Genetics of the human microglia regulome refines Alzheimer's disease risk loci

TL;DR: In this article, the authors performed transcriptome and chromatin accessibility profiling in primary human microglia from 150 donors to identify genetically-driven variation and cell-specific enhancer-promoter interactions.

Abstract: Microglia are brain resident myeloid cells that play a critical role in neuroimmunity and the etiology of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Yet our understanding of how the genetic regulatory landscape controls microglial function and contributes to disease is limited. Here, we performed transcriptome and chromatin accessibility profiling in primary human microglia from 150 donors to identify genetically-driven variation and cell-specific enhancer-promoter interactions. Integrative fine-mapping analysis identified putative regulatory mechanisms for 21 AD risk loci, of which 18 were refined to a single gene, including 3 novel genes (KCNN4, FIBP and LRRC25). Transcription factor regulatory networks captured AD risk variation and identified SPI1 as a key regulator of microglia expression and AD risk. This comprehensive resource capturing variation in the human microglia regulome provides novel insights into the etiology of neurodegenerative disease. One-Sentence Summary Characterizing the genetic regulation of chromatin accessibility and gene expression in human microglia refines molecular mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease risk loci.