AUTHOR=Ma Jun , Ma Ling-Yun , Man FengYuan , Zhang Guili 

TITLE=Association of Homocysteine Levels With Medial Temporal Lobe Atrophy Among Carriers and Non-carriers of APOE ε4 in MCI Subjects

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=Volume 13 - 2022

YEAR=2022

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.823605

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2022.823605

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=Background: Different clinical subtypes of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) involve heterogeneous underlying etiologies. This study investigated the association between demographics, neuropsychological performance, apolipoprotein E (APOE) genotype and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures in MCI (amnestic [aMCI] and non-amnestic [naMCI]).
Methods: This is a case-control study including 130 subjects with aMCI, 58 naMCI patients and 1106 healthy controls (HC). The APOE genotypes, medial temporal lobe atrophy (MTA), a neurological evaluation, and white matter hyperintensities (WMH) were investigated. Serum folate and vitamin B12 concentrations were analyzed by radioimmunoassay, and plasma hyperhomocysteinemia (Hcy) was assessed by a high-performance liquid chromatography-fluorescence method. 
Results: It has been shown that serum folate were significantly lower, but the plasma Hcy level was higher, in patients with aMCI and naMCI than in healthy controls. There was a significantly higher MTA scores for the aMCI vs. healthy control. Multiple linear regression shows serum Hcy and folate concentration was positively associated with MTA (p < 0.05), while APOE4 showed a significant negative association with MTA in aMCI group (p < 0.01). In addition, the factor of WMH showed a significant negative association with MTA in naMCI and HC group (p < 0.01). 
Conclusion: The combined presence of APOE4 and Hcy are associated with aMCI in the elderly, while WHM is related to naMCI, which suggests etiologic differences in MCI subtypes.