Transcriptomic dissociation between synaptic plasticity suppression and structure-related maintenance signaling in...

Early Alzheimer's disease (AD) frequently presents with frontal lobe-related behavioral abnormalities, such as executive dysfunction and confabulation, despite minimal frontal cortical atrophy on neuroimaging. The molecular basis of this dissociation between behavioral dysfunction and preserved structure remains poorly understood.

To address this paradox, we performed a transcriptomic re-analysis of postmortem frontal cortex samples from individuals with AD, vascular dementia (VaD), and cognitively normal controls (GSE122063). Gene set enrichment analysis was applied to interrogate functional pathways related to synaptic plasticity and structure-related maintenance pathways represented by the KEGG focal adhesion gene set.

In Alzheimer's disease, synaptic plasticity pathways were strongly negatively enriched in the frontal cortex (normalized enrichment score = -1.86, false discovery rate q < 0.001), whereas the KEGG focal adhesion pathway showed significant positive enrichment within the original GSEA framework (normalized enrichment score = 1.20, false discovery rate q = 0.17). This pattern indicates profound suppression of synaptic functional programs alongside relative preservation of structure-related maintenance signaling. In vascular dementia, frontal synaptic suppression was also observed but was less pronounced (normalized enrichment score = -1.48, false discovery rate q = 0.07).

These findings support a transcriptomic dissociation in the Alzheimer's frontal cortex in which synaptic dysfunction may emerge in the context of relative preservation of structure-related maintenance signaling. This framework may help explain early frontal behavioral impairment despite limited or delayed frontal cortical atrophy on neuroimaging. However, the focal adhesion pathway is biologically broad, and this significant enrichment signal related to structure-associated processes should therefore not be interpreted as a pure or exclusive measure of preserved cortical structural integrity.