Hamza Eid Abo, Moustafa Ahmed A, Tindle Richard, Karki Rasu, Nalla Shahed, Hamid Mohamed S, El Haj Mohamad
Faculty of Education, Department of Mental Health, Tanta University, Egypt
College of Education, Humanities & Social Sciences, Al Ain University, UAE.
Curr Alzheimer Res. 2023 Mar 9. doi: 10.2174/1567205020666230309113749.
The hippocampus, entorhinal cortex, and fusiform gyrus are brain areas that deteriorate during early-stage Alzheimer's disease (AD). The ApoE4 allele has been identified as a risk factor for AD development, is linked to an increase in the aggregation of amyloid ß (Aß) plaques in the brain, and is responsible for atrophy of the hippocampal area. However, to our knowledge, the rate of deterioration over time in individuals with AD, with or without the ApoE4 allele, has not been investigated.
In this study, we, for the first time, analyze atrophy in these brain structures in AD patients with and without the ApoE4 using the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) dataset.
It was found that the rate of decrease in the volume of these brain areas over 12 months was related to the presence of ApoE4. Further, we found that neural atrophy was not different for female and male patients, unlike prior studies, suggesting that the presence of ApoE4 is not linked to the gender difference in AD.
Our results confirm and extend previous findings, showing that the ApoE4 allele gradually impacts brain regions impacted by AD.
海马体、内嗅皮质和梭状回是在早期阿尔茨海默病（AD）期间会发生退化的脑区。载脂蛋白E4（ApoE4）等位基因已被确定为AD发病的一个风险因素，与大脑中β淀粉样蛋白（Aβ）斑块聚集增加有关，并导致海马区萎缩。然而，据我们所知，携带或不携带ApoE4等位基因的AD患者随时间的退化率尚未得到研究。
在本研究中，我们首次使用阿尔茨海默病神经影像倡议（ADNI）数据集分析了携带和不携带ApoE4的AD患者这些脑结构的萎缩情况。
发现这些脑区在12个月内体积减小的速率与ApoE4的存在有关。此外，我们发现与先前的研究不同，女性和男性患者的神经萎缩没有差异，这表明ApoE4的存在与AD中的性别差异无关。
我们的结果证实并扩展了先前的发现，表明ApoE4等位基因会逐渐影响受AD影响的脑区。
