Decoding the complexity of Alzheimer's disease
Originally published by Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on September 28, 2023 Credit: Wikimedia Commons Alzheimer's disease affects more than 6 million people in the United States, and there are very few FDA-approved treatments that can slow the progression of the disease. In hopes of discovering new targets for potential Alzheimer's treatments , MIT researchers have performed the broadest analysis yet of the genomic, epigenomic, and transcriptomic changes that occur in every cell type in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. Using more than 2 million cells from more than 400 postmortem brain samples , the researchers analyzed how gene expression is disrupted as Alzheimer's progresses . They also tracked changes in cells' epigenomic modifications , which help to determine which genes are turned on or off in a particular cell. Together, these approaches offer the most detailed picture yet of the genetic and molecular underpinnings of Alzheimer'