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Homotopic functional connectivity disruptions in schizophrenia and their associated gene expression

Poster No:

459 

Submission Type:

Abstract Submission 

Authors:

Yuan Ji1

Institutions:

1Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital, Tianjin, China

First Author:

Yuan Ji  
Department of Radiology, Tianjin Medical University General Hospital
Tianjin, China

Introduction:

Although abnormal voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity (VMHC) has been detected in individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia, disparities in the relevant findings exist. Furthermore, our understanding of its connection with brain gene expression profiles remains limited.

Methods:

In this study, we conducted transcription-neuroimaging association analyses using gene expression data from the Allen Human Brain Atlas. These analyses included case-control comparisons of VMHC differences in both the discovery phase (meta-analysis, including 9 studies with a total of 386 patients and 357 controls) and the replication phase (separate group-level comparisons within two datasets, including a total of 258 patients and 287 controls). Our objective was to pinpoint genes associated to VMHC changes. To further illuminate the findings, we performed enrichment analyses to delineate the biological functions and unique expression patterns of these genes. Additionally, we utilized Neurosynth decoding analysis to investigate the relationship between VMHC alterations in schizophrenia and cognitive processes.

Results:

Across both the discovery and replication phases, individuals with schizophrenia consistently displayed VMHC alterations compared to control subjects. These changes were found to be associated with a series of cognitive-related processes. Notably, when employing meta-regression analysis, it was revealed that the duration of illness exhibited a negative correlation with VMHC abnormalities specifically within the cerebellum and the postcentral/precentral gyrus. The abnormal VMHC patterns were also consistently associated to a set of 1,287 genes, which enriched for fundamental biological processes like regulation of cell communication, nervous system development, and cell communication. Moreover, these genes showed higher expression levels in astrocytes and immune cells, and they displayed enrichment in numerous cortical regions across different developmental time periods.

Conclusions:

These results could enhance our grasp of the molecular mechanisms that underlie VMHC changes in individuals with schizophrenia.

Disorders of the Nervous System:

Psychiatric (eg. Depression, Anxiety, Schizophrenia) 1

Genetics:

Transcriptomics

Modeling and Analysis Methods:

Connectivity (eg. functional, effective, structural)
fMRI Connectivity and Network Modeling 2

Keywords:

FUNCTIONAL MRI
MRI
Psychiatric Disorders
Schizophrenia

1|2Indicates the priority used for review
Supporting Image: Figure1.png
   ·Figure 1 Flowchart for the design of this study.
Supporting Image: Figure2.png
   ·Figure 2 VMHC alterations in patients with schizophrenia. Case-control VMHC differences in the meta-analysis, TMUGH dataset, and SchizConnect dataset are shown in (A), (B), and (C), respectively.
 

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