NG00102 - Genomic atlas of the proteome from brain, CSF and plasma prioritizes proteins implicated in neurological disorders

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Description

Understanding the tissue-specific genetic controls of protein levels is essential to uncover mechanisms of post-transcriptional gene regulation. We previously generated a genomic atlas of protein levels in three tissues relevant to neurological disorders (brain, cerebrospinal fluid and plasma) by profiling thousands of proteins from participants with and without Alzheimer’s disease. We now enhanced this work by analyzing more proteins (1,300 versus 1,079) and an almost twofold increase in high-quality imputed genetic variants (8.4 million versus 4.4 million) by using TOPMed reference panel. We identified 38 genomic regions associated with 43 proteins in brain, 150 regions associated with 247 proteins in cerebrospinal fluid, and 95 regions associated with 145 proteins in plasma. Compared to our previous study, this study newly identified 12 loci in brain, 30 loci in cerebrospinal fluid, and 22 loci in plasma. cis-pQTLs were more likely to be tissue shared, but trans-pQTLs tended to be tissue specific. Between 48.0% and 76.6% of pQTLs did not co-localize with expression, splicing, DNA methylation or histone acetylation QTLs. Using Mendelian randomization, we nominated proteins implicated in neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and stroke. This first multi-tissue study will be instrumental to map signals from genome-wide association studies onto functional genes, to discover pathways and to identify drug targets for neurological diseases.

This dataset is part of the Knight ADRC Collection. Other datasets in this collection can be found at: https://archive.niagads.org/knight-adrc-collection

Sample Summary per Data Type

Sample Set	Accession	Data Type	Number of Samples
Genomic atlas of the proteome from brain, CSF and plasma prioritizes proteins implicated in neurological disorders	snd10048	Proteomic	1157

Available Filesets

Name	Accession	Latest Release	Description
KGAD Proteomics: pQTL summary statistics and protein annotations (open access)	fsa000065	NG00102.v1	pQTL summary statistics and protein annotations
KGAD Proteomics: Proteomics, protein annotations, and QC documents (application needed)	fsa000066	NG00102.v1	Proteomics, protein annotations, and QC documents

View the File Manifest for a full list of files released in this dataset.

Provided in this dataset is a set of multi-tissue proteomic data that underwent a process of quality control measures by the Cruchaga Lab at Washington University in St. Louis, as well as pQTL summary statistics. From 1157 subjects, 1300 protein analytes were measured for 328 brain samples, 869 protein analytes were measured for 770 CSF samples, and 953 protein analytes were measured for 500 plasma samples on the SomaLogic SomaScan 1.3K platform at the Washington University Neurogenomics and Informatics Center.

Sample Set	Accession Number	Number of Subjects	Number of Samples
Genomic atlas of the proteome from brain, CSF and plasma prioritizes proteins implicated in neurological disorders	snd10048	1,157	1,598

Consent Level	Number of Subjects
DS-ADRD-IRB-PUB	1151
HMB-IRB-PUB	6

Acknowledgment statement for any data distributed by NIAGADS:

Data for this study were prepared, archived, and distributed by the National Institute on Aging Alzheimer’s Disease Data Storage Site (NIAGADS) at the University of Pennsylvania (U24-AG041689), funded by the National Institute on Aging.

Use the study-specific acknowledgement statements below (as applicable):

For investigators using any data from this dataset:

Please cite/reference the use of NIAGADS data by including the accession NG00102.

For investigators using Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (sa000008) data:

This work was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (R01AG044546, P01AG003991, RF1AG053303, R01AG058501, U01AG058922, RF1AG058501 and R01AG057777). The recruitment and clinical characterization of research participants at Washington University were supported by NIH P50 AG05681, P01 AG03991, and P01 AG026276. This work was supported by access to equipment made possible by the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders, and the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine.

We thank the contributors who collected samples used in this study, as well as patients and their families, whose help and participation made this work possible. This work was supported by access to equipment made possible by the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders, and the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine.

For use of the ADSP-PHC harmonized phenotypes deposited within dataset, ng00067, use the following statement:

The Memory and Aging Project at the Knight-ADRC (Knight-ADRC), supported by NIH grants R01AG064614, R01AG044546, RF1AG053303, RF1AG058501, U01AG058922 and R01AG064877 to Carlos Cruchaga. The recruitment and clinical characterization of research participants at Washington University was supported by NIH grants P30AG066444, P01AG03991, and P01AG026276. Data collection and sharing for this project was supported by NIH grants RF1AG054080, P30AG066462, R01AG064614 and U01AG052410. This work was supported by access to equipment made possible by the Hope Center for Neurological Disorders, the Neurogenomics and Informatics Center (NGI: https://neurogenomics.wustl.edu/) and the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine.

Total number of approved DARs: 7

Investigator:
Belloy, Michael
Institution:
Washington University in St Louis
Project Title:
Elucidating sex-specific risk for Alzheimer's disease through state-of-the-art genetics and multi-omics
Date of Approval:
January 6, 2025
Request status:
Approved
Research use statements:
Show statements
Technical Research Use Statement:
• Objectives: In this project, we seek to holistically investigate the genetic and molecular drivers of sex dimorphism in Alzheimer’s disease across ancestries. • Study design: This study integrates large-scale population genetics with multi-omics and endophenotype analyses. We are integrating all data available from ADGC and ADSP, together with other data from AMP-AD and biobanks such as UKB, FinnGen, and MVP to conduct large-scale multi-ancestry GWAS, rare-variant gene aggregation analyses, QTL studies, PWAS, TWAS, etc. We also particularly focus on X chromosome association studies. The study design also interrogates interactions with ancestry, hormone exposures, and with APOE*4, as well as comparisons to non-stratified GWAS/XWAS of Alzheimer’s disease. Further, we will also employ genetic correlation analyses, mendelian randomization, colocalization, and pleiotropy analyses, to interrogate overlap with other complex traits to better understand the mechanisms underlying sex dimorphism in Alzheimer’s disease. • Analysis plan, including the phenotypic characteristics that will be evaluated in association with genetic variants: Our phenotypes will include Alzheimer’s disease risk, conversion risk, various endophenotypes (including amyloid/tau biomarkers, brain imaging metrics, etc.) as well as molecular traits. As noted above, we will conduct large-scale multi-ancestry GWAS, XWAS, rare-variant gene aggregation analyses, QTL studies, PWAS, TWAS, etc. Specific aims include interrogating these question and analyses on (1) the autosomes, (2) the X chromosome, and (3) leveraging sex stratified QTL studies to drive discovery of risk genes.
Non-Technical Research Use Statement:
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) manifests itself differently across men and women, but the genetic and molecular factors that drive this remain elusive. AD is the most common cause of dementia and till today remains largely untreatable. It is thus crucial to study the genetics of AD in a sex-specific manner, as this will help the field gain important insights into disease pathophysiology, identify novel sex-specific risk factors relevant to personalized genetic medicine, and uncover potential new AD drug targets that may benefit both sexes. This project uses large-scale genomics and multi-omics to elucidate novel sex agnostic and sex-specific AD risk genes. We will interrogate sex dimorphism for AD risk on the autosomes and the sex chromosomes. We similarly interrogate sex dimorphism in the genetic regulation of gene expression and protein levels, which we will integrate with genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease to further discovery risk genes. Throughout, we will also interrogate how sex-specific risk for AD interactions with hormone exposures, ancestry, and the APOE*4 risk allele.
Investigator:
Cruchaga, Carlos
Institution:
Washington University School of Medicine
Project Title:
The Familial Alzheimer Sequencing (FASe) Project
Date of Approval:
May 9, 2024
Request status:
Approved
Research use statements:
Show statements
Technical Research Use Statement:
The goal of this study is to identify new genes and mutations that cause or increase risk for Alzheimer disease (AD), as well as protective factors. Individuals and families were selected from the Knight-ADRC (Washington University) and the NIA-LOAD study. Only families with at least three first-degree affected individuals were included. Families with pathogenic variants in the known AD or FTD genes, or in which APOE4 segregated with disease were excluded. At least two cases and one control were selected per family. Cases had an age at onset (AAO) after 65 yo and controls had a larger age at last assessment than the latest AAO within the family. Whole exome (WES) and whole genome sequencing (WGS) was generated for 1,235 individuals (285 families) that together with data from our collaborators and the ADSP family-based cohort (3,449 individuals and 757 families) will provide enough statistical power to identify new genes for AD. Dr. Tanzi (Harvard Medical School) will provide WGS from 400 families from the NIMH Alzheimer disease genetics initiative study. We will perform single variant and gene-based analyses to identify genes and variants that increase risk for disease in AD families. Single variant analysis will consist of a combination of association and segregation analyses. We will run family-based gene-based methods to identify genes that show and overall enrichment of variants in AD cases. We will also look for protective and modifier variants. To do this we will identify families loaded with AD cases, that also include individuals with a high burden of known risk variants but that do not develop the disease (escapees). We will use the sequence data and the family structure to identify variants that segregate with the escapee phenotype. The most promising variants and genes will be replicated in independent datasets (ADSP case-control, ADNI, Knight-ADRC, NIA-LOAD ). We will perform single variant and gene-based analyses to replicate the initial findings, and survival analysis to replicate the protective variants. We will select the most promising variants/genes for functional studies
Non-Technical Research Use Statement:
Family-based approaches led to the identification of disease-causing Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) variants in the genes encoding APP, PSEN1 and PSEN2. The identification of these genes led to the A?-cascade hypothesis and to the development of drugs that target this pathway. Recently, we have identified rare coding variants in TREM2, ABCA7, PLD3 and SORL1 with large effect sizes for risk for AD, confirming that rare coding variants play a role in the etiology of AD. In this proposal, we will identify rare risk and protective alleles using sequence data from families densely affected by AD. We hypothesize that these families are enriched for genetic risk factors. We already have sequence data from 695 families (2,462 individuals), that combined with the ADSP and the NIMH dataset will lead to a dataset of more than 1,042 families (4,684 individuals). Our preliminary results support the flexibility of this approach and strongly suggest that protective and risk variants with large effect size will be found, which will lead to a better understanding of the biology of the disease.
Investigator:
Ertekin-Taner, Nilufer
Institution:
Mayo Clinic
Project Title:
CLEAR-AD
Date of Approval:
January 6, 2025
Request status:
Approved
Research use statements:
Show statements
Technical Research Use Statement:
This U19 aims to bridge these knowledge gaps for discovery and validation of Centrally-linked Longitudinal pEripheral biomARkers of AD (CLEAR-AD) in multi-ethnic populations. CLEAR-AD U19 is based on the premise that AD is a complex disorder in which many biological pathways are disrupted due to multi-omic perturbations, which can be detected in brain and reflected in blood. The specific aims of CLEAR-AD are: 1) To discover CLPMS of the complex and heterogeneous AD pathophysiology and its co-pathologies. 2) To identify longitudinal CLPMS that detect and predict dynamic neuroimaging, fluid biomarker, and clinical changes across AD spectrum. 3) To characterize differences and similarities in CLPMS profiles across NHW, African American (AA) and Latino American (LA) participants to uncover biomarker patterns in multi-ethnic groups. 4) To make these vast resources available to the scientific community to amplify and accelerate its impact. In this U19, we will leverage NIH-funded ADNI, MCSA and ADRC cohorts of >3,700 multi-ethnic participants to generate >20,000 multi-omics measures (Omics Core) that will be processed and integrated with >48,000 harmonized AD cognitive, neuroimaging and fluid endophenotypes (Analytic Core). Using these data, we will identify brain region and cell-type specific CLPMS, which reflect biological subtypes of AD and disease stage (Project 1). We will discover longitudinal changes in CLPMS that predict cognitive and A/T/N/V progression (Project 2). We will define longitudinal cognitive and A/T/N/V changes and CLPMS in URP that are either conserved with NHW or population-specific (Project 3). This U19 will a) Identify the next generation of AD biomarkers with mechanistic insights; b) Establish a precision medicine approach for rigorous multi-omics biomarker discovery and validation in AD; c) Discover molecules that can serve as biomarkers and therapeutic targets; d) Enhance biomarker research in trial-ready multi-ethnic populations; and e) Generate and share a vast and harmonized resource of endophenotype and multi-omics data in NIH-funded cohorts.
Non-Technical Research Use Statement:
There is a clear and immediate need for the discovery of peripheral molecular signatures linked to central disease processes, core and co-pathologies in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), that will serve as precision medicine blood-based biomarkers for diagnostic, prognostic, theragnostic and therapeutic purposes. AD is a complex disorder in which many biological pathways are disrupted due to multi-omic perturbations, which can be detected in brain and reflected in blood, i.e. centrally-linked peripheral molecular signatures (CLPMS). This U19 will leverage deeply phenotyped, longitudinal NIH-funded multi-ethnic cohorts and cross-disciplinary expertise for multi-omics data generation and its integration with harmonized AD endophenotypes, will share these data and utilize them in integrated U19 projects to discover CLPMS that will serve as the next generation of AD biomarkers.
Investigator:
Greicius, Michael
Institution:
Stanford University School of Medicine
Project Title:
Examining Genetic Associations in Neurodegenerative Diseases
Date of Approval:
December 19, 2024
Request status:
Approved
Research use statements:
Show statements
Technical Research Use Statement:
We are studying the effects of rare (minor allele frequency < 5%) genetic variants on the risk of developing late-onset Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). We are interested in variants that have a protective effect in subjects who are at an increased genetic risk, or variants that lead to multiple dementias. Our aim is to identify any genetic variants that are present in the “case” group but not the “AD control” groups for both types of variants. The raw data we receive will be annotated to identify SNP locations and frequencies using existing databases such as 1,000 Genomes. We will filter the data based on genetic models such as compounded heterozygosity, recessive and dominant models to identify different types of variants.
Non-Technical Research Use Statement:
Current genetic understanding of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) does not fully explain its heritability. The APOE4 allele is a well-established risk factor for the development of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). However, some individuals who carry APOE4 remain cognitively healthy until advanced ages. Additionally, the cause of mixed dementia pathology development in individuals remains largely unexplained. We aim to identify genetic factors associated with these “protected” and mixed pathology phenotypes.
Investigator:
Hohman, Timothy
Institution:
Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Project Title:
Genetic Drivers of Resilience to Alzheimer's Disease
Date of Approval:
October 31, 2024
Request status:
Approved
Research use statements:
Show statements
Technical Research Use Statement:
“Asymptomatic” Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a phenomenon in which 30% of individuals over age 65 meet criteria for autopsy-confirmed pathological AD (beta-amyloid plaques and tau aggregation) but do not clinically manifest cognitive impairment.1-3 The resilience that underlies asymptomatic AD is marked by both protection from neurodegeneration (brain resilience)4 and preserved cognition (cognitive resilience).Our central hypothesis is that genetic effects allow a subset of individuals to endure extensive AD neuropathology without marked brain atrophy or cognitive impairment. We are uniquely positioned to identify resilience genes by leveraging the Resilience from Alzheimer’s Disease (RAD) database, a local resource in which we have harmonized a validated quantitative phenotype of resilience across 8 large AD cohort studies.Our strong interdisciplinary team represents international leaders in genetics, neuroscience, neuropsychology, neuropathology, and psychometrics who will leverage the infrastructure and rich resources of the AD Genetics Consortium, IGAP, ADSP, and our recently established and harmonized continuous metric of resilience to fulfill the following aims:Aim 1. Identify and replicate common genetic variants that predict cognitive resilience (preserved cognition) and brain resilience (protection from brain atrophy) in the presence of AD pathology. We hypothesize that common genetic variation will explain variance in resilience above and beyond known predictors like education. Replication analyses will leverage age of onset data from IGAP to demonstrate that resilience loci predict a later age of AD onset.Aim 2. Identify and replicate rare and low-frequency genetic variants that predict cognitive and brain resilience. Rare and low-frequency variants with large effects have been identified in AD case/control studies, providing new insight into the genetic architecture of AD.Aim 3: Identify sex-specific genetic drivers of cognitive and brain resilience to AD pathology. Our preliminary results highlight sex differences in the downstream consequences of AD neuropathology, including sex-specific genetic markers of resilience.
Non-Technical Research Use Statement:
As the population ages, late-onset Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is becoming an increasingly important public health issue. Clinical trials targeted a reducing AD progression have demonstrated that patients continue to decline despite therapeutic intervention. Thus, there is a pressing need for new treatments aimed at novel therapeutic targets. A shift in focus from risk to resilience has tremendous potential to have a major public health impact by highlighting mechanisms that naturally counteract the damaging effects of AD neuropathology. The goal of the present project is to characterize genetic factors that protect the brain from the downstream consequences of AD neuropathology. We will identify both rare and common genetic variants using a robust metric of resilience developed and validated by our research team. The identification of such genetic effects will provide novel targets for therapeutic intervention in AD.
Investigator:
Kamboh, M. Ilyas
Institution:
University of Pittsburgh
Project Title:
Genetics of Alzheimer's Disease and Endophenotypes
Date of Approval:
January 7, 2025
Request status:
Approved
Research use statements:
Show statements
Technical Research Use Statement:
Objectives: We are requesting access to the NIAGADS datasets to augment our ongoing studies on the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and AD-related endophenotypes being carried out by Kamboh and his group since 1995. We are doing GWAS using array genotypes, whole-exome sequencing and whole-genome sequencing on datasets derived from University of Pittsburgh ADRC and ancillary population-based longitudinal studies on dementia and biomarkers. Different available phenotypes include AD and non-AD dementia, age-at-set, disease progression and survival, neuroimaging, cognitive decline, plasma biomarkers for the core ATN and non-ATN pathologies. We also plan to expand on gene-gene interaction and sex-stratified analyses which require the actual genotype data. The NIAGADS datasets will be used for replication and meta-analysis, and for gene-gene interaction and sex-stratified analyses. Study Design: A case-control design will incorporate a diverse cohort of individuals with AD and age-matched controls. For quantitative traits (neuroimaging and plasma biomarkers, cognitive performance measures, indicators of disease progression), linear regression analyses will be performed to identify genetic loci. To ensure the findings are robust and inclusive, participants from diverse demographic backgrounds will be included, enabling the exploration of potential genetic variations across populations. Analysis Plan: We will conduct GWAS and targeted analyses on candidate genes on different AD and AD-related phenotypes. Primary phenotypic variables include AD disease status, age-at-onset, last age for controls, APOE genotype, cognitive decline trajectories, sex, and race. Analyses will evaluate the influence of specific genetic variants on disease risk, cognitive performance, and biomarker levels, considering both individual and interactive effects of the APOE genotype. Results will be adjusted for potential confounders, such as demographic factors, to ensure valid associations. Detail analytical methods are described in our published papers for case-control (PMID: 32651314;35694926), quantitative traits (PMID: 30361487;37666928), and cognitive decline (PMID: 37089073; 30954325).
Non-Technical Research Use Statement:
Our research group at the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt), has been working on the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and AD-related endophenotypes for almost three decades, on data derived largely from the University of Pittsburgh Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center and ancillary dementia studies. We are requesting access to the NIAGADS genotype and phenotype datasets to augment our sample size to increase power to detect novel genetic associations with AD and related endophenotypes.
Investigator:
Lee, Kun Ho
Institution:
Chosun University
Project Title:
Alzheimer's disease(AD) subtype analysis using genome sequencing data
Date of Approval:
January 21, 2025
Request status:
Approved
Research use statements:
Show statements
Technical Research Use Statement:
Objectives of the Proposed Research Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a common degenerative disease, causing irreversible dementia. Early diagnosis is difficult due to a long asymptomatic period and requires invasive, expensive procedures. A screening method to classify high-risk groups for early AD diagnosis is needed. Study Design Early AD risk prediction can use genomic variants like the Polygenic Risk Score (PRS), which predicts high-risk groups but shows performance differences due to genetic heterogeneity and ethnic specificity. To address this, ethnicity-specific analysis is considered and validated with different ethnic datasets. This study aims to develop Korea-specific PRS models for early AD risk prediction using genomic data from a Korean cohort and the ADSP. Trans-ethnic genomic data will be created by combining GARD and ADSP data, including African American (AA), non-Hispanic Whites (NHW), and East Asian (EA) data. Cross-validation (CV) analysis will divide data into training and test sets. Genomic variants' importance (e.g., p-values, BLUP) will be calculated, and selected variants applied to PRS. PRS models will be evaluated using CV-divided test data to select the best model. Trans-ethnic and ethnicity-specific PRS models will be validated using reserved validation data. Analysis Plan The proposal aims to identify ethnicity differences in genomic prediction built with Caucasian-centric GWA SNVs and improve the model for trans-ethnic groups, particularly East Asians. A Bayesian machine learning approach transfers genetic risk model knowledge from the NHW dataset to other ethnic groups for better accuracy. Genotype datasets from all ancestry groups are used together. Instead of trans-ethnic meta-analysis, the approach by Gim et al. is adopted. Each ethnic group dataset is divided for cross-validation. Training datasets are analyzed to evaluate p-values and BLUP of SNVs. Summary statistics are used to build the prediction model and apply nested-CV for model selection. The best model for each ethnic group is tested using the test dataset. Data is analyzed similarly by learning from ethnic-specific variants and building a prediction model with the new method.
Non-Technical Research Use Statement:
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia and is irreversible once symptoms appear. A long asymptomatic period of AD complicates early diagnosis requiring invasive and costly procedures like CSF extraction or PET scans. Therefore, a screening method to identify high-risk groups for early AD diagnosis is necessary.One approach uses the Polygenic Risk Score (PRS), which calculation is based on multiple genomic variants associated with AD. However, PRS predictions vary significantly (60-80%) due to genetic heterogeneity and ethnic specificity. Thus, data from multiple ethnicities must be analyzed. Although Asia accounts for over 50% of global dementia cases, most large-scale AD cohorts are predominantly White, lacking studies on Asians.This study aims to develop trans-ethnic and ethnicity-specific PRS models for early AD risk prediction using genomic data from the GARD cohort, centered on Koreans, and the ADSP, which includes various European ethnicities. It investigates AD’s genetic heterogeneity due to ethnic differences and proposes methods to adjust for variability.

Total number of samples: 1,157

Female 632 54.6 %

Male 525 45.4 %

AD
Control	785	67.8%
Case	649	56.1%
Other	161	13.9%
Unknown	3	0.3%

NG00102 – Genomic atlas of the proteome from brain, CSF and plasma prioritizes proteins implicated in neurological disorders

Overview

Description

Sample Summary per Data Type

Available Filesets

Sample information

Related Studies

Cohorts

Consent Levels

Acknowledgement

Acknowledgment statement for any data distributed by NIAGADS:

For investigators using any data from this dataset:

For investigators using Charles F. and Joanne Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center (sa000008) data:

Related Publications

Approved Users

Total number of samples: 1,157