ExonSkipAD Provides the Functional Genomic Landscape of Exon Skipping Events in Alzheimer's Disease

Exon skipping (ES), the most common alternative splicing event, has been reported to contribute to diverse human diseases due to the loss of functional domains/sites or frameshifting of the open reading frame (ORF) and noticed as therapeutic targets. Accumulating transcriptomic studies of aging brains show the splicing disruption is a widespread hallmark of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we built ExonSkipAD, the ES annotation database aiming to provide a resource/reference for functional annotation of ES events in AD and identify therapeutic targets in exon units. We identified 16 414 genes that have ~156 K, ~ 69 K, ~ 231 K ES events from the three representative AD cohorts of ROSMAP, MSBB and Mayo, respectively. For these ES events, we performed multiple functional annotations relating to ES mechanisms or downstream. Specifically, through the functional feature retention studies followed by the open reading frames (ORFs), we identified 275 important cellular regulators that might lose their cellular regulator roles due to exon skipping in AD. ExonSkipAD provides twelve categories of annotations: gene summary, gene structures and expression levels, exon skipping events with PSIs, ORF annotation, exon skipping events in the canonical protein sequence, 3'-UTR located exon skipping events lost miRNA-binding sites, SNversus in the skipped exons with a depth of coverage, AD stage-associated exon skipping events, splicing quantitative trait loci (sQTLs) in the skipped exons, correlation with RNA-binding proteins, and related drugs & diseases. ExonSkipAD will be a unique resource of transcriptomic diversity research for understanding the mechanisms of neurodegenerative disease development and identifying potential therapeutic targets in AD. Significance AS the first comprehensive resource of the functional genomics of the alternative splicing events in AD, ExonSkipAD will be useful for many researchers in the fields of pathology, AD genomics and precision medicine, and pharmaceutical and therapeutic researches.