Single-cell transcriptomic and chromatin dynamics of the human brain in PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a polygenic disorder occurring after extreme trauma exposure. Recent studies have begun to detail the molecular biology of PTSD. However, given the array of PTSD-perturbed molecular pathways identified so far¹, it is implausible that a single cell type is responsible. Here we profile the molecular responses in over two million nuclei from the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of 111 human brains, collected post-mortem from individuals with and without PTSD and major depressive disorder. We identify neuronal and non-neuronal cell-type clusters, gene expression changes and transcriptional regulators, and map the epigenomic regulome of PTSD in a cell-type-specific manner. Our analysis revealed PTSD-associated gene alterations in inhibitory neurons, endothelial cells and microglia and uncovered genes and pathways associated with glucocorticoid signalling, GABAergic transmission and neuroinflammation. We further validated these findings using cell-type-specific spatial transcriptomics, confirming disruption of key genes such as SST and FKBP5. By integrating genetic, transcriptomic and epigenetic data, we uncovered the regulatory mechanisms of credible variants that disrupt PTSD genes, including ELFN1, MAD1L1 and KCNIP4, in a cell-type-specific context. Together, these findings provide a comprehensive characterization of the cell-specific molecular regulatory mechanisms that underlie the persisting effects of traumatic stress response on the human prefrontal cortex.