# Molecular Diversity Among Hippocampal and Entorhinal Cells in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease

> **NIH NIH R01** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $1,589,662

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the leading cause of dementia (60-80%), affecting tens of millions of people
globally and, due to longer lifespans and aging populations, perhaps hundreds of millions more by 2050. AD
pathology is first observed in allocortical and limbic areas within the cerebrum, in particular medial temporal
cortical regions critical for learning and memory including the hippocampal formation and entorhinal cortex
(HIP-EC). Within these areas, pathology exhibits subregional and cell type specificity, with layer 2 of
entorhinal cortex and the hippocampal CA1 field (Sommer’s sector) exhibiting pathological hallmarks before
dentate gyrus granule cells and other major hippocampal neuronal subtypes. Understanding the molecular
basis of this selective vulnerability (and conversely the resilience of other cell types) will provide new insights
into the etiology of AD, but to date only limited efforts have been made to understand the molecular signatures
differentiating neuronal and non-neuronal cells in HIP-EC. We therefore propose to conduct single nuclear
RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) and single nuclear Assay for Transposase Accessible Chromatin (snATAC-
seq) in 5 regions of HIP-EC of AD brains, young/mid adult and aged neurotypical “control” human brains, and
young adult and aged rhesus macaque brains. This will allow us to develop a high resolution cell census of
HIP-EC which will in turn allow us to identify enriched genes, gene expression patterns, gene regulatory
networks, and biological processes potentially mediating cell type specific differences in the AD and aged
HIP-EC.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10891756
- **Project number:** 4R01AG074341-02
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Anita Juliane Huttner
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $1,589,662
- **Award type:** 4N
- **Project period:** 2021-09-30 → 2026-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10891756

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10891756, Molecular Diversity Among Hippocampal and Entorhinal Cells in Aging and Alzheimer's Disease (4R01AG074341-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10891756. Licensed CC0.

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