A brain imaging study has shown brain changes in individuals who carry some genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease but who are otherwise healthy.
Other neuroimaging studies of apolipoprotein E (ApoE4) have implicated its association with brain atrophy in Alzheimer’s disease.
For this current study, researchers used automated neuroimaging analysis techniques to characterize the impact of an Alzheimer’s disease risk gene ApoE4 on gray and white matter in the brains of cognitively healthy elderly from the KU Brain Aging Project.
The researchers found types of brain changes that are found in people with Alzheimer’s disease. They found that healthy elderly individuals carrying a risk-allele of the ApoE4 gene had reduced cognitive performance, decreased brain volume in the hippocampus and amygdala (regions important for memory processing), and decreased white matter integrity in limbic regions. These brain changes, usually found in Alzheimer’s disease patients, are also evident in non-demented individuals who have a genetic risk of later developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Lead investigator Robyn Honea comments, “It is important to note that findings of imaging phenotypes of risk variants, such as with this gene, have been shown in a number of studies. The unique element of our study is that we used several new neuro-imaging analysis techniques. In addition, the individuals in our study have been well-characterized in a clinical setting.”
References:
1. Honea, Robyn A., Eric Vidoni, Amith Harsha and Jeffrey M. Burns. Impact of APOE on the Healthy Aging Brain: A Voxel-Based MRI and DTI Study. J Alzheimers Dis 18:3. November 2009.
