Researchers supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) have produced a broad molecular map comparing cellular processes across Alzheimer’s and other brain disorders. The atlas covers more than 6.3 million nuclei from brain samples provided by 1,494 donors.
The study compared samples from people with Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Lewy body disease, vascular dementia, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with neurotypical controls. Researchers identified molecular processes shared across conditions as well as patterns specific to individual diseases and associated with Alzheimer’s progression.
The atlas is not a new treatment. It is an open data and methods resource for studying biological mechanisms and potential future treatment targets. The findings were published across nine papers in Nature and other Nature portfolio journals.
Sources: NIH; Nature research collection.