Mini Review: Spatial Transcriptomics to Decode the Central Nervous System

Spatial transcriptomics (ST) is revolutionizing our understanding of the central nervous system (CNS) by providing spatially resolved gene expression data. This mini review explores the impact of ST on CNS research, particularly in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. We describe two foundational ST methods: sequencing-based and imaging-based. Key studies are reviewed highlighting the power of ST data sets to map transcriptomes to disease-specific histomorphology, elucidate molecular mechanisms of regional and cellular vulnerability, integrate single-cell data with tissue mapping, and reveal receptor-ligand interactions. Despite current challenges like data interpretation and resolution limits, ST holds promise for identifying novel drug targets, evaluating their therapeutic potential, and bridging gaps between animal models and human studies to advance development of CNS-targeting compounds.