Retinal Transcriptome-Wide Association Study Identifies Novel Alzheimer's Disease Risk Genes

Abstract

INTRODUCTIONAlzheimers disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia worldwide. The retina shares molecular pathways with the brain, yet no study has systematically linked retinal gene expression to AD risk. METHODSWe performed transcriptome-wide association studies (TWAS) using two independent retinal eQTL panels (Strunz et al., n = 311; EyeGEx, n = 406) and a large meta-analyzed AD genome-wide association study (GWAS) (Bellenguez et al., 111,326 cases, 677,663 controls). Genes were further validated with GWAS in the independent Alzheimers Disease Sequencing Project (ADSP) using a matched eQTL-panel strategy. RESULTSWe identified 62 AD-associated genes across the two eQTL panels using Bellenguez et al. as the discovery cohort. Of these, 31 were replicated in the ADSP cohort. The findings highlight shared complement-mediated immune dysregulation (CD55, CD46, TREM2) and provide functional transcriptomic evidence to prioritize novel causal drivers of AD pathogenesis, including STYX and the LRRC37 gene family. DISCUSSIONRetinal data capture core AD genetic architecture and reveal novel risk genes, highlighting the retina as a molecularly informative tissue for dementia research.