Brain Homotopic Connectivity in Mild Cognitive Impairment APOE-ε4 Carriers

Jun-Yan Shi; Ping Wang; Bin-Hong Wang; Yong Xu; Xiao Chen; Hui-Jie Li

doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.04.011

Brain Homotopic Connectivity in Mild Cognitive Impairment APOE-ε4 Carriers

Neuroscience. 2020 Jun 1:436:74-81. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.04.011. Epub 2020 Apr 15.

Authors

Jun-Yan Shi¹, Ping Wang², Bin-Hong Wang³, Yong Xu⁴, Xiao Chen², Hui-Jie Li⁵

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; Psychiatric Hospital of Taiyuan City, Taiyuan 030000, China; Department of Medical Psychology, Shanxi Mental Health Center, Taiyuan 030000, China.
² CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
³ Psychiatric Hospital of Taiyuan City, Taiyuan 030000, China; Department of Medical Psychology, Shanxi Mental Health Center, Taiyuan 030000, China.
⁴ Department of Psychiatry, First Hospital/First Clinical Medical College of Shanxi Medical University, Taiyuan 030001, China.
⁵ CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: lihj@psych.ac.cn.

PMID: 32304722
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2020.04.011

Abstract

Individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are regarded as being at high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD). The apolipoprotein E (APOE) ε4 allele is a well-established genetic risk factor for developing AD. In the present study, by using voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC), we aimed to explore the potential functional disruptions in MCI APOE-ε4 carriers. Resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 35 MCI APOE-ε4 carriers (27 APOE-ε3ε4, 8 APOE-ε4ε4) and 42 MCI APOE-ε4 noncarriers (APOE-ε3ε3). VMHC was employed to investigate the alterations in functional connectivity in MCI APOE-ε4 carriers. We further investigated the seed-based functional connectivity between the VMHC values of altered regions and other brain regions in the two groups. The results showed that MCI APOE-ε4 carriers presented increased VMHC in the inferior frontal gyrus/insula and middle frontal gyrus/superior frontal gyrus in comparison with noncarriers. We found that MCI APOE-ε4 carriers showed increased functional connectivity between the seed regions (bilateral inferior frontal gyri/insula and bilateral middle frontal gyri/superior frontal gyri) and broad brain areas, including the frontal, temporal, parietal, and cerebellar regions. Our findings provide neuroimaging evidence for the modulation of the APOE genotype on the neurodegenerative disease phenotype and may be potentially important for monitoring disease progression in double-high-risk populations of AD.

Keywords: apolipoprotein E; connectivity; fMRI; mild cognitive impairment.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Alzheimer Disease*
Apolipoprotein E4 / genetics
Apolipoproteins E / genetics
Brain / diagnostic imaging
Cognitive Dysfunction* / diagnostic imaging
Cognitive Dysfunction* / genetics
Genotype
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Neurodegenerative Diseases*

Substances

Apolipoprotein E4
Apolipoproteins E