Fig. 1

Study design for integrative analysis and for identifying AD-associated chemokines. The mRNA expression profiling of 31 chemokine genes was analyzed by using the compiled microarray data of four brain regions (entorhinal cortex, hippocampus, frontal cortex, and temporal cortex) of AD patients and controls [41], two microarray data (GSE63060 and GSE63061) from peripheral blood of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or AD and controls [42], and expression data of AD mouse models [43]. The gene-based burden test and single-variant association analysis were performed using Han Chinese cohorts in this study and reported datasets [6, 44]. Mendelian randomization (MR) was used to assess the causal effect of the most significantly AD-associated chemokine genes on AD