Spatial mapping of MS genetics on affected brain tissue

1多发性硬化症（MS）是一种影响超过2.3的自身免疫性神经退行性疾病 全球有200万人，其特征是局部神经炎症，导致失去 3保护性髓鞘覆盖轴突并最终形成脱髓鞘病变。 4 MS具有明确和广泛的遗传成分。我们的长期目标是确定 MS遗传学促进中枢神经系统疾病发病机制的5种机制 6系统（CNS）。本申请的总体目标是确定介导细胞凋亡的关键CNS细胞。 7吃遗传协会和各自的机制。核心假设是， 8 CNS细胞受疾病遗传学的影响，它们的空间分布反映了潜在的 9种病变形成机制。这一假设是根据初步结果提出的， 10鉴定了分布在MS病变周围的不同细胞中MS遗传学的不同激活。 11.拟议研究的基本原理是，这些CNS细胞的发现，以及它们的SPA， 12 tial分布，将导致更好地了解遗传对疾病的贡献， 13的表达和进展，并提供了一个高度细胞特异性的潜在新药靶点清单。 14.为了检验假设和实现总体目标，以下具体目标是有利的： 15提出：（i）鉴定受影响MS中富集疾病相关遗传学的细胞 16脑。我们将同时从三个区域产生单细胞RNA-seq/ATAC-seq， 活动和非活动MS病变和对照脑的17个兴趣（ROI），在高场MRI后。我们 18将这些数据与最新的MS遗传学相结合，以鉴定富集的CNS细胞， 19其空间分布和潜在机制。最后，我们将验证这些发现uti- 20使全基因组空间转录组学技术化。

1 Multiple Sclerosis (MS) in an autoimmune neurodegenerative disease affecting more than 2.3 2 million people worldwide, characterized by localized neuroinflammation leading to loss of the 3 protective myelin sheath covering axons and eventually the formation of demyelinated lesions. 4 MS has a well-defined and extensive genetic component. Our long-term goal is to identify the 5 mechanisms via which MS genetics contribute to disease pathogenesis in the central nervous 6 system (CNS). The overall objective in this application, is to determine key CNS cells that medi- 7 ate genetic associations and respective mechanisms. The central hypothesis is that various 8 CNS cells are affected by the disease genetics and their spatial distribution reflects underlying 9 mechanisms of lesion formation. This hypothesis is formulated based on preliminary results that 10 identified a distinct activation of MS genetics in different cells distributed around MS lesions. 11 The rationale for the proposed research is that the discovery of these CNS cells, and their spa- 12 tial distribution, will lead to a better understanding of the genetic contribution to the disease de- 13 velopment and progression and provide a highly cell-specific list of potential new drug targets. 14 To test the hypothesis and achieve the overall objective, the following specific aims are pro- 15 posed: (i) Identify the cells that are enriched for disease-associated genetics in the affected MS 16 brain. We will generate simultaneously single cell RNA-seq/ATAC-seq from three regions of in- 17 terest (ROIs) of active and inactive MS lesions and control brains, following high-field MRI. We 18 will integrate these data with the most recent MS genetics in order to identify enriched CNS cell, 19 their spatial distribution, and underlying mechanisms. Finally, we will validate these findings uti- 20 lizing genome-wide spatial transcriptomics technologies.