Alzheimer's Disease Risk Variants Interact with Amyloid-beta to Modulate Monocyte Function

Abstract

While genetics implicate a central role for dysregulated innate immunity in Alzheimers disease (AD), the contributions of peripheral myeloid cells, such as monocytes, have been largely overlooked in favor of microglia. Here, we investigate whether AD associated loci, specifically rs3865444 in the CD33 locus and rs1057233 in the SPI1 locus, converge on shared functional pathways in monocytes in the context of amyloid-beta peptide 1-42 (A{beta}1-42) as an immune stimulus. To do so, we isolated monocytes from peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from healthy individuals and exposed them to aggregated A{beta}1-42. In this study, we identify functional convergence of the CD33 and SPI1 AD risk variants in the context of aggregated A{beta}, both resulting in reduced phagocytosis and loss of surface TREM2 expression, demonstrating an interaction between genetics and environment to reduce myeloid cell fitness. These findings highlight that peripheral monocytes, like brain-resident microglia, are genetically and functionally linked to AD risk, underscoring their importance as accessible immune cells that contribute to disease susceptibility and progression.