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NEUROGENOMICS

Scrutinizing disease states and regulation in human microglia

Nature Genetics volume 53, pages 766–767 (2021)Cite this article

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Single-cell and bulk transcriptomics of adult human microglia from a population of individuals reveals activated states across several brain disorders and maps Alzheimer’s disease variants to microglia-enriched genes.

High-resolution mapping of tissues and cell types is essential to uncovering how human genetic variation influences disease states. Several large projects have undertaken molecular profiling efforts across human tissues to annotate the genome1,2. However, connecting disease-associated variants to specific cellular processes in brain disorders has been challenging because of the inaccessibility of human brain tissue. Microglia, the resident immune cells of the brain, are of particular clinical interest, given their dynamic response to tissue injury, and associated impairments in neurodegenerative and psychiatric disease3. In this issue, Young et al.4 make an important step toward characterizing human microglia by measuring gene expression from a large number of people and identifying genetic variants linked to microglia-specific genes.

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Fig. 1: Molecular mapping of human microglia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Kevin W. Kelley & Sergiu P. Pașca

  2. Stanford Brain Organogenesis, Wu Tsai Neuroscience Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Kevin W. Kelley & Sergiu P. Pașca

Authors
  1. Kevin W. Kelley
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  2. Sergiu P. Pașca
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Correspondence to Sergiu P. Pașca.

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Kelley, K.W., Pașca, S.P. Scrutinizing disease states and regulation in human microglia. Nat Genet 53, 766–767 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00826-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41588-021-00826-x

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