Cited by 124Dementia and Cognitive Impairment ResearchAlzheimer's disease research and treatmentsNeuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms

Brain gene expression patterns differentiate mild cognitive impairment from normal aged and Alzheimer’s disease

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Berchtold, Nicole C., Sabbagh, Marwan N., Beach, Thomas G., Kim, Ronald C., Cribbs, David H., Cotman, Carl W.·2014·Neurobiology of Aging

Abstract

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) represents a cognitive state intermediate between normal aging and early Alzheimer's disease (AD). To investigate if the molecular signature of MCI parallels the clinical picture, we use microarrays to extensively profile gene expression in 4 cortical brain regions (entorhinal cortex, hippocampus, superior frontal gyrus, post-central gyrus) using the postmortem tissue from cognitively normal aged controls, MCI, and AD cases. Our data reveal that gene expression patterns in MCI are not an extension of aging, and for the most part, are not intermediate between aged controls and AD. Functional enrichment analysis of significant genes revealed prominent upregulation in MCI brains of genes associated with anabolic and biosynthetic pathways (notably transcription, protein biosynthesis, protein trafficking, and turnover) as well as mitochondrial energy generation. In addition, many synaptic genes showed altered expression in MCI, predominantly upregulation, including genes for central components of the vesicle fusion machinery at the synapse, synaptic vesicle trafficking, neurotransmitter receptors, and synaptic structure and stabilization. These data suggest that there is a rebalancing of synaptic transmission in the MCI brain. To investigate if synaptic gene expression levels in MCI were related to cognitive function, Pearson correlation coefficient between the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) and region-specific messenger RNA expression were computed for MCI cases. A number of synaptic genes showed strong significant correlations (r > 0.8, p < 0.01) most notably in the entorhinal cortex, with fewer in the hippocampus, and very few in neocortical regions. The synaptic genes with highly significant correlations were predominantly related to synaptic transmission and plasticity, and myelin composition. Unexpectedly, we found that gene expression changes that facilitate synaptic excitability and plasticity were overwhelmingly associated with poorer MMSE, and conversely that gene expression changes that inhibit plasticity were positively associated with MMSE. These data suggest that there are excessive excitability and apparent plasticity in limbic brain regions in MCI, that is associated with impaired synaptic and cognitive function. Such changes would be predicted to contribute to increased excitability, in turn leading to greater metabolic demand and ultimately progressive degeneration and AD, if not controlled.

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Crossref · 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2014.03.031

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  • This analysis identified differential gene expression changes between normal aging and pathological astrocytes, providing a resource to distinguish between astrocytes in healthy aging and disease.

    “This analysis identified differential gene expression changes between normal aging and pathological astrocytes, providing a resource to distinguish between astrocytes in healthy aging and disease (Berchtold et al., 2014; Sekar et al., 2015).”

    From The aging astrocyte transcriptome from multiple regions of the mouse brain. (2018) · cites this paper as Berchtold et al., 2014

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Authors
Berchtold, N. C., Sabbagh, M. N., Beach, T. G., Kim, R. C., Cribbs, D. H., & Cotman, C. W.
Affiliations
  • University of California, Irvine (US)
  • Banner Sun Health Research Institute (US)
Corresponding author
Berchtold, Nicole C.
Venue
Neurobiology of Aging
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2014-09
Volume
35
Issue
9
Pages
1961-1972
ISSN
0197-4580 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2074509666
Cited by
124
References
75
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 4
FWCI
8.14
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Neurobiology of Aging (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
  • eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • University of Pennsylvania
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Institute on Aging (P01AG000538, R01AG034667, AG 16573, AG-000538, P50AG016573, AG034667)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Alzheimer's disease research and treatments
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
Keywords
mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease, gene expression profiling, synaptic genes, synaptic plasticity, synaptic excitability, entorhinal cortex, hippocampus, postmortem brain, cognitive function, Mini-Mental State Examination, mitochondrial bioenergetics, protein synthesis, myelin, cognitive aging
MeSH terms
Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Aging, Alzheimer Disease, Brain, Energy Metabolism, Female, Humans, Male, Metabolism, Mitochondria, Myelin Sheath, Synaptic Transmission, Neuronal Plasticity, Neuropsychological Tests, Transcription, Genetic, Protein Biosynthesis, Gene Expression, Gene Expression Profiling, Protein Transport, Microarray Analysis, Cognitive Dysfunction

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