Single-nucleus transcriptomics and chromatin accessibility of cell type-specific contributions to the epileptogenic cortex of focal cortical dysplasia type IIIa [snRNA-seq]

Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) is a heterogeneous group of cortical developmental malformations that constitute a common cause of medically intractable epilepsy. Multiomic integration was conducted via single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) and single-nucleus assays for transposase-accessible chromatin sequencing (snATAC-seq) to analyse cell type-specific alterations in chromatin accessibility and correlate them with gene expression changes in the epileptogenic cortex of FCD type IIIa (FCD IIIa). Highly epileptogenic temporal neocortical tissue from the FCD IIIa patients (n=4) and controls (n=3) was analysed via snRNA-seq and snATAC-seq. Transcriptomic and epigenetic datasets were specifically generated from equally divided samples from the same brain tissue.