Single-Cell and Regional Gene Expression Analysis in Alzheimer’s Disease

The clinical manifestations of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are secondary to the substantial loss of cortical neurons. To be effective, neuroprotective strategies will need to target the primary pathogenic mechanisms of AD prior to cell loss. The differences between neurons are largely determined by the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cellular and molecular neurobiology 2012-05, Vol.32 (4), p.477-489
Main Authors: Kwong, Ruby, Lupton, Michelle K., Janitz, Michal
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alzheimer Disease - genetics
Alzheimer Disease - pathology
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Brain - pathology
Brain - physiology
Cell Biology
Humans
Neurobiology
Neurons - pathology
Neurons - physiology
Neurosciences
Review Paper
Transcriptome - genetics
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Summary:The clinical manifestations of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are secondary to the substantial loss of cortical neurons. To be effective, neuroprotective strategies will need to target the primary pathogenic mechanisms of AD prior to cell loss. The differences between neurons are largely determined by their specific repertoire of mRNAs. Thus, transcriptomic analyses that do not assume a priori etiological hypotheses are potentially powerful tools that can be used to understand the pathogenesis of complex diseases, including AD. The human brain comprises thousands of different cell types of both neuronal and non-neuronal origins. Information about individual cell-type-specific gene expression patterns will allow for a better understanding of the mechanisms that govern the progression of AD, which may lead to new therapeutic targets for prevention and treatment of the disease. This review provides an overview of the current technologies in use and the developments for single-cell extraction and transcriptome analysis. Recent transcriptome profiling studies on individual AD-afflicted brain cells are also discussed.
ISSN:0272-4340
1573-6830
1573-6830
DOI:10.1007/s10571-012-9797-3