RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Relating Global and Local Connectome Changes to Dementia and Targeted Gene Expression in Alzheimer’s Disease
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 730416
DO 10.1101/730416
A1 Samar S. M. Elsheikh
A1 Emile R. Chimusa
A1 Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative
A1 Nicola J. Mulder
A1 Alessandro Crimi
YR 2020
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/11/04/730416.abstract
AB Networks are present in many aspects of our lives, and networks in neuroscience have recently gained much attention leading to novel representations of brain connectivity. The integration of neuroimaging and genetics allows a better understanding of the effects of the genetic variations on brain structural and functional connections. The current work uses whole-brain tractography in a longitudinal setting, and by measuring the brain structural connectivity changes studies the neurodegeneration of Alzheimer’s disease. This is accomplished by examining the effect of targeted genetic risk factors on the most common local and global brain connectivity measures. Furthermore, we examined the extent to which Clinical Dementia Rating relates to brain connections longitudinally, as well as to gene expression. Here, we show that the expression of PLAU and HFE genes increases the change over time respectively in betweenness centrality related to the fusiform gyrus and clustering coefficient of the cingulum bundle. We also show that the betweenness centrality metric highlights impact dementia-related changes in distinct brain regions. Ourfindings provide insights into the complex longitudinal interplay between genetics and brain characteristics and highlight the role of Alzheimer’s genetic risk factors in the estimation of regional brain connection alterations.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.