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Brain Structural Network Compensation Is Associated With Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology

BACKGROUND: Structural network alterations in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are related to worse cognitive impairment. The aim of this study was to quantify the alterations in gray matter associated with impaired cognition and their pathological biomarkers in AD-spectrum patients. METHODS: We extracted g...

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Autores principales: Sheng, Xiaoning, Chen, Haifeng, Shao, Pengfei, Qin, Ruomeng, Zhao, Hui, Xu, Yun, Bai, Feng
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7947929/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33716654
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.630278
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author Sheng, Xiaoning
Chen, Haifeng
Shao, Pengfei
Qin, Ruomeng
Zhao, Hui
Xu, Yun
Bai, Feng
author_facet Sheng, Xiaoning
Chen, Haifeng
Shao, Pengfei
Qin, Ruomeng
Zhao, Hui
Xu, Yun
Bai, Feng
author_sort Sheng, Xiaoning
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Structural network alterations in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are related to worse cognitive impairment. The aim of this study was to quantify the alterations in gray matter associated with impaired cognition and their pathological biomarkers in AD-spectrum patients. METHODS: We extracted gray matter networks from 3D-T1 magnetic resonance imaging scans, and a graph theory analysis was used to explore alterations in the network metrics in 34 healthy controls, 70 mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients, and 40 AD patients. Spearman correlation analysis was computed to investigate the relationships among network properties, neuropsychological performance, and cerebrospinal fluid pathological biomarkers (i.e., Aβ, t-tau, and p-tau) in these subjects. RESULTS: AD-spectrum individuals demonstrated higher nodal properties and edge properties associated with impaired memory function, and lower amyloid-β or higher tau levels than the controls. Furthermore, these compensations at the brain regional level in AD-spectrum patients were mainly in the medial temporal lobe; however, the compensation at the whole-brain network level gradually extended from the frontal lobe to become widely distributed throughout the cortex with the progression of AD. CONCLUSION: The findings provide insight into the alterations in the gray matter network related to impaired cognition and pathological biomarkers in the progression of AD. The possibility of compensation was detected in the structural networks in AD-spectrum patients; the compensatory patterns at regional and whole-brain levels were different and the clinical significance was highlighted.
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spelling pubmed-79479292021-03-12 Brain Structural Network Compensation Is Associated With Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology Sheng, Xiaoning Chen, Haifeng Shao, Pengfei Qin, Ruomeng Zhao, Hui Xu, Yun Bai, Feng Front Neurosci Neuroscience BACKGROUND: Structural network alterations in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are related to worse cognitive impairment. The aim of this study was to quantify the alterations in gray matter associated with impaired cognition and their pathological biomarkers in AD-spectrum patients. METHODS: We extracted gray matter networks from 3D-T1 magnetic resonance imaging scans, and a graph theory analysis was used to explore alterations in the network metrics in 34 healthy controls, 70 mild cognitive impairment (MCI) patients, and 40 AD patients. Spearman correlation analysis was computed to investigate the relationships among network properties, neuropsychological performance, and cerebrospinal fluid pathological biomarkers (i.e., Aβ, t-tau, and p-tau) in these subjects. RESULTS: AD-spectrum individuals demonstrated higher nodal properties and edge properties associated with impaired memory function, and lower amyloid-β or higher tau levels than the controls. Furthermore, these compensations at the brain regional level in AD-spectrum patients were mainly in the medial temporal lobe; however, the compensation at the whole-brain network level gradually extended from the frontal lobe to become widely distributed throughout the cortex with the progression of AD. CONCLUSION: The findings provide insight into the alterations in the gray matter network related to impaired cognition and pathological biomarkers in the progression of AD. The possibility of compensation was detected in the structural networks in AD-spectrum patients; the compensatory patterns at regional and whole-brain levels were different and the clinical significance was highlighted. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-02-25 /pmc/articles/PMC7947929/ /pubmed/33716654 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.630278 Text en Copyright © 2021 Sheng, Chen, Shao, Qin, Zhao, Xu, Bai and Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Sheng, Xiaoning
Chen, Haifeng
Shao, Pengfei
Qin, Ruomeng
Zhao, Hui
Xu, Yun
Bai, Feng
Brain Structural Network Compensation Is Associated With Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology
title Brain Structural Network Compensation Is Associated With Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology
title_full Brain Structural Network Compensation Is Associated With Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology
title_fullStr Brain Structural Network Compensation Is Associated With Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology
title_full_unstemmed Brain Structural Network Compensation Is Associated With Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology
title_short Brain Structural Network Compensation Is Associated With Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease Pathology
title_sort brain structural network compensation is associated with cognitive impairment and alzheimer’s disease pathology
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7947929/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33716654
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2021.630278
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