD-PRS was associated with a previously validated composite motor scores and their components. The major genetic risk factor for sporadic Alzheimer's dementia, the APOE/TOMM40 locus, was not a major driver of these associations. To identify specific molecular features that potentially medicate the genetic risk into motor dysfunction, we examined brain multi-omics, including transcriptome, DNA methylation, histone acetylation (H3K9AC), and targeted proteomics, as well as diverse neuropathologies. We found that a small number of factors account for the majority of the influence of AD-PRS on motor function, which comprises paired helical filament tau-tangle density, H3K9AC in specific chromosomal regions encoding genes involved in neuromuscular process. These multi-omic factors have the potential to elucidate key molecular mechanisms developing motor impairment in the context of Alzheimer's dementia.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

  • Acetylation
  • Aged
  • Alzheimer Disease / genetics*
  • Brain / pathology*
  • Chicago
  • Cognitive Dysfunction / genetics*
  • Genome-Wide Association Study
  • Histones / genetics*
  • Humans
  • Longitudinal Studies
  • Multifactorial Inheritance*
  • Neuropsychological Tests
  • Risk Factors

Substances

  • H3-3A protein, human
  • Histones