Epigenome-wide study uncovers large-scale changes in histone acetylation driven by tau pathology in the aging and Alzheimer human brain

Accumulation of tau and amyloid-β are two pathologic hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We conducted an epigenome-wide association study using the H3K9 acetylation (H3K9ac) mark in 669 aged human prefrontal cortices: in contrast to amyloid-β, tau protein burden had a broad effect on the epigenome, affecting 5,990 out of 26,384 H3K9ac domains. Tau-related alterations aggregated in large genomic segments reflecting spatial chromatin organization, and the magnitude of these effects correlated with the segment’s nuclear lamina association. Functional relevance of these chromatin changes was demonstrated by (1) consistent transcriptional changes in three independent datasets and (2) similar findings in two AD mouse models. Finally, we found that tau overexpression in iPSC-derived neurons altered chromatin structure and that these effects could be blocked by a small molecule predicted to reverse the tau effect. Thus, we report broad tau-driven chromatin rearrangements in the aging human brain that may be reversible with Hsp90 inhibitors.