MIAMI-AD (Methylation in Aging and Methylation in AD): an integrative knowledgebase that facilitates explorations of DNA methylation across sex, aging, and Alzheimer's disease

Database (Oxford). 2024 Jul 19:2024:baae061. doi: 10.1093/database/baae061.

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder with a significant impact on aging populations. DNA methylation (DNAm) alterations have been implicated in both the aging processes and the development of AD. Given that AD affects more women than men, it is also important to explore DNAm changes that occur specifically in each sex. We created MIAMI-AD, a comprehensive knowledgebase containing manually curated summary statistics from 98 published tables in 38 studies, all of which included at least 100 participants. MIAMI-AD enables easy browsing, querying, and downloading DNAm associations at multiple levels-at individual CpG, gene, genomic regions, or genome-wide, in one or multiple studies. Moreover, it also offers tools to perform integrative analyses, such as comparing DNAm associations across different phenotypes or tissues, as well as interactive visualizations. Using several use case examples, we demonstrated that MIAMI-AD facilitates our understanding of age-associated CpGs in AD and the sex-specific roles of DNAm in AD. This open-access resource is freely available to the research community, and all the underlying data can be downloaded. MIAMI-AD facilitates integrative explorations to better understand the interplay between DNAm across aging, sex, and AD. Database URL: https://miami-ad.org/.

MeSH terms

  • Aging* / genetics
  • Alzheimer Disease* / genetics
  • Alzheimer Disease* / metabolism
  • CpG Islands / genetics
  • DNA Methylation* / genetics
  • Databases, Genetic
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Knowledge Bases
  • Male