Renew Biotechnologies has published a new study in Frontiers in Neurology, providing insights into neurodegeneration and where it takes place in the brain. Details of the study are reported in a press release.

A primary human brain methylation reference atlas was developed as part of the study. The roadmap spans multiple neuronal and glial cell types, according to Renew Biotechnologies. The researchers also trained cell-type-associated methylation classifiers and then applied them to 137 blood samples from participants with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, mild cognitive impairment, or who were healthy.

The findings suggest that native DNA methylation analysis can pinpoint cell-free DNA (cfDNA) signatures specific to neurodegenerative diseases. Specifically, “cortical neurons in AD, dopaminergic neurons in PD, and spinal motor neurons in ALS.” Additionally, “multivariate models integrating these neuronal signatures achieved disease discrimination with area under the curve (AUC) values exceeding 0.85.”