AgingResearch.NewsJoin free
bioRxiv

Aging in a human brain region shares gene patterns with disorders

An observational analysis of caudate tissue from 178 human donors found age-related gene activity changes that appeared earlier in donors with alcohol use disorder.

Paper by Shuai Guo, Xingyi Yang, Yi Dong, +5 more authorsJing He · Emory University
A branching neuron with folded mitochondria sits among smaller glial cells and scattered nuclei containing dense dark or sparse gray patches.

Our read

AI & data
Studied:
Preprint: cross-sectional study of 178 human brain tissue donors
What changed:
Aging-related gene activity patterns overlapped with brain disorders in energy production and fatty acid processing, with overlap varying by disorder
The catch:
Differences associated with alcohol use disorder could mimic earlier aging across donors
In the record:
The 44th paper on alcohol use disorder with results in people; 174 on record in all.
Why it’s aging research:
It looks at how biology varies with age or lifespan.

Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News

Paper
Follow @agingbrief

Tissue from the caudate, a brain region supporting thinking and goal-directed behavior, came from 178 human donors, including controls and people with alcohol or opioid use disorder. An observational analysis measured gene activity in individual cell nuclei. The researchers also examined 3,139 gene activity profiles from the caudate and other brain regions across several diagnostic groups.

Age-related gene activity shifts were pronounced in later adulthood. In donors with alcohol use disorder, age-associated changes appeared earlier. Gene activity patterns involving mitochondria, cells’ energy-producing structures, and fatty acid processing linked caudate aging with alcohol and opioid use disorders, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and Alzheimer disease. The direction and extent of overlap varied by disorder and brain region.

Why it matters

Mapping how caudate cells change with age offers a way to investigate relationships between aging and substance use, psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.

Caveats

Comparisons across donors could not distinguish earlier aging from other differences associated with alcohol use disorder. The findings come from a preprint that has not been peer-reviewed.

Where the evidence stands

Chromatin and 3D genome organization

Cells, worms or flies, mice and humans: a single group.

C, W, M, H: cells, worms or flies, mice, humans. Dark: independent labs found the same change there. Light: one lab or one study. Outline: nothing yet.

Labs are independent when their papers share no last author and no institution.

Against: findings that point the other way from most findings on the same outcome.

Company ties: findings with an author at a company, or from a paper whose competing-interests statement declares ties to one.

Includes the processes named after it and trials of drugs aimed at it.

  • 58 independent labs in 23 countries
  • 2 findings against
  • Funders: National Institutes of Health and others
  • 12 of 88 findings with company ties

Lipid and ceramide metabolism

Cells, worms or flies, mice and humans: replicated by independent labs.

C, W, M, H: cells, worms or flies, mice, humans. Dark: independent labs found the same change there. Light: one lab or one study. Outline: nothing yet.

Labs are independent when their papers share no last author and no institution.

Against: findings that point the other way from most findings on the same outcome.

Company ties: findings with an author at a company, or from a paper whose competing-interests statement declares ties to one.

Includes the processes named after it and trials of drugs aimed at it.

  • 224 independent labs in 36 countries
  • 17 findings against
  • Funders: National Institutes of Health and others
  • 35 of 331 findings with company ties

Comments

Be the first to comment.

More on Alzheimer's disease