MEF2C controls lysosomal and lipid clearance programs linked to Alzheimer's disease risk in macrophages

Risk alleles for late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD) are enriched in myeloid cis-regulatory elements, implicating myeloid gene-regulatory networks in disease susceptibility. A conserved lipid-associated transcriptional signature-spanning disease-associated microglia and peripheral lipid-associated macrophages (DLAM)-emerges across neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases characterized by lipid overload, yet the transcriptional regulators of this gene expression program remain incompletely defined. Here, we show that MEF2C-a candidate AD risk gene-is a master DLAM regulator. Using MEF2C knockout and knockdown in human iPSC-derived microglia and macrophages, we found that total or partial MEF2C loss is sufficient to induce DLAM-associated transcriptional, epigenomic, and functional remodeling, including enhanced lysosomal activity and cholesterol efflux. Integration of chromatin accessibility and regulatory epigenetic profiles with functionally informed fine-mapping linked candidate causal variants in AD risk loci to MEF2C-regulated cis-regulatory elements that target candidate AD risk genes at these loci. In a triculture model of AD, microglial MEF2C loss is associated with an increased DLAM population and a reduced Aβ42/40 ratio, supporting context-dependent reprogramming of microglia as a potential biological mechanism to modulate AD-relevant pathology.