Effect of APOEϵ4 on Functional Brain Network in Patients with Subjective Cognitive Decline: A Resting State Functional MRI Study

Abstract

Simin Deng,1,* Lingyu Sun,2,* Weijie Chen,1,* Xiaorong Liu,2 Shangjie Chen3 1The Second School of Clinical Medicine, Southern Medical University, Dongguan Tung Wah Hospital, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Dongguan Tung Wah Hospital, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Affiliated Baoan Hospital of Shenzhen, Southern Medical University, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Shangjie ChenDepartment of Rehabilitation Medicine, Affiliated Baoan Hospital of Shenzhen, Southern Medical University, No. 118 Longjing Second Road, Baoan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong, People’s Republic of ChinaTel [phone]Fax [phone]Email [email protected]: Subjective cognitive decline (SCD) is the earliest symptom stage of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and the APOEϵ4 allele is the strongest genetic risk factor for sporadic AD. Based on graph theory, the resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) in SCD patients with APOEϵ4 was studied to explore the effect of APOEϵ4 on the rsFC network properties of SCD patients.Patients and Methods: This cross-sectional study included MRI image data from 19 SCD patients with APOEϵ4 (SCD+), 29 SCD patients without APOEϵ4 (SCD−), and 30 normal control (NC−) individuals without APOEϵ4. We generated a binary matrix based on anatomical automatic labeling (AAL) 90 atlas to construct the functional network. We then calculated the whole brain network characteristics and intracerebral node characteristics by graph theory.Results: For the whole brain network characteristics, all three groups showed small-worldness. The SCD+ group had increased compensatory information transfer speed and enhanced integration capability. This group also had high heterogeneity for intracerebral node characteristics, mainly in the default mode network, left superior occipital gyrus, and bilateral putamen.Conclusion: APOEϵ4 effects the functional brain network in patients with SCD and may be a potential indicator for the identification of SCD.Keywords: SCD, APOEϵ4 allele, graph theory, whole brain network characteristics, intracerebral node characteristics

Keywords

• scd
• apoeε4 allele
• graph theory
• whole brain network characteristics
• intracerebral node characteristics