Cross-tissue transcriptomic analysis identifies MMP9 as a shared neuroinflammatory marker in Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s diseases, suggesting its potential as a therapeutic target.
Key Points
This research aims to uncover shared immune-related mechanisms in Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases through transcriptomic analysis.
Integrated transcriptomic profiles of peripheral blood and frontal cortex tissues with 2,160 immune-related genes.
Applied machine learning techniques (LASSO and Boruta) to validate MMP9 as a core immune hub gene.
Identified 10 co-expressed all-immune genes shared between Alzheimer's and Huntington's diseases.
MMP9 demonstrated modest diagnostic performance in peripheral blood (AD AUC = 0.616; HD AUC = 0.619) and stronger accuracy in brain tissues (AD AUC = 0.825; HD AUC = 0.876).
MMP9 expression positively correlated with neutrophil and M0 macrophage infiltration, indicating its role in neuroinflammation.