NELL2 and neurodegenerative disease: The functional annotation of the identified genes confirmed their association with AD, and we also recognized certain novel genes (STXBP1, SLIT2, ADM, BRINP1, HMGCS1, KCNA2, TMOD2, MYT1L, NELL2, and SCN3B) that had no previous record of AD though were associated with neurodegenerative diseases.