A cortical immune network map identifies distinct microglial transcriptional programs associated with β-amyloid and Tau pathologies

Microglial dysfunction has been proposed as one of the many cellular mechanisms that can contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Here, using a transcriptional network map of the human frontal cortex, we identify five modules of co-expressed genes related to microglia and assess their role in the neuropathologic features of AD in 540 subjects from two cohort studies of brain aging. Two of these transcriptional programs—modules 113 and 114—relate to the accumulation of β-amyloid, while module 5 relates to tau pathology. We replicate these associations in brain epigenomic data and in two independent datasets. In terms of tau, we propose that module 5, a marker of activated microglia, may lead to tau accumulation and subsequent cognitive decline. We validate our model further by showing that three representative module 5 genes (ACADVL, TRABD, and VASP) encode proteins that are upregulated in activated microglia in AD.