Multimodal Brain Imaging Reveals Structural Differences in Alzheimer's Disease Polygenic Risk Carriers: A Study in Healthy Young Adults.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Recent genome-wide association studies have identified genetic loci that jointly make a considerable contribution to risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD). Because neuropathological features of AD can be present several decades before disease onset, we investigated whether effects of polygenic risk are detectable by neuroimaging in young adults. We hypothesized that higher polygenic risk scores (PRSs) for AD would be associated with reduced volume of the hippocampus and other limbic and paralimbic areas. We further hypothesized that AD PRSs would affect the microstructure of fiber tracts connecting the hippocampus with other brain areas.

Methods

We analyzed the association between AD PRSs and brain imaging parameters using T1-weighted structural (n = 272) an

SUBMITTER: Foley SF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5177726 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature