Biology subjects

Xi, H. S.

Publications and source records attributed to Xi, H. S..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2020

Profiling microglia from AD donors and non-demented elderly in acute human post-mortem cortical tissue

Microglia are the tissue-resident macrophages of the central nervous system (CNS). Recent studies based on bulk and single-cell RNA sequencing in mice indicate high relevance of microglia with respect to risk genes and neuro-inflammation in Alzheimers disease. Here, we investigated microglia transcriptomes at bulk and single cell level in non-demented elderly and AD donors using acute human post-mortem cortical brain samples. We identified 9 human microglial subpopulations with heterogeneity in gene expression. Notably, gene expression profiles and subcluster composition of microglia did not differ between AD donors and non-demented elderly in bulk RNA sequencing nor in single-cell sequencing.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Cell type specific genetic regulation of gene expression across human tissues

The Genotype-Tissue Expression (GTEx) project has identified expression and splicing quantitative trait loci (cis-QTLs) for the majority of genes across a wide range of human tissues. However, the interpretation of these QTLs has been limited by the heterogeneous cellular composition of GTEx tissue samples. Here, we map interactions between computational estimates of cell type abundance and genotype to identify cell type interaction QTLs for seven cell types and show that cell type interaction eQTLs provide finer resolution to tissue specificity than bulk tissue cis-eQTLs. Analyses of genetic associations to 87 complex traits show a contribution from cell type interaction QTLs and enables the discovery of hundreds of previously unidentified colocalized loci that are masked in bulk tissue.\n\nOne Sentence SummaryEstimated cell type abundances from bulk RNA-seq across tissues reveal the cellular specificity of quantitative trait loci.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2018

A systematic survey of human tissue-specific gene expression and splicing reveals new opportunities for therapeutic target identification and evaluation

Differences in the expression of genes and their splice isoforms across human tissues are fundamental factors to consider for therapeutic target evaluation. To this end, we conducted a transcriptome-wide survey of tissue-specific gene expression and splicing events in the unprecedented collection of 8527 high-quality RNA-seq samples from the GTEx project, covering 36 human peripheral tissues and 13 brain subregions. We derived a weighted tissue-specificity scoring scheme accounting for the similarity of related tissues and inherent variability across individual samples. We showed that ~50.6% of all annotated human genes show tissue-specific expression, including many low abundance transcripts vastly underestimated by previous array-based expression atlases. As utilities for drug discovery, we demonstrated that tissue-specificity is a highly desirable attribute of validated drug targets and tissue-specificity can be used to prioritize disease-associated genes from genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Using brain striatum-specific gene expression as an example, we provided a template to leverage tissue-specific gene expression to identify novel therapeutic targets. Mining of tissue-specific splicing further reveals new opportunities for tissue-specific targeting. Thus, the high quality transcriptome atlas provided by the GTEx is an invaluable resource for drug discovery and systematic analysis anchored on the human tissue specific gene expression provides a promising avenue to identify novel therapeutic target hypotheses.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2017

Developmental And Genetic Regulation Of The Human Cortex Transcriptome In Schizophrenia

GWAS have identified 108 loci that confer risk for schizophrenia, but risk mechanisms for individual loci are largely unknown. Using developmental, genetic, and illness-based RNA sequencing expression analysis, we characterized the human brain transcriptome around these loci and found enrichment for developmentally regulated genes with novel examples of shifting isoform usage across pre- and post-natal life. We found widespread expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs), including many with transcript specificity and previously unannotated sequence that were independently replicated. We leveraged this eQTL database to show that 48.1% of risk variants for schizophrenia associated with nearby expression. Within patients and controls, we implemented a novel algorithm for RNA quality adjustment, and identified 237 genes significantly associated with diagnosis that replicated in an independent case-control dataset. These genes implicated synaptic processes and were strongly regulated in early development (p < 10-20). These data offer new targets for modeling schizophrenia risk in cellular systems.

neuroscience↗