5-Hydroxymethylcytosine Signatures in Circulating Cell-Free DNA as Diagnostic Biomarkers for Late-Onset Alzheimer's Disease.

BACKGROUND

5-Hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC) is an epigenetic DNA modification that is highly abundant in central nervous system. It has been reported that DNA 5hmC dysregulation play a critical role in Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology. Changes in 5hmC signatures can be detected in circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA), which has shown potential as a non-invasive liquid biopsy material.

OBJECTIVE

However, the genome-wide profiling of 5hmC in cfDNA and its potential for the diagnosis of AD has not been reported to date.

METHODS

We carried out a case-control study and used a genome-wide chemical capture followed by high-throughput sequencing to detect the genome-wide profiles of 5hmC in human cfDNA and identified differentially hydroxymethylated regions (DhMRs) in late-onset AD patients and the control.

RESULTS

We discovered significant differences of 5hmC enrichment in gene bodies which were linked to multiple AD pathogenesis-associated signaling pathways in AD patients compared with cognitively normal controls, indicating they can be well distinguished from normal controls by DhMRs in cfDNA. Specially, we identified 7 distinct genes (RABEP1, CPNE4, DNAJC15, REEP3, ROR1, CAMK1D, and RBFOX1) with predicting diagnostic potential based on their significant correlations with MMSE and MoCA scores of subjects.

CONCLUSION

The present results suggest that 5hmC markers derived from plasma cfDNA can served as an effective, minimally invasive biomarkers for clinical auxiliary diagnosis of late-onset AD.