Evidence map›Paper›PMID 38141910›Full record

ArticleBiological psychiatry2024

A Single-Nucleus Transcriptome-Wide Association Study Implicates Novel Genes in Depression Pathogenesis.

Lu Zeng, Masashi Fujita, Zongmei Gao, Charles C White, Gilad S Green, Naomi Habib, Vilas Menon, David A Bennett, Patricia Boyle, Hans-Ulrich Klein and 1 more

Open access · greenAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Biological psychiatry, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 27 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
27citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
3.2field-weighted citation impact, top 8% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

27 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 21 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
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  4. Cellular transcriptomic signatures underpinning the heterogeneity of depression in Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026
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  19. A Transcriptomic Signature of Depressive Symptoms in Late Life.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025
    Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

11 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Lu ZengCenter for Translational and Computational Neuroimmunology, Department of Neurology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, New York.
Masashi FujitaCenter for Translational and Computational Neuroimmunology, Department of Neurology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, New York.
Zongmei GaoCenter for Translational and Computational Neuroimmunology, Department of Neurology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, New York.
Charles C WhiteCenter for Translational and Computational Neuroimmunology, Department of Neurology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, New York.
Gilad S GreenEdmond & Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
Naomi HabibEdmond & Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
Vilas MenonCenter for Translational and Computational Neuroimmunology, Department of Neurology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, New York.
David A BennettRush Alzheimer Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois; Department of Neurological Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.
Patricia BoyleRush Alzheimer Disease Center, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois.
Hans-Ulrich KleinCenter for Translational and Computational Neuroimmunology, Department of Neurology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, New York.
Philip L De JagerCenter for Translational and Computational Neuroimmunology, Department of Neurology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, New York. Electronic address: pld2115@cumc.columbia.edu.
Columbia University Irving Medical Center · USHebrew University of Jerusalem · ILRush University Medical Center · US

Funding

EPIDEMIOLOGY OF NEURAL RESERVE AND NEUROBIOLOGY IN AGINGR01AG017917 · NIA · RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · PI BENNETT, DAVID ALAN · 2001 to 2023
$43.3M
Rush Alzheimer's Disease Research CenterP30AG072975 · NIA · RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · PI Lisa L Barnes, Julie A. Schneider · 2021 to 2026
$24.7M
RISK FACTORS, PATHOLOGY, AND CLINICAL EXPRESSIONS OF ADR01AG015819 · NIA · RUSH UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · PI BENNETT, DAVID ALAN · 1998 to 2024
$21.4M
Multi-omic network-directed proteoform discovery, dissection and functional validation to prioritize novel AD therapeutic targetsU01AG061356 · NIA · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · PI BENNETT, DAVID ALAN, DE JAGER, PHILIP L · 2018 to 2022
$13.7M
Pathway discovery, validation and compound identification for Alzheimer's disease - SupplementU01AG046152 · NIA · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · PI BENNETT, DAVID ALAN, DE JAGER, PHILIP L · 2013 to 2017
$13.6M
Alzheimer variants: Propagation of shared functional changes across cellular networksU01AG072572 · NIA · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · PI DE JAGER, PHILIP L, ST GEORGE-HYSLOP, PETER HENRY · 2021 to 2025
$8.5M
Deconstructing and modeling the single cell architecture of the Alzheimer brainRF1AG057473 · NIA · COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY HEALTH SCIENCES · PI BENNETT, DAVID ALAN, DE JAGER, PHILIP L · 2017 to 2018
$4.0M
NIA NIH HHS P30 AG072975NIA NIH HHS R01 AG015819NIA NIH HHS R01 AG017917NIA NIH HHS RF1 AG057473NIA NIH HHS U01 AG046152NIA NIH HHS U01 AG061356NIA NIH HHS U01 AG072572
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundDepression, a common psychiatric illness and global public health problem, remains poorly understood across different life stages, which hampers the development of novel treatments.

methodsTo identify new candidate genes for therapeutic development, we performed differential gene expression analysis of single-nucleus RNA sequencing data from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of older adults (n = 424) in relation to antemortem depressive symptoms. Additionally, we integrated genome-wide association study results for depression (n = 500,199) along with genetic tools for inferring the expression of 14,048 unique genes in 7 cell types and 52 cell subtypes to perform a transcriptome-wide association study of depression followed by Mendelian randomization.

resultsOur single-nucleus transcriptome-wide association study analysis identified 68 candidate genes for depression and showed the greatest number being in excitatory and inhibitory neurons. Of the 68 genes, 53 were novel compared to previous studies. Notably, gene expression in different neuronal subtypes had varying effects on depression risk. Traits with high genetic correlations with depression, such as neuroticism, shared more transcriptome-wide association study genes than traits that were not highly correlated with depression. Complementing these analyses, differential gene expression analysis across 52 neocortical cell subtypes showed that genes such as KCNN2, SCAI, WASF3, and SOCS6 were associated with late-life depressive symptoms in specific cell subtypes.

conclusionsThese 2 sets of analyses illustrate the utility of large single-nucleus RNA sequencing data both to uncover genes whose expression is altered in specific cell subtypes in the context of depressive symptoms and to enhance the interpretation of well-powered genome-wide association studies so that we can prioritize specific susceptibility genes for further analysis and therapeutic development.

Indexed as

Genome-Wide Association StudyTranscriptomeAgedDepressionDorsolateral Prefrontal CortexFemaleGenetic Predisposition to DiseaseHumansMaleMendelian Randomization AnalysisMiddle AgedNeuronsDepressive symptomsGenome-wide association studyMajor depressive disorderROSMAPSingle-nucleus RNA-seqTranscriptome-wide association study

Identifiers

PMID38141910
PMCPMC11168890
OpenAlexW4390052660

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.