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. 2020 Oct:94:81-88.
doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2020.05.007. Epub 2020 May 21.

Association of hippocampal volume polygenic predictor score with baseline and change in brain volumes and cognition among cognitively healthy older adults

Nicole M Armstrong  1 , Logan Dumitrescu  2 , Chiung-Wei Huang  3 , Yang An  1 , Toshiko Tanaka  1 , Dena Hernandez  1 , Jimit Doshi  4 , Guray Erus  4 , Christos Davatzikos  4 , Luigi Ferrucci  1 , Susan M Resnick  5 , Timothy J Hohman  2
Affiliations

Association of hippocampal volume polygenic predictor score with baseline and change in brain volumes and cognition among cognitively healthy older adults

Nicole M Armstrong et al. Neurobiol Aging. 2020 Oct.

Abstract

A high hippocampal volume polygenic predictor score (HV-PPS), computed based on GWAS summary statistics (n = 33,536), could be protective against declines in brain volume and cognition in older adults. Linear mixed-effects models with random intercepts and slopes were used to estimate associations of HV-PPS with baseline and annual rate of change in both brain volumes (n = 508) and cognitive performance (n = 1041) in Caucasian Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging participants. Higher HV-PPS was associated with greater baseline volumes of the hippocampus and parahippocampal gyrus, and slower rates of ventricular enlargement and volume loss in frontal and parietal white matter, all adjusted for intracranial volume. In addition, higher HV-PPS was associated with better executive function performance and slower rates of decline in verbal fluency scores over time. Individuals with a genetic predisposition toward larger hippocampal volumes show better baseline executive function, slower decline in verbal fluency performance, and slower rates of longitudinal brain atrophy.

Keywords: APOE; Cognitive function; Genetics; Hippocampus; Polygenic predictor score.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Baseline association between HV-PPS and hippocampal volume after covariate adjustment.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.. Longitudinal associations of time on study with ventricles and frontal and parietal white matter (WM) by standard deviations of hippocampal volume polygenic predictor score (HV-PPS)
Note: HV-PPS categories mean the following: −1 is one standard deviation below the mean Z-score for the HV-PPS; 0 is the mean Z-score for HV-PPS; 1 is one standard deviation above the mean Z-score for HV-PPS. All analyses are adjusted by baseline mean-centered age, sex, subsequent cognitive impairment status, years of education, mean-centered intracranial volume at age 70, image type (3-T vs. 1.5-T images) and two-way interactions of age and sex with time. Those with one standard deviation above the mean Z-score had greater frontal and parietal white matter volumes and less declines over time as well as lower ventricular size and less steep ventricular enlargement over time, as compared to the other two groups.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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