BDCD: a comprehensive Brain Disease Cell-cell communication Database

Database (Oxford). 2026 Jan 15;2026:baag017. doi: 10.1093/database/baag017.

ABSTRACT

Dysregulated cell-cell communication (CCC) is increasingly recognized as a driver of brain disease pathology, contributing to neuroinflammation, synaptic dysfunction, and neurodegeneration. Nevertheless, existing resources remain limited in brain specificity, regional coverage, and functional annotation. To address this gap, we develop the Brain Disease Cell-cell communication Database (BDCD), the first comprehensive resource focused on CCC networks across major brain diseases. BDCD integrates 38 manually curated datasets, comprising 8 519 425 single cells from single-cell RNA-seq studies and 140 744 spots from spatial transcriptomic maps, spanning 14 brain regions and 13 canonical cell types covering Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and multiple sclerosis. BDCD reconstructs more than 495 000 ligand-receptor interaction events and links them to structural features, genetic associations, pathways, and therapeutic modulators, including 6100 single nucleotide polymorphisms from genome-wide association studies, 3350 drugs, and 72 477 allosteric modulators. This comprehensive atlas enables cross-disease comparison and supports dynamic hypothesis generation, providing a foundation for mechanistic insights and therapeutic discovery. BDCD is publicly available at https://bioinfo.uth.edu/bdcd/. Database URL: https://bioinfo.uth.edu/bdcd/.

PMID:41925140 | PMC:PMC13044719 | DOI:10.1093/database/baag017